Spago Chocolate

Chocolate is not just an inclination. It is a passion, a disposition of the soul. Here, collected for the first time, are recipes for the chocolate desserts people clamor for night after night at Spago—many so popular they can't be taken off the menu. Spago Chocolate is a passport to indulgence and a chance to bring a piece of the Spago magic home, with the prom-ise of recurring pleasure.
        
There are recipes for beginners, as easy as to-die-for chocolate chunk cookies, chocolate tiramisù, or dark chocolate cupcakes. Try Mary's spectacular chocolate truffle cake (it will have your guests in awe), a mouthwatering white chocolate soufflé with Grand Marnier sauce, or a chocolate-nougatine tart with apricot ice cream. Spago regulars will find their favorites, from the world's most sinfully seductive chocolate mousse to a showstopping meringue Napoleon.
        
With breathtaking photographs by Alan Richard-son, one of America's top food photographers, Spago Chocolate has been fully tested at home by Judy Gethers, who has shaped every Spago cookbook from The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook to Spago Desserts. Every recipe is broken down into simple basics, with unmistakably clear instructions and helpful tips.
        
Like Wolfgang Puck, Spago's charismatic chef and owner, pastry chef Mary Bergin has mastered the rare blend of classical teaching and dazzling, innovative spirit that has made the James Beard Award-winning Spagos among the best-loved restaurants in the world. Now you can make Mary Bergin's unforgettable chocolate desserts at home—just as they are prepared in the Spago kitchens.

Library Journal

Spago Desserts showcased favorite desserts of all types from Wolfgang Puck's popular restaurants. This time, Bergin, pastry chef at Spago, Las Vegas, and coauthor Gethers limit their tantalizing selection to chocolate treats. There are cakes and pastries, pies and tarts, cookies, souffl s and other "creamy desserts," and a selection of delicious candies; some are as homey as Buttermilk Layer Cake, others as sophisticated as Dark Chocolate Pots de Cr me and Orange Brul e. Any chocolate lover will find this book irresistible; recommended for all pastry collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Mary Bergin is one of the longest-standing veterans of Spago, where she has worked since the first res-taurant was founded in the early eighties. One of the stars of Julia Child's Cook-ing with Master Chefs, her recipes have been featured on the Food Network, Good Morning America, and The Home Show. She was head pastry chef at Spago Los Angeles from 1987 to 1992, when she helped launch Spago Las Vegas, where she is head pastry chef today. She contributed recipes to Wolfgang Puck's Adventures in the Kitchen and is the co-author of Spago Desserts. She encourages her two children, Jackie and Anthony, to play an active role in tasting and experimenting in the kitchen.

Judy Gethers, whose family has owned Ratner's, a landmark New York City restaurant, since 1905, grew up in and around kitchens. She collaborated with Wolfgang Puck on The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook and Adventures in the Kitchen. She is also the author of The World Famous Ratner's Meatless Cookbook, Italian Country Cooking, and (with Mary Bergin) Spago Desserts.

Alan Richardson is an award-winning photographer whose work has been featured in Condé Nast Traveler, Esquire, Food & Wine, GQ, Self, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and The Washington Post Magazine. He was the photographer for The Four Seasons of Italian Cooking.