What's Hot?

[AceBaker]

I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place with this because I want opinions from professionals and strictly pastry and it's fairly broad, but if I'm not, let me know please.

Ok, I've been out of the loop for a while now, partially through apathy, partially through busyness in my personal life, but I want to be connected again.

Who's hot right now? Who's out there doing the most interesting desserts? Not just molecular gastronomy stuff, but everything? What books should I be reading to get back up to speed on techniques and trends? What blogs? What forums? (besides this one of course )

I'm looking for the people doing the clean, simple, clear stuff, straight through the people doing weird flavors combos and using new technology and techniques. I want the organic fresh, green, local slow food flavor-is-king club and the cutting edge "hey i just made hot ice cream" people and everyone in between, as long as they're good. Breads, pastries, restaurants, hotels, competitions, everything. And while I know it's heavy on the US here, if you know any of this info about the UK and Europe, I'd be appreciative too.

I'll be checking out the cookbook review section as well, but I thought I'd put in a start here.

Hope this'll be a fun topic for all. Thank you.

[chefpeon]

Here's some pastry chef names that are hot right now:
Albert Adria, Pichet Ong, Will Goldfarb, Michael Laiskonis, Pierre Herme, Sherry Yard.....I'm sure I'm forgetting some......

A good rag to check out......"Pastry Art and Design"......that if anything will give you a clue as to what and who is hot and trendy.

[AceBaker]

Ah, thank you. Some of those names are familiar, some are only familiar for their restaurants, and at least one I've never heard of but sounds great. cool!

I haven't read Pastry Arts and Design in ages, I thought they were out of business or something because I couldn't find them in my bookstore, only Chocolatier. Suppose I should have checked online.

Any other specific cookbooks to recommend, or blogs? Does our industry have a decent online presence?

[chefpeon]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I wouldn't say that pastry chefs have the best online presence going on.......the best forums I have found are this one and the pastry and baking forum on eGullet. A couple of years ago there were more pros hanging on the eGullet forum, but that isn't really the case now. Either they just lurk, have given up on it, or have found a better forum that maybe I'm not aware of yet. Not to say that this isn't a great forum here.....I think most of us, really are just too busy in the kitchen to get our sticky hands on the keyboard much. Me, I'm a closet geek, so I can't help myself.

There are a lot of "food blogs" out there.....one of the most popular is Orangette.
It's not really a pastry chef's blog though. Although I'm a pastry chef and I write a blog it doesn't count 'cause I'm just being silly. After a long day at work I can't summon up much else......

Here's the website for PA&D: Pastry Art and Design.

[Tri2Cook]

Originally Posted by chefpeon

Here's some pastry chef names that are hot right now:
Albert Adria, Pichet Ong, Will Goldfarb, Michael Laiskonis, Pierre Herme, Sherry Yard.....I'm sure I'm forgetting some......

My personal list would add Sam Mason, Alex Stupak, Elizabeth Falkner and Dominique and Cindy Duby to the above list. The fact that they don't focus entirely and exclusively on pastry doesn't matter to me... it may to some.

[AceBaker]

Aha! Thank you for those extra names, Tri. And Peon, I think you're right, most everyone is probably too busy cooking to blog.

While looking through both your suggestions, I found a guide to US pastry chefs that I can't post because I haven't made enough posts yet, but it's there if you're looking for it.

It sounds like a good place to check up on these people. Thanks for all the help!