"I've been cooking and baking for over 30 years and consider myself very adept at following recipes, even very difficult ones. I do not know what went wrong with this one. Pastry creams can be a bit tricky but I've never had such a failure! Even if the cream had set up properly, the proportions are all wrong. The balance between crust and cream is way off - too much cream! It was alot of work and a big dissapointment especially since I made this for guests who know me to be a pretty good cook! "

"This recipe is a bit expensive and time consuming but nothing worthwhile is easy!! If you want plain old "run of the mill" Mac and Cheese then look for a different recipe. If you want something special and worth remembering then this is it! I made this for Christmas Eve dinner and everyone raved! I had several requests for the recipe. I used my food processor to grate all of the cheeses - it would be a chore to do all that grating by hand. Also - you must not walk away from the sauce but you really don't have to whisk it "constantly", watch the heat and keep your eye on it!