Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts

Chocolate and Art is a collection of possibly the richest “light” desserts in the world, and an unsurpassed guidebook for using real butter, chocolate, cream, nuts, and other ingredients in you-can’t-tell-the-difference desserts with less fat.

It was the era of low-fat everything, and I was mad. This book was my riposte, chin out, to all of the misguided horrors—indiscriminate use of fruit purees, too many egg whites, weird fat substitutions, and too much sugar—perpetrated upon the dessert-loving public. It pays to get angry Chocolate and the Art received more press than a senator, a Cookbook of the Year award from the James Beard Foundation (my second), and accolades from our favorite skeptic and curmudgeon, Jeffrey Steingarten. Best of all, working with less fat taught me more than I ever knew about my craft. The low-fat era is over, but the recipes hold up.

1995 Cookbook of the Year, James Beard Foundation
1995 Best Book: Healthy Focus, James Beard Foundation
2010 Best Books of the Last Fifteen Years, Epicurious.com