Breakfast, Lunch, Tea

The Rose Bakery is a small Anglo-French restaurant, shop and bakery, tucked away in a street near the Gare du Nord in Paris. This book introduces this hidden gem and the philosophy and style of its creator Rose Carrarini to a wider audience for the first time. Beautifully illustrated with more than 100 specially commissioned photographs, and featuring 100 of Rose's most popular recipes, this book is as much a treat for the eye as for the taste buds. The unique style and atmosphere of Rose Bakery, as well as the people who prepare, buy and eat the food that is made here, are captured in Toby Glanville's evocative photographs. The images show everything from the first preparations for breakfast and gearing up for the lunchtime rush to the final customers lingering over a piece of cake and a last cup of coffee in the late afternoon. Rose Carrarini became a pastry chef because neither she nor the customers of Villandry, the 'epicerie fine' she set up in London with her husband Jean-Charles in 1988, could find the pastries and desserts they wanted anywhere else. Now based in Paris, Rose has been serving simple, fresh and natural food that blurs the boundaries between home and restaurant cooking at Rose Bakery since 2002. Over 90 per cent of the products sold in the shop and served in the cafe are made on the premises with the best ingredients: Rose uses as much organic and locally sourced produce as possible, and has reduced the sugar content in her cake recipes to make them healthier without sacrificing flavour, texture or pleasure. Rose Carrarini's approach to food and hospitality has proved to be very popular with the locals, who crowd into the shop on weekdays, choosing from the lunchtime display of salads, vegetable tarts and pastries displayed on the shop's counter, and line up on weekend mornings for a full English breakfast or a plate of pancakes. This book will make the flavours and style of Rose Bakery accessible for people outside Paris, too.