By Rose Carrarini

For me, an egg is the icing on the cake (so to speak) for a lot of dishes: I crack one into a simmering pot of instant noodles; top salads with a poached egg to make them more substantial; and add a fried egg to everything from bacon sandwiches to stir-fried noodles. So I was pleased to find a kindred spirit in Briton Rose Carrarini, who runs Rose Bakery in Paris, France, and is the author of another book that I like a lot, .

Her new offering shows off the versatility of the egg, not just as an ingredient in baked goods, where it's usually undetectable as a flavour but essential to the success of the product. Carrarini gives instructions for all methods for cooking eggs, as well as recipes for dishes such as eggs baked in dashi; three-coloured frittata; orange crème caramel; chawanmushi with seafood; lacy eggs over vegetables; scrambled eggs and vinegar; and tomato, porcini and egg soup.