Breaking Bao/How to Make Your Food Famous

Breaking Bao

by Clarice Lam
Genres: Cooking / Methods / Baking, Cooking / Regional & Ethnic / Asian
Published on October 22, 2024
Pages: 248
Format: eARC Source: Netgalley

From acclaimed pastry chef Clarice Lam: a visually sumptuous pan-Asian baking book exploring an umami-rich array of baked goods, confections, and savory snacks.

Breaking Bao is a culinary journey bridging gaps between Asian flavors and global techniques. It is a collection of recipes rooted in renowned chef Clarice Lam's personal journey of self-discovery and the transformative power of embracing one's heritage.

Here are 88 approachable recipes that are firmly rooted in classical French technique but travel far and wide. Dive into three chapters, exploring:

  • Bao: the fundamentals of baked, steamed, fried, or laminated buns and breads, from golden curry-filled donuts to Rice Dumplings filled with Hong Kong Bolognese to Vietnamese Cinnamon-Raisin Babka.
  • Cakes & Desserts: classics treated with a twist, such as Mango-Yakult Tres Leches Cake, Ovaltine Mochi Marjolaine, and Pandan-Lime Meringue Pie.
  • Snax: savory and sweet treats, from Cantonese-Style Fig and Marzipan Mooncakes to Gochujang-Furikake Caramel Popcorn to Ramen Cheese Itz.

Featuring more than 100 stunning photographs by prominent food, lifestyle, and travel photographer Evan Sung, Breaking Bao is a visual feast as well as a go-to cookbook. For home cooks looking to expand their repertories, these projects range from simple cookies and flavored popcorn snacks to lavish mille feuille and laminated pastries. With humor, whimsy, and respect for traditions, Lam invites readers into these pages to break barriers, bread, and bao, all at the same table.

ASIAN BAKING EXPERTISE: A daughter of parents from Hong Kong, Clarice Lam has been in the New York City restaurant industry for more than a decade and has garnered an impressive resume, working in Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market, as the executive chef at The Chocolate Room in Brooklyn, and as the opening pastry chef for Kimika, named one of 2021's best new restaurants in the world by Condé Nast Traveler and a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2022. Using the nostalgic flavors of her childhood with the techniques imparted to her in culinary school, she is uniquely positioned to create the go-to book on Asian-inspired baking.

KITCHEN SUPERSTAR: With 88 foolproof, well-tested recipes, including cakes, cookies, buns, mochi, mooncakes, donuts, and savory snacks, and more than 100 gorgeous photographs, Breaking Bao is your next great recipe book for the Hall of Fame section of your cookbook corner.

UNIQUE COOKBOOK: There are not many classically trained pastry chefs writing accessible books for use by home bakers. There are also very few baking books that meld multicultural flavors and techniques. Breaking Bao blends various cuisine staples from countries in Asia with hints of technique drawn from American, European, and traditional Asian baking.

Perfect for:

  • Home bakers of all skill levels
  • Asian cuisine and culture enthusiasts
  • Professionally trained chefs and bakers
  • Cookbook collectors and baking book browsers
  • Gift-giving for food lovers' birthday, housewarming, graduation, or any occasion

This book is beautifully done. The photography is inspiring. The goal is to create fusion dessert and baked goods. There are matcha donuts. Baked Alaska is made with flavors that are more traditionally Asian. Cake rolls are made with ube.

All the flavor combinations sound wonderful. (This is a vegetarian but not vegan book.) The book does a great job of giving step by step photos of the more involved techniques that were confusing to people who hadn’t tried them before.

The recipes are very involved. This is definitely a book for people who get excited by the thought of spending hours making the perfect dessert. There isn’t anything here that I will likely be trying myself but for people who love to make show stopping desserts, this book is a winner.

Breaking Bao/How to Make Your Food Famous

How To Make Your Food Famous

by Kimberly Espinel
Genres: Computers / Internet / Social Media
Published on August 20, 2024
Pages: 160
Format: eARC Source: Netgalley

Revamp your social media feed and gain thousands of followers. Find the secret sauce in How To Make Your Food Famous.

This informed, practical guide shows you how to level up your photography, create engaging video content, negotiate social media, and establish yourself as a leading foodfluencer.

Conquer this in-demand content space with secrets from the biggest foodie voices on Instagram and TikTok, showing you why – and how – the phone eats first.
 

  • Make your photos and videos delicious and appealing with cropping, lighting, and storytelling
  • Attract thousands of followers to your account, by using rarely discussed secrets and hacks
  • Learn from over 40 of the world’s most followed food accounts, including Pigtoria Secrets, George’s Bakery, Flouring Kitchen, Between Spoonfuls, The Korean Vegan and the Health Junkie Lina

Become the next big thing in the world of online food. Whether you’ve just started your own business, you’re a restaurant owner, a blogger, or you just want to show off your culinary skills, How to Make Your Food Famous will have the world hungry for more.

I picked this book up not because I was interested in becoming a food influencer but because I was interested in finding out more about better food photography. Unfortunately, this book didn’t cover much about that. Most of the book was interviews with food influencers about how they grew their social media presence.

This book pointed out to me how not into social media I am. I had never heard of any of the people in this book. LOL

There was a lot of nice photography in the book and inspiring stories but I don’t know how valuable the advice here really is. It was mostly about making sure you pick a niche and post consistently. Everyone knows that. It seemed more like a high level overview than really getting into details.