“The fine arts are five in number,” the 19th-century chef Carême once wrote, “painting, sculpture, poetry, music and architecture — whose main branch is pastry.” In the 1820s, pastry was the rock & roll of the moneyed classes, and the neoclassical creations of chefs like Carême were astonishing — mountains of dough and spun sugar twisted into unearthly temples and fantastic pavilions that defied geometry. The central position of the pastry master disappeared not long after... More >>>