On the plus side, this book does have an introduction and a tidbit about the author.
I am surprised that a "world-renowned food and cooking expert" has so little information online, though, and almost all of them Amazon results. The introduction doesn't give any information about her current reputation and why she merits the "world-renowned" title. Maybe books 1 and 2 explain that more, but unless they come across my desk as a free title, I'm not interested in buying them to find out.
In the introduction, she says "I will make you a believer that my cookbooks are the only ones you need," and "It is a collection that if these desserts were mass produced on this planet it would surely bring world peace."
Excuse me? This is where I almost stopped reading and would have chucked the book across the room had it been in paper format. This was just really hard to swallow, pun most definitely intended.
However, dedication to my reviews kept me going.
There is a table of contents but it is not hyperlinked.
I wouldn't consider baklava a "quick" or "easy" dessert, even with packaged phyllo dough. Not if you want it to be good. The White Chocolate Cheesecake sounds delicious, but I have significant reservations on the "quick" or "easy" part.
Given the tone at the beginning, I was surprised to see a recipe that included a cake mix. With additions, of course, but still...prepackaged cake mix? In "Gourmet" desserts? Then there's the instant vanilla pudding, frozen whipped topping, prepared chocolate frosting in another recipe.
Apple pie is wonderful. It's not "gourmet," at least not the basic recipe given here. Neither is No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie. Nor is cobbler. They are traditional, homestyle desserts, sometimes even classic, but not "gourmet."
Okay, here's the bottom line. This gets 3 stars because the recipes are clear and formatted well and there don't appear to be any egregious errors like missing ingredients or incoherent instructions. It's a decent collection of dessert recipes. However, it's not "gourmet." These aren't the "most amazing desserts on the planet." The recipes aren't "mindblowing." The hyperbole is just offputting, especially when recipes include premade graham cracker crusts, cake mix, instant puddings, and the like.
In other words, take the description with a grain of salt - or perhaps a whole darn shaker of it. Personally, I'm pitching this one right out of my Kindle library. I can find recipes like this in plenty of other places and I don't want to keep this one.
