Market Vignettes

by Kathy Davis

In a world that supplies every kind of spice and sauce ready - made, I am truly aghast by how easy it is to make everything fresh, and from scratch. My pleasure knows no bounds while shopping for fresh herbs and produce in an open market. I attribute perusing at open - air markets in Paris the reason I learned to speak French so quickly.

Having arrived in Paris the day after high school graduation, I took to the metros and also walked no less than miles everyday with my seventeen year old feet! As I headed to any of the fourteen "go sees" a day for modeling jobs, I was spellbound by the markets and shoppers ordering the cornucopia of produce. Shopping for food enabled me to think in French,for there was no translating.

The panorama of the city streets of Paris during my modeling days, was like a cultural anthropological museum replete with side - walk cheese markets, butcheries, produce, bakeries and flower markets. What a sensory explosion just to shop for a meal! I was instantly smitten with all things culinary and in time became absolutely passionate about all things related in any form.

I treasure returning to this exploratory time while shopping,chopping, stirring and making magic with the gifts that our incredible Earth has to offer. The essence of who we are is that we desire "connection" and what better way to "connect" than beginning with a wonderful meal?