Rungis Market

As much as the front-of-house, customer facing life engages and energises me, there is a whole world behind the scenes that offers a foodie so much to appreciate and to be in awe of.  Early enough in my fulltime food career I took the opportunity of a week in France to detour one morning to Rungis Market on the outskirts of Paris.  Rungis is one of the central hubs for food distribution in Europe and  is really more of a town than a market.  When we arrived at 6.30 a.m. for a tour of the cheese sheds,  the lanes...highways... were jammed with artic lorries driving like maniacs from lott to lott collecting pallets of produce.

Goat's cheese set and ready to leave the country!

You really need your wits about you as most of the workers have been up since very early morning.  This became all the more obvious when we went to the Cafe in the centre of the 'town'.  I dared to ask for a cappuccino.....and nearly got laughed out of the place.  A quick scan of the bar explained why.... brandy and espresso was the drink of the moment...not a nice milky coffee.  Sure what else would you be doing at 7 in the morning?  Graciously however the barman did mock up a couple of frothy cappuccinos.