I must confess that I’ve never actually been to Rose Bakery, the lunch spot on the rue des Martyrs in Paris’s 9th arrondissement, beloved of French foodies and international food bloggers alike. My sister told me about it after she visited Paris last year, and while it’s definitely on my to-go list, I haven’t had the good luck to be whisked away on a surprise romantic holiday to Paris since then.

I do, however, have Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, the cookbook written by Rose Carrarini, one of the co-founders of Rose Bakery. I was lucky enough to receive this book as a Christmas present , and have been soaking it up since then. The look of the book is typical of its publisher, Phaidon: modern and pared-down, with beautiful photographs and attention to layout. The photos, a mixture of food shots and scenes of bakery life, perfectly evoke the buzzy, friendly, slightly bohemian vibe of the bakery itself. 

Rose Bakery is known for a strong focus on quality, fresh ingredients, something that the introduction of Breakfast, Lunch, Tea deals with at length, though not in boring or prescriptive way. The fact that so many delicious commercial recipes (and that is what these are, essentially- just scaled down) are made with such simple ingredients is truly something special. I can’t even begin to imagine what goes into some of the baked goods you find in London- a little synthetic preservative here, a little citric acid there- you get the idea.

A collection of Rose Bakery’s most popular recipes, the book is divided into three sections. Breakfast is a perfect mix of sweet and savory, featuring cereals, scones, pancakes, fruit and egg dishes. The Lunch chapter is also, and perhaps surprisingly, enticing and varied: soups and salads, tarts and risottos, even some more substantial fish and meat dishes feature here. Tea, however, is where this book really shines. The chapter is filled with delicious-looking and -sounding tarts, cakes, biscuits, bars and puddings.  

All this deliciousness probably delayed me actually cooking from this book. For the first two months it was in my possession, I was content to simply read Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, being, if I’m honest, a little too intimidated to try the recipes. I can now attest, though, that I’ve been well and truly cured of that, and this book is one of my favourites to bake from now. I started with the best-selling Carrot Cake (pg. 128), which I made for my sister’s birthday. Everyone who tasted it loved it, and I will go so far as to say that it was the best carrot cake I’ve ever tasted, let alone made. The breakfasts I’ve made have been winners, too; both the Plain Scones (pg. 58) and Maple Syrup Scones (pg. 62) were delicious, though a bit crumbly-er than some might care for. From the savory recipes, I’ve made the Squash Tart (pg. 89), which I adapted and blogged about, and the Celeriac and Porcini Soup (pg. 73), both of which turned out well. 

I actually struggle to think of anything negative to say about this book. It isn’t trying to be a one-size-fits-all baking manual, but rather a collection of the bakery’s most popular recipes, so I can’t very well complain about things left out. Every recipe I’ve made has delivered, so nothing wrong there. Even my fallback complaint, that a book is too meaty, clearly isn’t going to help me. The best I can do in terms of complaints is say that most of the recipes, oh, aren’t that healthy, but even I think that’s a weak one- it’s a baking book, for heaven’s sake!  

Someone looking for a comprehensive, only-baking-book-you’ll-ever-need type tome might be better off to keep looking, but if all you want is a well-edited selection of lovely recipes from a tested source, however, you can’t go wrong with this book.