OP: Un Amour de Macaron

Editions Dormonval, 2006. Hardcover. Near Fine in Very Good jacket.

French pastry chef Stéphane Glacier (1970– ) was early recognized as both a star pastry chef and as a successful entrepreneur and in 2000 was selected as Meilleur Ouvrier de France Pâtisserie. A sought-after consultant with pastry shops in several countries, he has trained a new generation at his Pâtisseries et Gourmandises, L’Ecole in the Paris suburb of Colombes. He is also the author of a dozen or more books on both traditional and contemporary bakery products.

We offer here one of his most celebrated titles, Un Amour de Macaron (2006)—a later English-language edition was called Macaron Swoon. Copies in either language do not often come our way and are snapped up quickly when they do. 

It is a highly attractive, large format (11.75” x 15”) book with enticing photographs of dozens of varieties of macarons. It opens with a brief historical introduction and then moves on to the master pâtissier’s discussion of technique for the many varieties that have evolved over the centuries. Individual chapters deal with the different types—classic, garnished, filled with ice cream or sorbet, savory, and larger presentation pieces.

Glacier’s work is extremely inventive, and, although one can find traditional flavors here, the attention-getters are surprises such as caipirinha and lime, passion fruit and banana, a sweet-and-salty variety with carrots and caraway, and one with green cabbage and smoked bacon.

Our copy is Near Fine in a Very Good dust jacket, which shows wear about the edges and a small bit of paper missing from the front. The interior is clean and the binding tight. Overall a quite good-looking copy. In French.