Chez Panisse Desserts - Tapa dura

Lindsey R. Shere is a retired pastry chef living in Sonoma County. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, after studying French language, literature, and political history. In 1971 she and Alice Waters collaborated to open the restaurant Chez Panisse, where she worked as a celebrated pastry chef until her retirement in 1998. Shere was named Pastry Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 1993.

For 13 years the pastry chef at Alice Waters's Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., Shere presents an outstanding collection of dessert recipes. In her preface, Waters (author of The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook) notes that "a firm commitment to cooking with the highest quality local, seasonal, fresh ingredients underlies everything we do at Chez Panisse." This cookbook certainly bears that out: the recipes feature fresh fruits, herbs and nuts and are organized by season. Recipes that take advantage of fall's bounty include cinnamon apple ice cream, pear and fig tart, persimmon pudding. There are also chapters devoted to desserts that call for citrus fruits, tropical fruits, berries and summer fruits. And Shere does not forget chocolate lovers, who will be more than sated by such offerings as white chocolate mousse, black bottom pie and chocolate truffles. Not a cookbook for the beginner or the chef in a hurry, this is an elegant book for those with the time and patience to create elegant desserts. October 1
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