Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts

James Beard Foundation 1991 Cookbook of the Year!

"Cocolat is to chocolate what Tiffany is to precious stones." — Gourmet magazine.

One of America's driving chocolatiers and the author of the renowned Cocolat shops shares the insider facts behind her wanton, European-style sweets in this delightfully outlined, simple to-follow manage. Alice Medrich established the first in a chain of chocolate shops in 1976, acquainting armies of Americans with the delights of chocolate truffles. With the direction of this sumptuous book, home cooks and growing baked good culinary experts can make their own versions of the shop's modern sweets. Each marvelous formula highlights point by point directions that even first-time pastry specialists can follow to make treats that are — nearly — too lovely to even consider eating.

Alice Medrich shares her elite methods for making outwardly shocking, proficient quality pastries, from a Christmas mousse and a youngster's birthday cake of scaled down cupcakes to modest macaroons and delicate focused chocolate truffles. Simple to-follow headings, delineated in full shading, disclose how to shape chocolate roses, unsettles, fans, shavings, and other final details. This recently reexamined release includes another Introduction by the creator, another Chocolate Chart with guidance on fixings, and refreshed Resources and Equipment segments. A definitive chocolate dessert book, Cocolat vows to be the delegated gem of any cookbook assortment.

About the Author
Alice Medrich has won more cookbook-of-the-year awards and best in the dessert and baking category awards than any other author. Mostly self taught, she received selective formal training at the prestigious École Lenôtre in France, and is credited with popularizing chocolate truffles in the United States when she began making and selling them at her influential Berkeley dessert shop, Cocolat, in the 1970s. She has since left the retail world, devoting much of her career to teaching and sharing her expansive knowledge about baking and chocolate. Check out her online baking course on craftsy.com and her column at Food52.com.

One of the best instructional dessert cookbooks out there. I am a self-taught pastry chef and this book is one of my bibles. It gives you excellent instructions on many of the building blocks of pastry, such as genoise, sponge cake, pate a choux, REAL buttercream, pastry creams and garnishes. Also gives resources, so important in doing things right. Great pictures too. -Koda

This book is an absolute MUST HAVE for anyone who loves desserts and loves to bake. As a former pastry chef myself, I have well over 200 cookbooks, and this is one of the most well-written, best-tested baking books I own. As a matter of fact, I can only say that about 2 other books I have. I have made about 90% of the desserts in this book, and they have all turned out exactly like Chef Medrich describes and look exactly like the photos. How many baking books can you say that about? I can't begin to count the number of people that I have recommended this book to.If you buy Cocolat for no other reason you should buy it for the "Building Blocks" in the back. If you have that section and follow her directions exactly, you will be able to create an endless number of incredible desserts. Chef Medrich's genoise formula, for example, is the most reliable formula for genoise I've ever used. That is a staple in my kitchen, along with her formula and method for french buttercream. And frankly, her formula for Chocolate Velvet Mousse is worth the price of the book all on its own. I use it for everything; filling for every type of cake, mixed with whipped cream for fillings for cream puffs, layered with sponge cake for chocolate trifle; I could go on and on. In my opinion, it's the finest chocolate mousse both in texture and flavor that I've ever eaten.Marcel Desaulnier markets himself as the King of Chocolate, but he can't even begin to compare with Alice Medrich, who is in a class all by herself. Chef Medrich, if you read this, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! You and Emily Luchetti are my baking mentors; you are a great chef and teacher. -C.S

I not only have this book but also have Alices book, Cookies and Brownies. Her recipes are wonderful, from there taste to there beauty! The instruction in the book is easy to follow. I would recommend this to anyone that loves chocolate (Who Doesn't) One of the other reviews on this book stated that she must have used a machine to make the chocolate ruffles. I was lucky enough to attend a class at Sur La Table (an excellent cookware store) the instructor was Alice herself! We learned exactly how to make the beautiful ruffles by hand. It was not hard and they turned out beautiful. Like with any good cookbook you have to read the instruction carefully. With a little bit of practice the ruffle technique can be done beautifully. You will impress your family and friends with your creations from using this wonderful book. I would recommend highly to anyone wanting to learn about chocolate. -H. Carrasco