New Books for the New Year: Breakfast, Lunch, Tea with Children: Rose Bakery

Food world legend Rose Carrarini creates a beautiful book for adults who want to cook with the kids in their lives.

Cooking with kids is one of the simplest, yet one of the most rewarding, pleasures to be had in life. Whether it’s pyjama-clad breakfast crepes, a messy risotto lunch, or a more relaxed dinner lit up by a conversation that came out of nowhere, cooking with children, when done right, is a nurturing, nourishing experience that reaps a lot of joy.

To the uninitiated however, it may, at first, seem a little daunting. In our new book, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea with Children: Rose Bakery, Rose Carrarini shows parent and caregiver readers how to go about cooking with kids correctly, passing on the knowledge she’s garnered through her many years as a restaurant chef and patron.

Risotto. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

Carrarini is, of course, co-founder with husband Jean-Charles Carrarini, of the much-loved Rose Bakery Café chain which opened in Paris in 2002 and now has outlets in London, LA, New York and Tokyo. Before that, she worked for a decade in the fashion industry, making garments and textiles.

Rose Carrarini. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

These days, Rose’s aim is to share simple, high-quality food with her customers. She does the same at home when she cooks for her extended family, sharing the kitchen with her four grandchildren (aged from five to fifteen), teaching them new skills, and swapping stories.

Genoise cake with strawberries & cream. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

As you'd expect, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea with Children: Rose Bakery is both simple and sophisticated; with a set of clear, step-by-step, instructions for both the grown-ups (that’s you) and the not quite so grown-ups.

Irish Champ. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

Its 50 recipes range from simple dishes such as scrambled eggs, granola, pasta sauces and scones, to more complex creations such as goujons, gyozas, and madeleines, thus ensuring there is always a range of tasks for children of all ages and abilities.

Cranberry & Oat Scones. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

Younger children might be given charge of the wooden spoon – a high honour indeed - or asked to add salt to a bowl. Older children meanwhile can take on trickier tasks such as measuring out ingredients.

Carrot, kale & chickpea flour pancakes. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

There are gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian options from a range of global cuisines, and along the way children will also learn fascinating facts like how the vegetables are cut can alter the taste of a meal.

Macaroni cheese. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

Carrarini encourages children to develop their sense of confidence, and to take pride in their creations via a series of recipes that increase in complexity throughout the book. These include carrot cake, okonomiyaki, risotto, and chicken balls with teriyaki sauce. All are accompanied by playful photos by Anne-Claire Héraud that demonstrate the fun of cooking with kids.

Rose and Jean-Charles Carrarini. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

Importantly, Rose Carrarini provides tips on how to handle mess and mistakes, reminding adults that patience, and keeping a sense of humour, are perhaps the most important kitchen essentials. Yes, cake mixture may decorate your walls and meat balls may fall onto the floor to be tidied up by the dog, but this is all part of the process.

Fruit galette. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea with Children: Rose Bakery celebrates the rituals of family cooking, the moments shared over a flour-covered counter, the pride in a well-made cake, creating memories and skills that will last a lifetime. It’s a companion book to the Phaidon best-seller Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, it ships in March, and you can pre-order it here.

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Photography Anne-Claire Héraud