La Maison du Chocolat: Timeless Classics with a Twist

The pictures are beautiful, but the recipes were very poorly written. I found that the instructions on some of the recipes were minimal and needed better explanations. Most of the recipes required at least 4 attempts to perfect which is not a good thing when you are using valrhona chocolate and other expensive ingredients. I would have loved to continue making more recipes from this book but better recipes are found elsewhere. You can find the la maison du chocolate truffle recipe online and they came out perfect after one attempt.

Who doesn't love La Maison du Chocolate?

Lovely photos but there are clearly ingredients missing from the recipes.

Awesome boook. As described

The book is informative and offers a nice selection of delicious treats. A must for those who prefer to eat dessert first!

I actually bought this book directly from the Le Maison boutique at Rockefellar Plaza. This book by far is much more creative, in depth and useful than the first Le Maison book by the Maison's founding patriarch Robert Linxe. I had the honor of sampling some of Monsieur Marchal's fantastic creations when he was pastry chef at Le Bristol in Paris back in 05. Although this book was just recently published last year, the distribution is limited to the publishers website and Le Maison Boutiques (notice the picture still shows the shrink wrap around it, which is how I purchased it fromt he boutique) Great formulas that aren't as difficult as one might think creations from Le Maison might be; although, fair warning as a lot of the recipes assume you know the basics of pastry production and some of the trucs associated with some of the more advanced recipes (like macarons and eclairs for example) There are also savory recipes like foie gras bonbons rolled in dried fruit and seared scallops with cocoa nib vinaigrette and in between are art pieces created by French artists utlizing chocolate and other forms of confectionary. A definite buy for any pastry chef looking for a refined sense of style and solid flavor pairings that have made Le Maison synonymous with decadence and luxury.

the front picture is slightly misleading, as majority of pics if not all are beautiful works of art but do not show well end product namely a cake or dessrt.I got used to and personally prefer to have clear and good quality photo to accompany each recipe, but in this case I will have to rely more on my imagination.So thats the con: no good pics to compare ur work with : ( and now pro:the book provides a good choice of fine desserts recipies, with clear instructions and tips which are easy to follow.I havent try yet but will soon for oncoming Christmas : )There are 6 sections1.Pure chocolate2.timeless classics: shortbreads, chocolate macaroons, chocolate cakes etc..3.playful uses for chocolate4Sprinkled with salt:braised veal with cocoa, scallops with cocoa nibs, roasted banana peppers.5.stunning creations:chocolatier handbags,melting chocolate chickens,saffron and chocolate jackstraws.6.practical information.I like small section called' a word from Gilles Marchal' were there he gives some useful tips and hints.There are overall around 40 recipies to choose from.