Product Description

Spago's pastry chef to the stars and author of the James Beard Award-winning Secrets of Baking shares the recipes that propelled her to the top of her profession

Night after night at Spago in Beverly Hills, Sherry Yard dazzles the powerful, rich, and famous with incredible desserts. Her marvelous confections have won over patrons from Madonna to Frank Sinatra. Now the country's premier pastry chef reveals the recipes that have made her a star in her own right and won her two coveted James Beard Awards.

Desserts by the Yard begins with inspirations from Yard's childhood, such as My Favorite White Birthday Cake with Chocolate and Butter Fudge Frosting, and culminates in the spectacular creations she makes every year for the Academy Awards. Included here are some of Yard's most famous recipes: the slinky crème brûlée she perfected when she worked at New York's Rainbow Room, the coffeecake that made Campton Place Hotel San Francisco's most popular breakfast spot, and the souffléed crème fraîche pancakes with strawberry sauce she learned in Vienna. Don't miss the chocolate caramel tart that Hugh Grant loves, former President Clinton's favorite oatmeal raisin cookies, or the treat that made actress Suzanne Pleshette exclaim, "Bitch! You're gonna make me fat!"

Desserts don't get easier than Yard's No-Bake Cheesecake, more decadent than Chocolate Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Gelato, or more holiday-perfect than Triple Silken Pumpkin Pie. In sidebars to each recipe, Yard shares tricks and techniques along with hilarious anecdotes that show her pluck, determination, and generosity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17917 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Amazon.com
Sherry Yard, the executive pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck's restaurants, has cast her Desserts by The Yard as a culinary autobiography, organizing its recipes in chapters like "Brooklyn Inspirations" and "London Interlude." This novel approach may frustrate readers seeking, say, cakes all in one place, but helps make the book the fresh and compelling success it is.

The recipes do the rest. Yard has included a wide range of sweets that either polish old favorites--see her Black-and-White Cookies (from Brooklyn days) and Flourless Chocolate Cake with Meringue Topping (a London creation)--or that invent in ways both enticing and doable. Formulas like Buttermilk Cheesecake; Rhubarb, Apple, and Fennel Crumble; or Concord Grape Soufflés give some idea of her imaginative range, which is, however, always tethered to practicality and good taste. New and seasoned cooks alike will also appreciate her technical niceties (for example, to help soufflés rise, smear butter upwards when greasing mold sides), as well as Sherri's Secrets (for pithless citrus segments, dip them first in cold water then scrape with the back of a knife). With a tempting-in-itself section on basics like Creamy Caramel Sauce, and dozens of color photos, this is a special baking book in every way. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Brooklyn-born Yard worked her way up to reign as Hollywood and Beverly Hills queen of sweet. Executive pastry chef of Puck's Spago empire, she annually creates 1,700 or so perfect desserts for the Governors Ball following the Oscars, such as mousse-filled chocolate boxes on power-painted red carpets the year Julia Roberts won for Erin Brockovich. But Yard hasn't forgotten the rapturous tastes of her childhood; along with celeb-studded, look-at-me tales of her lofty successes, she offers tender memories and recipes for such favorites as Italian bakery Rainbow Cookies. Yard actually delivers what every cookbook promises: news for the professional and foolproof secrets for the avid amateur. From her finger-stirred sugar–water–corn syrup caramel to her assembly-line masterpieces, every ingredient is necessary and every direction makes sense. Fruit desserts, her special passion, transport the reader to Eden. Comprehensive, well-organized and meaningfully illustrated, Yard's book may be the new dessert bible. Color photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Like a new best friend...empowering." (Gourmet )

"The acclaimed executive pastry chef of the Wolfgang Puck empire shares with readers the 'master' techniques that are the foundation of most classic desserts...Outstanding." (Bon Appetit )

"Filled with recipes that are within the scope of the home baker...a book that's likely to be as influential for the next generation of pastry chefs as that of her fellow Angelena Nancy Silverton." (New York Times )

Customer Reviews

sadly
this book was supposed to arrive the 29 june and did not show up until the 10 july. otherwise everything about the order was spectacular. the book was very well packed and arrived in excellent condition. i have enjoyed reading it. also, i appreciated the opportunity to donate my used cell phone to a needy veteran.

Glamorous, creative desserts in the comfort of your own home
"Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills: Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever," by Sherry Yard, is a combination baking book and memoir. Each recipe is accompanied by an excerpt from the author's life, from the `A&P Strawberry Sodas' inspired by her grandmother to the `Banded Layer Cakes' she created for the 67th Oscars. The book introduced me to Yard's recipes, though I was familiar with her work beforehand because I saw her on an episode of "Iron Chef" as one of Wolfgang Puck's sous chefs. She was in charge of making the various sweets and pastries that would be presented to the judges, and when she decorated the dishes with spun sugar watching her hands form the ethereally golden strands was breathtaking to say the least.

