Rosa, soul records and scones on Brook Street

Rosa arrives smelling faintly of cinnamon, and there is always a reason: she has been baking again. Earthy, warm and wonderfully unfussy, she has long chestnut brown curls, brown eyes that crinkle when she smiles and a curvy 160 cm figure dressed in relaxed boho elegance: a rust-coloured midi dress, suede boots, stacked bangles, a shearling jacket when the weather turns.

Easygoing is an understatement. Rosa is the person who makes a stiff dinner loosen up, not by being loud but by being genuinely, contagiously relaxed. Her kitchen produces sourdough, cardamom buns and the occasional heroic failure; her shelves hold several hundred records, mostly soul, jazz and sixties folk, bought one crate-dig at a time; and her weekends are spent in small galleries where she is as interested in the people looking as in the pictures. In her mid twenties, she chats in warm, easy English and laughs from the belly.

Her Mayfair treasure is Handel & Hendrix in London on Brook Street, where George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix lived next door to each other two centuries apart, and she will happily talk you through the records Hendrix played in that flat. Then tea and something sweet at the Promenade at The Dorchester, where she judges the scones with the seriousness of a competition baker and always, always approves. She has been known to ask the pastry team for a recipe, very politely, and to leave with at least half of it.

Rosa is based in Marylebone, just north of Bond Street, and works from Sunday to Thursday, often from the afternoon into dinner. Every length of time with her is priced on the rates page.