Gesine Bullock-Prado

This is Gesine Bullock-Prado's memoir of leaving the rat race in Hollywood to open a bakery in Vermont. It comes complete with the usual funny mishaps and quirky characters. I think what I liked best about this book is Gesine herself. Far from the fat, jolly baker, she is impatient, caustic and sometimes not too sure she actually likes people all that much. What she does like is baking. She lives and breathes it, obsessing over the perfect cherry pie or macaroon. Opening a bakery she learns show more she can love people from afar with her beautiful pastries.

I really love that Gesine is not the typical baker. Somehow her tart personality perfectly balances out all the sweetness of the book. The recipes recipes, like Espresso Cheesecake and Raspberry Meringues are creative yet accessible to the home cook. show less

I begin with a caveat: do not read this book if you are trying to avoid sweets. Though not a cookbook, it has recipes. Luscious-sounding recipes. Recipes for things like "Starry Starry Night" cookies, which are nearly solid chocolate. Rock scones and cream scones. Tarts redolent of plums, pies redolent of apples. You'll want to put the book aside and head to the kitchen!

I'll be honest. I wasn't sure I'd like this book. "Oh, sure," I said to myself. "Another 'I got off the money treadmill and show more went to live the simple life on the money I made on the aforesaid treadmill' book." Blurbs like "A former Hollywood insider trades the Hollywood Hills for Green Acres" don't incline me favorably towards a book. It was the baking part that tempted me.

But the book is better than the blurbs would have you think. Yes, there's a lot about Bullock-Prado's unhappiness in Hollywood, where she headed her sister's production company. But there is far more about the importance of baking in her life, the way it makes her feel to give people macaroons and receive their passionate thanks in return, the way a tart or a pie brings back to her memories of her childhood, of her mother and grandmother and the special times they had together.

As all such books must, it gives us stories of mishaps along the way to success. It didn't hurt that the national media was attracted to the story of "Sandra Bullock's sister opens bakery in Vermont". One would like to think that she'd have had a successful business anyway, though I doubt that the Food Network would have knocked on her door if she were Gesine Nobody's Sister. She is such a success that she has now closed the bakery about which she wrote here, and is concentrating on her online business and helping open a new shop in Texas (weird, that's a long way from Vermont, wonder how that will work?). It's kind of too bad, because it sounded like a great place, very neighborly and warm, the sort of bakery you'd like to have down the street from you. show less

Just what I needed in my life, a book completely about cooking sugar. I definitely have a sweet tooth and knowing how to make my own candies and pastry creams could prove dangerous. In the very beginning of the book the question "Isn't sugar bad for you?" is asked. Sugar Baby's wonderful answer is "Sugar in moderation is okay as long as it is beautifully and lovingly prepared." This is what I'm going with.

Sugar baby is written with passion and personality. Cooking with sugar can be tricky show more and dangerous, but with the constant safety reminders, reassurances and personal tips you can pretend that someone is there holding your hand throughout the process.

The book is organized by the temperature that the sugar needs to be cooked at with simpler recipes at the beginning of the section and working your way up in complexity. I know that I cannot wait to make my own Bavarian creme, candy corn, maple candy, and honey nougat. Now I just need to get my own candy thermometer.

This book was provided for free from NetGalley in return for an honest review. show less

This book had me at it's very short but very memorable first paragraph: 'I saw the devil at the age of three and he gave me chocolate. It changed my life forever.'

Gesine (pronounced geh see neh--don't mess it up because it makes her crazy when you do) had a glamourous Hollywood life running a production company with her sister Sandra Bullock. Red carpets, 'doing' lunch, meetings and schmoozing made up her daily life. And she was miserable. To make herself feel better, she turned to an old show more love, pastries. Specifically, making, even inventing, them. When, in a meeting, she referred to casting a movie as being like finding the right spices for an apple pie, she knew it was time to get out.

She and her husband Rick Prado (a movie illustrator and barista extraordinaire) fell in love with Vermont and decided to make it their home. They found an old general store, gutted it and it became 'Gesine's'. It opened on Aug 4, 2004 to lines longer than anyone could have imagined thanks to a casual mention of the fabulous French macaroons Gesine makes (which are almond, not coconut) in an interview in In Style magazine. Well, that and the fact that Sandy manned the register that first day. Gesine stayed in the back, being a self proclaimed 'socially retarded misanthrope', and followed her passion for baking. They might have come the first time to see a movie star. They kept coming back because Gesine is a magician with flour and sugar and chocolate.

Her passion comes through in her book as well. There are fantastic recipes in it, but it's the reasons and rememeberances, the stories and the history that really make this book something special. Gesine is rather blunt at times, but I actually admired her for her honesty and her wit. This is a book about the importance of baking, the love and intention that goes into it all. It's also about the importance of sitting down with people, especially people you love, and enjoying fine things with one another in the middle of our too hectic lives. It's both a fantastic read and a fantastic cookbook--I highly recommend this book! show less