The Valrhona cooking school presents everything the amateur or professional baker needs to learn about cooking with chocolate.

One hundred fundamental techniques and more than a hundred recipes are explained with step-by-step photographs and clear instructions. Home chefs will learn chocolate basics (tempering, ganaches, pralines), baker’s secrets (marbling, faultless cake crusts, beating egg whites), and how to make candy fillings, decorations, doughs, cream and mousse bases, ice creams and sorbets, and sauces. Bakers can refer back to these building blocks as they progress with an increasing level of expertise through recipes from icing and cookie dough to macaroons and impressive mounted desserts.

Recipes include the great classics (Black Forest cake, profiteroles), tarts and tartlets (chocolate-pear, nut caramel), shared delights, teatime treats (chocolate-vanilla waffles, brownies), iced desserts (chocolate cappuccino parfait, raspberry meringue with hot chocolate sauce), special-occasion splurges (dark chocolate fondue, hazelnut-praline Yule log), candies and confections (truffles, lollipops, chocolate-covered cherries), and savory dishes using chocolate.

Visual dictionaries of basic equipment and commonly used ingredients, tips for conserving chocolate, a guide to cocoa content, a glossary, and detailed indexes complete the volume.