Tartine: A Passion for Craft & Taste

Man cannot live on bread alone...well, actually.... 

The fact that Alice Waters wrote the introduction to Tartine was pretty much all I needed to know that Tartine, a bakery located in San Francisco was the real deal, worth my time, and worth diving into further. We have a great selection of cooking books and its hard to know where to start. You can start with Tartine.

We carry both of their cookbooks here at The Paris Market, the self titled, Tartine and Tartine Bread

Tartine, the first book from Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson includes all the basic recipes from their renowned Tartine Bakery which the couple founded in 2002. Both ex-CIA (Culinery Institute of America) operatives, the two spent time traveling, training and cooking in France. They first opened up a bakery called Bay Village Bakery in Point Reyes Station, CA and after six years of that they popped into SF and opened up Tartine in 2002.  Their first book Tartine, with selections for breakfast pastries, cakes, tarts, cookies, and savory items as well, came out in 2006 and was chosen for The New York Times list of selected top ten cookbooks for that year.

The great thing about this cookbook is that its not just a recipe book with cute little anecdotes about somebody's grandmother, or great Uncle Harry; (no offense) its chock full of fabulous recipes with words explaining to you how its done, and those little details you need to know for each recipe. I think that's what bogs a lot of us down on new recipes. We aren't thrown that necessary bone of information, and we come out with way more of a learning experience than we had really wanted.  For instance in the recipe for Blackberry Tart with Rose Geranium Cream, they note the following: Make sure that the saucepan you use for making the cream is not unlined aluminum, as it will turn the cream gray. You can use rosewater in place of the rose geranium leaves, but wait to flavor the cream until after it has cooled and use the rosewater sparingly..." see? now that is a real good bone of information that another cookbook would have left out. The book has this throughout, so your not yelling midday "agh! the cream is freaking gray! How did that happen!?!"

When you ready to move back from the sweet to savory sustenance, check out Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread, which opens up with a basic recipe for the acclaimed Tartine Country bread. After the basic recipe is explained, (nice! we like explanations!) Chad then shows how variations from this master recipe lead to wonderfully diverse breads. You can see Mr. Robertson's passion for bread here: and that when it comes to bread, all good things come to those who wait...for it.

Tartine Bread from 4SP Films on Vimeo.

Check out Tartine here: YUM