Rating: 
Summary: Advance Praise for Chocolate Passion!
Review: "Gazing in wonder at every recipe in Chocolate Passion, I feel like Casanova lusting over a ballroom of beautiful women. I want them all and right now! This book with chocolate dripping from every page could make a chocolate lover lose his head. What a way to go!"-- Marcel Desaulnier, Author Death by Chocolate "This gorgeous book is packed from cover to cover with the greatest chocolate desserts ever. You will love it. Yummy!" -- Maida Heatter "Tish Moriarty and Timothy Moriarty have done it again -- another fantastic book just loaded with great recipes, beautiful photographs, and most of all, clear, easy-to-follow instructions. This is a book that should be on the shelf of every chocolate lover." -- Nick Malgieri, Author Chocolate and How to Bake "It is impossible to imagine a chocolate lover whose passion for this mythic ingredient won't be deepened by this book. Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty have created a work that inspires, instructs, and delight. Every recipe beckons you into the kitchen!" -- Dorie Greenspan, Author Desserts for Pierre Herme and Baking with Julia "Chocolate Passion gives us absolutely lucious chocolate desserts with detailed instructions to ensure success. It is great in the kitchen and at bedside (for reading). What more could a chocolate lover ask for?! -- Alice Medrich, Author Cocolat
Rating: 
Summary: give me a break
Review: I am a professional pastry chef and have bought the other two books put out by Chocolatier, which are useful, however this book while being good in the home is useless in the pro shop. Why? Simply because the measurements are again cups and teaspoons. A shop deals in weight. I do not have the time nor inclination to scale a cup of cocoa. I find it a very egocentric concept to ignore the fact that most of the world is metric.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the Home Baker...
Review: I had this book on my wishlist for almost a year and received it for Christmas. I sat down on Christmas evening and eagerly paged through the book. What a disappointment. Most of the recipes did absolutely nothing for me. Most of the recipes were time consuming and tedious. Yes, it's nice to look at, but I want to taste, not look, and this book totally put me off to trying many of the recipes. I was very disappointed. If you want truly decadent chocolate desserts, I highly recommend Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. These recipes were specifically written for the home kitchen and are truly inspiring and decadent. It doesn't get any better than Chocolate Desserts. Don't waste your time/money on this book unless you want showpieces rather than decadent desserts.
Rating: 
Summary: Very, very good
Review: I have recently received this book and I find it an excellent book. It is not only beautiful (it has lots of spectacular photos) but also its recipes are wery good, and also its explanations of ingredients and techniques. It is true that it is elegant and you can find that many of the recipes are only for special ocasions (however you can adapt them!), but not too sophisticated (as it is Torres' book, which I find extremely sophisticated). I find this book beautiful and useful.
Rating:
Summary: Very, very good
Review: I have recently received this book and I find it an excellent book. It is not only beautiful (it has lots of spectacular photos) but also its recipes are wery good, and also its explanations of ingredients and techniques. It is true that it is elegant and you can find that many of the recipes are only for special ocasions (however you can adapt them!), but not too sophisticated (as it is Torres' book, which I find extremely sophisticated). I find this book beautiful and useful.
Rating:
Summary: Mmmmmmmmmmm
Review: In a few words: Outstanding, Delicious and "Doable". If you love chocolate, it's a MUST on your bookshelves!
Rating:
Summary: Mmmmmmmmmmm
Review: In a few words: Outstanding, Delicious and "Doable". If you love chocolate, it's a MUST on your bookshelves!
Rating: 
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: One of the authors is the head recipe tester for Chocolatier Magazine, and the recipes in this cookbook are similar to the ones you will find therein; it has the same advantages and drawbacks. Specifically, it is a productive resource for the professional or the veteran amateur pastry chef. The recipes are probably too ambitious and the instructions too vague for the average home cook.
The introductory chapter is a mixed bag. The essays on types of chocolate, tempering, and tools are exemplary. On the other hand, the sections on non-chocolate ingredients and various techniques and procedures (such as whipping egg whites or proper batter folding technique) are virtually absent. It also has the obligatory and disposable information on chocolate history and manufacturing.
Interestingly, the book has three main sections, one each for milk, dark, and white chocolates. Here, you will find recipes mainly for cakes, cookies, and confections. In a rare moment of honesty, the authors admit that milk chocolate has such a weak chocolate flavor that it is easily overwhelmed in a recipe. There are slightly more than 50 recipes, and they are all listed and cross referenced in the table of contents.
The recipes themselves are problematic. The main error here is the listing of ingredients in volume (e.g. cups) with no equivalents given in weight. This is a major problem for professionals who will try to multiply the recipes, and also for any recipe that has flour. They all list prep times, but never the cooling or baking times. Many of the recipes are complicated affairs that have several components. The result is a recipe that takes up several pages, but even so the instructions are quite scant; they are sufficient for professionals, but not detailed enough for the inexperienced. There is no advice on how to coordinate the execution of a complex recipe with several different sub-recipes. Each recipe has a picture, which is a good thing, but the presentation and decorating instructions in the recipes sometimes do not match the food styling in the photos. These problems will not be a hindrance for the experienced, but will be major trouble for the average home cook.
The most interesting feature of this book is the variety of truffle recipes. Each one has detailed instructions from A to Z for using the fancy, plastic truffle molds that can be bought on the internet in a bewildering array of different types and shapes. There is also a recipe for using chocolate transfer sheets.
Rating:
Summary: Definately coffee table quality
Review: The first thing that strikes me when looking at this book is how appealing the many, glossy pictures look and make you want to try your own hand at the professional quality desserts.
The book has been sectionned into recipes with either white, milk or dark chocolate. The recipes range from truffles to ices cream to puddings to cakes that are built out of different cake layers and different fillings.
Instructions are detailed and clearly written. For people who are serious cooks/bakers and are willing to spend the time needed to create some of the master pieces in this book, be warned: you won't be able to put down this book because it's so beautiful and you'll be spending hours in the kitchen because you can't stop trying out one recipe after the other.
Rating:
Summary: What else needs to be said except for Chocolatier magazine?
Review: This cookbook is to die for. I have been a subscriber to chocolatier magazine for years and every time I make something from the magazine, people think I've had it catered. The recipes are not as difficult as people might imagine and the photos make your mouth water to the point that you can barely contain yourself until you try every single recipe!
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