Sometimes fashion leads to the kitchen. This was the case for Rose and Jean-Charles Carrarini. “In all the cities we visited for work, Florence, Milan, Tokyo, New York, the first thing we wanted to see were the markets and the restaurants. Instead of attending fashion shows, we went to Dean & DeLuca! »
After ten years spent imagining knitwear collections and running delicatessens, the Franco-British couple opened in 1988, in London, where they lived, a counter of French and Anglo-Saxon inspiration, purveyor of sandwiches, quiches, soups and favorite culinary products. Rose was getting into baking. “I had found an American carrot cake recipe. I started by cutting the sugar in half! » The autodidact is currently the author of two cookbooks published by Phaidon: Breakfast, Lunch, Tea (2006) and How to Boil an Egg (“how to cook an egg”, 2013).
Cheesecakes, tarts, colorful salads…
Initially increased by a few tables, then relocated to house a restaurant, a bar, a grocery store and a bakery, this “little” Villandry – in reference to the Loire Valley castle renowned for its incredible vegetable garden – will become big. Too much, for the taste of the founders. “We had investors, it was corporate, and we are not like that… During a trip to France, we noticed that there was no place offering a cuisine like at home. Our children being at university, we could settle in Paris. The premises in which we opened Rose Bakery was a former lumber depot. »
In the window of 46, rue des Martyrs, in the 9e arrondissement, line up cheesecakes, tarts, colorful salads… Behind the window of the cold room, you can see the big cheeses from the British affineur Neal’s Yard Dairy: stilton, wensleydale, caerphilly. The meat is provided by a great Parisian butcher, an intermediary takes care of selecting the fish.
A select assortment of products, many of which are used in the kitchen, fill the minimalist shelves: coffees from Parisian roaster Ten Belles (created by a former Rose Bakery collaborator), Flahavan’s Irish porridge, olive oil from Liguria Terre Bormane Cibario, pasta Italian artisanal Setaro, English salt from Maldon, honey and French-English Tea Together jams, spices from the Yorkshire Suma cooperative…
The range of goods delivered each day is not completely unpacked, and an impressive number of crates full of organic fruit and vegetables pile up in an anarchic manner – the dishes are predominantly vegetable. Following a principle of the house, they will be sold or worked within forty-eight hours.
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