OP: Desserts: a Lifelong Passion

Conran Octopus, London, 2002. Hardcover. Very Good. Signed.

In the 1980s, French chef Michel Roux (1941–2020), along with his brother Albert, won London’s first three Michelin stars at their restaurant Le Gavroche. A number of internationally recognized chefs graduated from their tutelage—Gordon Ramsey, Marco Pierre White, and Pierre Koffmann, to name a few. The brothers went on to co-write several cookbooks, and Michel also produced a few on his own, most of which were focused on his greatest passion, patisserie.

Desserts: A Lifelong Passion (1994) is a fine example of a restaurant chef guiding the next generation with generous, if not grueling, instruction. 

Some daring examples include:

• Angel’s hair (egg yolk ribbons poached in syrup) served over a Sauternes jelly with candied kumquats and pomegranate seeds
• Apricot- and almond-stuffed baked apples served inside a free-standing, latticed puff pastry dome
• Lapsang souchong-scented rice pudding-filled tart with lychee
• White chocolate mousse set in teardrop-shaped ribbons of tempered chocolate served with griotties (eau-de-vie macerated cherries) and chocolate sorbet

These composed desserts are presented to impress and, seemingly, sometimes require as many steps to plate as to make. While the instructions are thorough, they assume a professional level skillset.

Our copy is a Very Good 2002 printing signed by Michel Roux. Lightly shelfworn.