David Lebovitz Author Talk • Ready for Dessert & The Great Book of Chocolate

David Lebovitz has been a professional cook and baker for most of his life; he spent nearly thirteen years at Chez Panisse until he left the restaurant business in 1999 to write books. He moved to Paris in 2004 and turned davidlebovitz.com into a phenomenally popular blog. He is the author of six books, including The Perfect Scoop, Ready for Dessert, The Great Book of Chocolate, and a memoir called The Sweet Life in Paris, and he was named one of the Top Five Pastry Chefs in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle. David has also been featured in Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Cook’s Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Saveur, Travel + Leisure, and more.

Kate Leahy has collaborated on more than a dozen books on food and wine, including Italian Wine, Wine Style, Lavash, and Burma Superstar. Her first book, A16 Food + Wine, won the IACP best book of the year and the Julia Child first book award. She co-hosts the podcast Everything Cookbooks and is currently writing a mystery set in Northern California.

Ready for Dessert - Professional cook and baker David Lebovitz is a master of perfectly pitched desserts and irreverent humor—a combination that has won him and his books hundreds of thousands of fans. This completely revised edition of Ready for Dessert is a compilation of David's favorite and best recipes. He serves up a tantalizing array of nearly 175 cakes, pies, tarts, crisps, cobblers, cookies, candies, ice creams, pastries, custards, soufflés, puddings, and even dessert sauces, fruit preserves, and homemade liqueurs.

Sharing a pared-down sophistication and a focus on fresh, pure flavors and seasonal ingredients, David's desserts range from simple to showy, light to rich, and classic to edgy, like Nectarine-Raspberry Upside-Down Gingerbread Cake, Apple-Quince Tarte Tatin, Lemon-Ginger Crème Brûlée, Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies, Butterscotch-Pecan Ice Cream, Maple Tartlets, and a universally adored Salted Butter Caramel Sauce that can top just about anything.

Featuring several all-new recipes and photography shot on location in Paris by award-winning food photographer Ed Anderson, Ready for Dessert, Revised, offers showstopping treats that bakers of all skill levels will master with ease. And David’s trademark friendly guidance, as well as serving suggestions, storage advice, flavor variations, and tips will help ensure success every time. So if you’re ready for dessert (and who isn’t?), crack open this sweet and essential collection and let’s get baking.

The Great Book of Chocolate - In this fully updated edition of The Great Book of Chocolate, Lebovitz discusses the history of chocolate, bean-to-bar producers, chocolate shops in Paris (and his time working in a Belgian chocolate shop!), while also sharing invaluable tips for baking with, sourcing, storing, and using everybody’s favorite ingredient. Fifteen new recipes join Lebovitz’s classics, for a total of more than fifty recipes, including Melting Chocolate Cakes, Chocolate Cherry Buttermilk Scones, Chocolate Espresso Cookies, Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie, Vegan Chocolate Marshmallows, and even a Chocolate Negroni.

Featuring all new photography from Paris and San Francisco, The Great Book of Chocolate, Revised, is a sweet treat for home bakers and chocolate lovers alike.