100 French Pastry Classics by Carl Marletti / Review
Paris-brest, fraisier, opéra, millefeuille, chocolate and vanilla charlotte, lemon tart, baba au rhum, mont-blanc, chocolate éclair, macarons, financiers, crumble, crème caramel… In the book, Pâtisserie, French chef Carl Marletti teaches how to prepare great pastry classics as well as some original creations.
As he himself explains in the preface, “the classics of French pastry are my daily sources of inspiration. This trade demands rigor, precision, knowledge of the basics and the classics. When creating a dessert, you have to respect the flavors, find the perfect balance, without forgetting that nowadays it is important to reduce the amount of sugar”.
Bases, hors d’oeuvres, tarts, bistro desserts, and travel cakes
The book, available in French at Books For Chefs, is divided into five chapters.
The first is dedicated to the basic preparations that every pastry chef must master, from génoise to sacher biscuit, dacquoise with hazelnuts, pâte à choux, brioche, pastry creams (vanilla, coffee, 70% chocolate), dark chocolate ganache, or meringue (Swiss, Italian, and French).
In the appetizers section, we find almond-based Paris-Brest and Polonaise, coffee Opéra and Religieuse with cocoa as the protagonist, Mi-cuit, Bûche San Giulia and passion mango cheesecake, among many other proposals.
For those who want to hone their tart skills, Carletti gives the keys to the popular Belle-Héléne, Tiramisu, Tout Choc, Linzer, Citron Noisette, Tropézienne, and many more.
In the bistro dessert category there are classics that never fail such as Île Flottante, chocolate mousse, vanilla crème brulee, or rice pudding. Lastly, as travel cakes and small cookies it includes pain d’épices, pallets aux raisins, peanut cookies, chocolate macarons, lemon macarons, financiers, among others.
Fondants, icings, decorations
In this book there are also some very didactic pages, in which Marletti explains in detail how to apply a fondant on an éclair and on a choux pastry, and how to glaze a cake. In addition, he reviews the techniques of pouring and all kinds of decorations, both chocolate and other ingredients, such as meringue and almond paste. The chef thus confirms his passion for the transmission of knowledge.
Who is Carl Marletti?
From a baker and pastry chef grandfather, he trained at the Etiolles hotel school, making the CAP Pâtisserie Chocolaterie Confiserie. On a professional level, after starting out as an apprentice at Lenôtre, he joined the Parisian catering company Potel et Chabot in 1988, where he learned the basics of the trade and the art of decoration. In 1992, he joined the team at the Grand Hôtel Intercontinental in Paris, and its equally famous Café de la Paix. He ended up becoming the establishment’s pastry chef, in charge of 23 people and a production of more than 200 mille-feuilles a day.
Throughout his career, Marletti has shared ideas with big names in pastry such as Christophe Michalak, Philippe Conticcini, and Pierre Hermé. In 2016, he published his first book, Les Tartes, which was very successful and for years he has received numerous awards from the specialized press: best pastry chef of the year 2009, best lemon tart, best Fraisier de Paris, and more.
In 2007, he opened his patisserie in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, which receives daily Parisians and tourists seeking the emblematic flavors of French gastronomy.
