STAFF TRIP TO RUNGIES MARKET, PARIS
05.10.2011

It's Thursday morning, that's currently seeming pretty normal.  I'm sat with the rest of the front of house team in our daily morning meeting eagerly awaiting the daily specials so we can give them a taste.  Then our general manager comes over and quietly asks me if I have a passport but won't tell me why.  As the shift is about to begin another manager comes over and asks me to come to the side for a word.
"There's a trip to Paris coming up, for Jamie's Italian staff, to see the massive markets where Fresh Direct (our fruit and veg suppliers) get a lot of their stock from.  So we had to pick somebody and we would like you to go!  There are about 12 people going from different Jamie's Italians over the country and you'll all head over via Eurostar, see all the markets, stay in a hotel and go out for a meal.  It's all organised and courtesy of Fresh Direct.  Oh, and it's on Wednesday!"
Wow! So 5 days later we all met up at the Eurostar to discover that we were all in the dark about the trip plans other than we would meet Martin from Fresh Direct at the hotel in Paris.
Unfortunately when we arrived at the hotel Martin's flight had been delayed so we were 'forced' to wait in the bar, wildly speculating (over a couple of pints) about what the plan might be for the evening.
When Martin arrived he promptly took us out for dinner.  Whilst we get our fruit and veg from the market it also has fantastic meat & poultry and seafood sections, so we went to a seafood restaurant right next to the market - an opportunity to experience the freshest of the produce that we were about to see.  To start we shared spectacular platters of whelks, prawns, oysters and langoustines which were the size of small lobsters.  Getting into the French vibe I went for frog's legs with swordfish as a main course, obviously all accompanied by a fine crisp Sancerre to complete the meal!  I struggled through my home made chocolate dessert and then 'struggled' through my neighbour's creme brulee!
Fuelled with espresso we moved straight onto the fish market (it's now half past midnight) to see some of what we had just tasted.  Obviously I knew that swordfish are pretty big, but I felt like a city boy when I saw the size of a whole tuna; they're massive!  I held a live eel, which was incredibly slimy, but also saw some of the fish that make their way onto our specials board occasionally, including hake and albacore tuna.
Satisfied that I had pictures of some of the ugliest fish around, we headed back to the hotel for a very short sleep and then back to the markets for breakfast croissants, baguettes, ham and coffee.  Then we had a look round the meat and poultry markets.  There was everything from veal to hares, pigeon to frog's legs, cow heads to sheep brains!  It was great to learn a bit about food which I would normally only see vacuum packed!
I thought the fish market was big.  The meat & poultry market was even bigger.  The veg markets simply dwarfed them both.  Warehouse after warehouse of the freshest vegetables that I have seen.  The variety was huge, including items which I recognised from our menu - loads of different heritage tomatoes, romanesco cauliflower and fennel to name a few.  More striking than the variety was the colours and the intense smells of items which I thought I was used to, nothing like the low cost blandness that hits our supermarkets.
Having left fine dining in the seafood restaurant the night before, we discussed the various markets and compared photos over a fillet steak and chips for lunch before heading back to the Eurostar for the trip home.
A thoroughly exhausting but eye-opening 2 days!

Chris Charlick, waiter at Jamie's Italian in Portsmouth