Savory Sweets

A new approach to flavor, ingredients, and techniques

"From a simple idea, Amy Felder has practically conceived a new category of dessert ideation. And her instructional skills, honed in classroom kitchens, allow her to convey this knowledge in a clear, systematic, and inspirational fashion."
--Peter Reinhart, author of The Bread Baker's Apprentice and The Whole Grain Revival: Mastering the Art of Whole Grain Breads

Traditionally, pastry chefs have worked mainly with a sweet flavor palette, leaving savory tastes and techniques to their culinary colleagues. Today, fusion cuisine promises new blends of the savory and sweet. For pastry chefs, this means a new world of flavor opportunities--as well as the need to integrate them into dynamic dishes and cooking practice.

The pastry chef's key to the culinary side of the kitchen, Savory Sweets offers a complete, systematic discussion of flavor, techniques, and ingredients, then puts the discussion into practice using specific plated desserts. Author, chef, and acclaimed teacher Amy Felder brings together the culinary and pastry realms, giving students and professional chefs a new, up-to-date approach to flavor. Though the book comes from a baking perspective, culinary chefs will also find the discussion of savory flavors and fusion cuisine extremely useful.

Savory Sweets is divided into four parts:

• Vocabulary starts with a scientific explanation of taste, then establishes concepts of flavor and overall plate profile
• Culinary Skills looks at cooking methods other than baking and what they have to offer plated desserts; these techniques include sauce work and manipulation of texture
• Ingredients examines an assortment of vegetables, herbs, spices, dairy products, and dry pantry products with regard to flavor and partner flavors for each ingredient; plated dishes showcasing each ingredient are also provided
• Plated Desserts applies the information from the previous three sections in the form of eight specific desserts, each with its individual personality, plate and flavor profiles, theme, and integration of pastry and culinary practice; recipes for all of the plates' components are included