A Bit of News & Some Gift Ideas for the Sweet-Toothed Cook

To the kind folks who take the time to visit this blog, leave a comment or email me, I am both very grateful and extremely apologetic - this past year, if I appear to be stonily silent or am tardy with my replies, please don't think I'm anything less than highly appreciative of your feedback. (Insert appropriate workload-related justification here). Add to that time management issues and a highly nervous constitution, and there you have it - my lousy excuse of an excuse.

My "day job" as a contributing editor of a luxury glossy consists primarily of coordinating fashion shoots and providing style/art direction on set/location - check out this site and a recent fashion shoot that just so happened to be cake-centric. It used to be that in between, I found time to cook and/or blog about the cooking. Recently, I also started taking dessert orders (see this gig and read The Business Times' interview here).

And even more recently, I started work on a very exciting project - I'll be teaching classes at this jewel box of a cooking school (see here, here, and here for details) from February next year. Fabulous chef-owner Shermay Lee, whom many may also know as the author of The New Mrs Lee's Cookbook: Vol.1 & Vol.2 - definitive modern classics on the art of Nonya cuisine - has taken a chance by working with someone who's entirely self-taught and has had no prior teaching experience. For this vote of confidence and leap of faith, I'm deeply thankful. I won't say more now except that the subject of this first series of classes is cupcakes (with other subjects and ideas in the pipeline) and that I'll post the full details sometime in January.

On a completely unrelated note, just in case you've yet to do your Christmas shopping, it's not only that time of the year, but it's also the time of the year when a bumper crop of spectacular new cookbooks hits the shelves. This year's dessert-related offerings are particularly sweet. Below, bite-sized reviews of a handful of my favourite recent titles for a variety of skill levels and budgets:

The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger & Robert Steinberg
This cookbook from America's premier chocolate make is a must-have addition to any self-respecting chocoholic's bookcase. Packed with useful tips and a wealth of simple-yet-stunning recipes (many of which are contributed by top pastry chefs such as Sherry Yard and Alice Medrich), it's a book I've barely had for a month but which already bears ganache stains and cocoa smudges - a good omen for potential frequency of usage. Amongst other amazing treats, check out the amusingly-named TKOs (pictured above) - a scrumptious recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, it's a sandwich cookie that's dark chocolate without and white chocolate within, a sophisticated take on a nostalgic favourite.

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
I actually spent a good couple of hours deliberating whether this tome should take pride of place next to my copy of Baking with Julia in the "Homespun American Baking Classics" section of the bookcase, or in the "Fancy French Desserts" area together with titles like Desserts by Pierre Hermé, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé and Paris Sweets, such is the comprehensive scope of this baker's bible. For anyone who simply can't get enough of Ms Greenspan's rare blend of wit and warmth, or her immaculately written recipes that hold your hand like an old friend every step of the way.

The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelle by Kate Zuckerman
For a tiny taste of the sort of divine inspiration this book offers, see here. But it's not just about recipes for gorgeous, unique and dinner party-worthy desserts. Unusually enough for a "restaurant desserts" cookbook, Ms Zuckerman delves into the why, the what and the how of essential techniques in the sweet kitchen with a just-right level of detail, thus making apparently complex recipes downright accessible.

Chocolate & Vanilla by Gale Gand
Very cute. The fun, flip/cookbook format of this pint-sized number belies the flavour-packed punch of the recipes. Whether you love chocolate or adore vanilla (it's really two little books packed into one slender volume; half devoted to chocolate recipes, half devoted to vanilla recipes) - or better still, both - here's page after page of tempting treats, many of which I found can be put together in a snap even when time-pressed or tired.

Chocolate Fusion by Frédéric Bau
Coming as it does from the maestro himself - Chef Bau is the head pastry chef and director of L'Ecole de Valrhona - it's no surprise that this is no ordinary book on chocolate. In the exquisite collection of recipes, chocolate plays the starring role not merely in desserts, but also in savory cuisine, thus offering a fascinating glimpse of chocolate's endless culinary applications. Very beyond, utterly exceptional, unlike any other, one of a kind - this is the big ticket item to buy for the serious cook who already has everything (including that other Bau masterpiece, Au Coeur des Saveurs).

On yet another unrelated note...

'Tis the season of giving...Please visit Chez Pim to find out more about Menu for Hope III, the annual web-based initiative that, this year, will be raising funds for the United Nations World Food Programme. Food bloggers around the world have either donated or sourced incredible prizes that anyone from anywhere can purchase virtual raffle tickets to win. The collected money will be donated to the United Nations World Food Programme to help feed the hungry. To see the global round-up of donated prizes, please click here. Every US$10 that you donate entitles you to one chance of winning one of the prizes of your choice - please click here to visit the Menu for Hope III donation page.