This book has been developed from my first few years as a pastry chef and while on my travels around the world, creating new recipes and desserts. So many people ask me where they should start with pastry. My motto is if you want to learn the real art of pastry, you start from the beginning. Many people think pastry is a science, but it's all about understanding the basics. For me, it's where my passion for pastry first began. As a young kid, I'd watch my grandfather make bread every Saturday morning. Then during the week, make pastry for tarts. His pastry was the best pastry I've ever tasted, and it's down to the way the fat was incorporated into the flour. You wouldn't think that a small thing like that would make such a difference, but it does. Follow my recipes in the Basics chapter, and you can master the not-so-difficult tasks of pastry making.