"Desserts by the Yard" contains an impressive collection of tempting recipes, some of my favorites including `Gingersnap Toaster-Oven Tarts with Peach Filling' (think high-end pop tarts), `Chocolate-Covered Chocolate-Mint Cookies,' `Apfelstudel' (Apple Strudel) and `Pistachio Gelato.' The `Ring of Saturn Peach "Doughnuts"` were also a hit, combining delicious ingredients like anise biscotti and macerated peaches into a treat that's dusted with confectioner's sugar, then served with vanilla ice cream. Recipes range in skill-level from basic to advanced and I appreciated how several of them allowed me to stretch my culinary knowledge. I had to make the `Fig Bars,' which are essentially homemade fig newtons, a few times before the texture was just right, for instance. Yet the treats I found myself making over and over again happened to be the ones that satisfied my simpler tastes: `President Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies' and `Soft Pretzels.' The cookies were a huge hit at the office with two dozen cookies disappearing at lightening speed, while two (soon to be three?) batches of pretzels have already made an appearance in my kitchen. With the exception of one recipe, for `Forbidden Rice Pudding,' I was hugely satisfied with all the dishes I made. Yard even included something for Fido: a recipe for `Real Doggy Treats' made with honey, wheat flour, cornmeal and chicken stock. My Labrador Retriever certainly appreciated those!

Chapters include: Brooklyn Inspirations; New York City: From Cigarette Girl to Pastry Chef; London Interlude; Go West, Young Gal: San Francisco and Napa; Spago Hollywood; Farmers' Market Inspirations; Vienna Interlude; Spago Beverly Hills; Chinois on Main; Special Events; and the Academy Awards.

Stunning finales from a master
Sherry Yard, the executive pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, has created a mouthwatering, memorable dessert bible in Desserts by the Yard: From Brooklyn to Beverly Hills-Recipes from the Sweetest Life Ever. Beginning with some vintage photographs, there is a glowing foreword by Wolfgang Puck, an introduction by Sherry, and helpfully enough, notes on ingredients and equipment at the front, rather than the back, of the book.

The cookbook is divided chronologically, beginning with Sherry's childhood in Brooklyn. Her introductions are nostalgic, and she includes updates of her childhood favorites such as rainbow cookies, frozen chocolate-coconut bars, charlotte russe, chocolate-dipped frozen custard cones, and mom's cuisinart chocolate mousse. Nostalgic in origin, Sherry has turned these into elegant creations, but her clear writing and step-by-step instructions make the recipes easy enough to follow, and most call for common ingredients.

The next section, New York City, chronicles her experiences working in the Rainbow Room, and includes showier (and more difficult) desserts such as chocolate souffles, baked Alaska, chocolate velvet, chocolate truffle cakes, and chocolate devil's food cake with chocolate filling. Chocoholics will find this section the most rewarding, although many recipes are time-consuming.

The other sections cover Sherry's adventures in Vienna (including the prerequisite apple strudel), the Asian-themed Chinois on Main, with its exotic Asian fruit concoctions such as mango pudding, yuzu lemon-lime meringue pie, Mandarin granita, and passion fruit sorbet (this was probably my least favorite; besides the forbidden rice pudding, an update on Thai sticky rice pudding, I don't see myself making any of these), a London interlude, and recipes taken from Sherry's special events catering, including the Academy Awards (rather plain chocolate boxes mounted with sugar Oscar statuettes).

This is truly a dessert cookbook for everyone, and Sherry thoughtfully includes several savory recipes as well, such as honey-glazed cornbread and crispy herbed flatbread. For fans of ice cream (sadly, I don't own an ice cream maker, so I haven't tried to make these), there are numerous recipes for gelato (butterscotch, Meyer lemon, pistachio, coconut, stracciatella) and ice creams, including exotic choices such as black currant tea, Calvados, coffee, and yuzu curd.

Sherry's writing makes this a delightful travelogue, and her down-to-earth style includes touches of humor (if she writes an autobiography about her experiences as pastry chef, I'll be first in line to read it!). Her recipes are clearly written (I have several bookmarked to try in the near future), beautifully photographed, and most are simple enough for the beginning home baker to attempt (although some call for more sophisticated touches such as spun sugar adornments, or complicated puff pastry bases). Some do call for hard-to-find and expensive ingredients such as Asian fruits, but most are doable by the average home cook with access to a decent grocery store (Sherry does recommend using top-of-the-line Cluizel chocolate, since desserts are one area where you can't skimp on ingredients and expect a stellar outcome using Nestle).

Verdict: this is an absolutely lovely volume with something for everyone, whether you're a chocoholic, someone looking for a little nostalgia, or a daring pastry chef looking for new challenges (the Oscar desserts are labor-intensive and exacting).