Reflections on Inspiration

My culinary talents today are a direct accumulation of all my experiences throughout my life. One of the most profound was shopping on the Rue Mouffetard in Paris. I first heard of it while living in Colombia, reading Hemingways 'A Movable Feast'. He lived on the Place de la Contrescarpe, and would often stroll down the Rue Mouffetard for espresso or shopping. Then when I had my flat on Rue de Poissy in Paris, I learned I was only a few minutes walk to Hemingways old neighborhood. I was fascinated with open air markets of Paris. It was busy & bustleing, you had to push and elbow your way into a cloud of cigarette smoke to buy something while the vendors shouted out their wares. Le poissonnier would be holding a trout in one hand and a crayfish in the other, with a cigarette butt smoking from the corner of his mouth, while he yelled why his fruits de mer were absolutly the best you could possibly buy. Then a old women would push a greasy folded newspaper filled with salty pomme frites in your face while she smiled next to her vat of boiling oil. Strolling amongst the chaos, I was filled with hundreds of ideas, the possibilities were endless. My infinite inspiration and creativity was truely challenged. Back at the Hotel Ritz, I would spend hours discussing, examining & dissecting my culinary inspirations with the brilliant minds of Masterchefs Philip Moreau & Christof Bellet. There are moments in life when you experience a awakening, a profound enlightenment that changes the way you conceptualize the life that moves around you. For me, my morning walks down the hill of the Rue Mouffetard was definitely that experience. From then on I got to experiment with gastronomic delights on my friends with several courses in a dinner party, carefully matching wines with each course. It was a time to perfect my skills to excellence. My biggest problem was that after usually staying up late on friday nights, I would wake up late and halfway through my coffee have to run out the door, because in Paris all the markets close at 2pm and if you miss that, you can't shop until monday morning.