Product Description

Using fresh, seasonal ingredients captured at the peak of their flavor, Claudia Fleming creates highly satisfying desserts without pretention. She smartly matches contrasting textures, flavors, and temperatures to achieve a perfect end result–something brittle and crunchy next to something satiny and smooth, stretching the definition of sweet and savory while retaining an elemental simplicity.

The desserts in The Last Course speak to everyone, as to the 175 easy-to-use recipes. The book is broken down seasonally by fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and flowers, spices, sweet essences, dairy, and chocolate. The final chapter is made up of composed deserts. Claudia gives suggestions on how to combine recipes from previous chapters to create the ultimate desserts of the restaurant.

Each chapter and each composed dessert is paired with a selection of wines recommended by Gramercy Tavern’s sommelier. Recipes include: Warm Raspberry Verbena Meringue Cake, Blueberry Graham Cracker Tarts, Apple Tarte Tatin, Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Sauternes Gelee, Warm Chocolate Ganache Cakes, and more.

Beautifully illustrated, with more than eighty-five full-color photos, The Last Course is the last word on dessert.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435731 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-16
• Released on: 2001-10-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
"First and foremost, everything I make has to taste absolutely delicious," says Claudia Fleming in her introduction to The Last Course: The Desserts of Grammercy Tavern. Words to live by, especially when you're the pastry chef at one of New York City's most popular restaurants. Fleming cleverly describes and explains her creations in intelligent introductions to every recipe. She easily justifies her unusual flavor combinations, such as Roasted Apricots with Chamomile and Lavender-Lemon Pound Cake, and carefully walks us through important steps like gently cooking the strawberries and rose wine for her Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Strawberry Rosé Gelée.

Recipes are divided by their star ingredient, and read like a farmers' market shopping list: apples, pears, and quinces; figs, melons, and grapes; herbs and flowers; cheese, milk, and cream. "Composed Desserts" make up the last chapter, and each is paired with a dessert wine. While every one of Fleming's recipes produces a delectable dessert on its own, the combinations she proposes in this chapter are truly memorable. A lighthearted composition like Waffles with Maple-Glazed Bananas and Maple Flan brings a favorite breakfast treat into the dining room for dessert. It's creamy and sweet, crispy and warm, cold and tangy--all at the same time. A number of Fleming's signature desserts are here, too: Coconut Tapioca with Coconut Sorbet, Passion Fruit-Pineapple Sorbet, Passion Fruit Caramel, and Cilantro Syrup (a Gramercy favorite). There are also plenty of recipes for the cookie jar, including the wonderfully soft and chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies, elegant enough to serve with coffee for dessert. Treats like Milk Chocolate Malted Ice Cream, Mascarpone Cream Cannoli, and Lime-Gingersnap Parfait will have you singing Fleming's praises as loudly as her fans do at Gramercy Tavern. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Publishers Weekly
Claudia Fleming pastry chef at New York's swank Gramercy Tavern is a dessert visionary who has earned a James Beard Award for Best Pastry Chef and two Best Dessert Awards from Pastry Art and Design. Some of her restaurant recipes will be a challenge even for the most practiced home bakers, but they are well worth the effort. The book includes 175 recipes, organized by main ingredients. There are chapters on fruits (recipes include Blueberry-Cornmeal Cakes and Tamarind-Glazed Mango Napoleons), vegetables (Truffled Rice Pudding, Chilled Rhubarb Soup) and sweet essences (Earl Grey Ice Cream), as well as the usual suspects like chocolate (Chocolate Espresso Terrine) and dairy products (Goat-Cheese Cheesecake). Fleming also displays a light touch with such unusual herb-inflected desserts as Bay Leaf Flan. The restaurant's wine director, Paul Greico, has contributed thoughtful wine suggestions for each category. Recipes for the individual items are provided separately, but in an appendix Fleming groups them as they appear on the restaurant's menu and explains their assembly process (e.g., Rose Meringues with Summer Berries, Raspberry Sorbet, and Goat Yogurt-Rose Mousse consists of three recipes, but a composition of all three would be a single dessert at Gramercy Tavern). It's easy to see why these recipes whimsical without being silly, daring without ever losing their focus on flavor have won Fleming a reputation as one of today's most talented pastry chefs. 85 color photos. Agent, David Black. (Oct.)Forecast: With a first printing of 30,000 and a seven-city author tour (with demonstrations), this cookbook's commercial prospects are good. Gramercy Tavern's name should help too; since its 1994 opening, it has consistently made Zagat's top five most popular New York restaurants.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Recipient of the 2000 James Beard Award for Best Pastry Chef, Fleming presents her first book of creations from New York's Gramercy Tavern. Don't expect to find architectural desserts with spun sugar and gold leaf here; Fleming instead stresses ingredients, flavors, and textures that are inspired by the desserts of her childhood and international cuisine. The 175 recipes, such as Spiced Italian Prune Plum Crisp and Anise Shortbread, are sophisticated yet easy to follow. Some readers, however, may find some of the unusual fare unappealing (e.g., Truffled Rice Pudding and Tarragon Ice Cream). Chapters are divided by main ingredient and include wine notes. While all of the recipes stand on their own, the final chapter combines individual recipes to create the kinds of desserts Fleming serves at Gramercy Tavern. Of interest to professional chefs and ambitious home cooks alike; recommended for larger collections. Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

ethereal, wonderful pastry book
This is an ethereal, wonderful pastry book.

Claudia Fleming apprenticed under the master himself, Pierre Herme, and now is Pastry Chef at the Gramercy Tavern in New York. I can easily see Pierre Herme in her work, especially in her chocolate recipes; and she brings her own charming style to his technique and approach.

"The Last Course" was my constant companion during my tenure at Sooke Harbor House, where I tried every single idea - they all worked. Everything is about components to her - intelligent flavor combinations with whispers of such ingredients as rose petals, chamomile, lavender - I love it. She explains her recipes in smart introductions, and carefully walks through all the steps; the book is laid out well, making it easy to find your favorite, and there is a nice section matching dessert wines with dishes.

I have made all of them - ice creams, her cornmeal crepes and pound cake, doughnuts, panna cotta, pumpkin clafouti - all delicious. It is hard for me to pick a favorite recipe - bay leaf flan? pine nut tart? All her compositions are clean and simple and pure and just dreamy!

Absolutely, totally recommended.

Incredible Edibles
I was so totally amazed by this book! I like to read and peruse cookbooks as a hobby and I definitely didn't expect this one to be anything above the ordinary. So many celebrity pastry chefs do their own books these days and for the most part, you can't really use the books because the recipes are so complicated and unrealistic. The author of this book did make the same indulgence but she only put it in the last chapter (a short one at that). It certaintly wasn't the focus of the book. This book shows recipes that could actually be prepared and had beautful photographs as well. There are dessert ideas I would of never thought of and I swear, I will never think of vegetables in the same way again. Truly, an outstanding book!

Not as nice as it looks
The book looks great, with gorgeous pictures and wonderful titles that would inspire any cook. Too bad the recipes didn't deliver as promised.

I tried four recipes in here one weekend (trying to pick one for Thanksgiving) and every single one turned out really badly.

-The white chocolate espresso tart: Crust was impossibly dry and crumbly. White chocolate cream was too thick to drain through a cheesecloth as the directions asked.

-Apple tart tatin: The caramel hardened into a hard candy shell on the bottom of the dish that was too difficult to break through.

-Sour cherry and pear crisp: The wine that the cherries soaked in overpowered the dish, turning everything into a pink mass.

-Citrus tuiles: These were just disastrous. They burned around the edges and stuck to the pan.