The Royal Parisian Pastrycook
- Year
- 1834
- Era
- 19th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- French foundational
The Royal Parisian Pastrycook, John Porter's English rendering of Marie-Antoine Carême's Le Pâtissier Royal Parisien, brought to British kitchens the most ambitious pastry treatise of its age. Carême codified the techniques, doughs, and architectural set pieces of the Parisian pâtissier, including his celebrated pièces montées. Its appearance in English extended the reach of French haute cuisine and helped establish Carême as the foundational authority on pastry across the nineteenth century.
Cooking from this book
Pièce Montée
Signature dishThe pièce montée, or grand architectural set piece, is the dish most readily associated with Carême and this treatise. Towering confections shaped as temples, pavilions, ruins and rotundas, built from nougat, pastillage and spun sugar, they were the centrepieces of royal tables across Europe. Carême considered pastry a branch of architecture, and his Parisian manual codified the discipline that turned the dessert course into a theatrical spectacle of edible building.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
