This shopping is, more than anything else, the construction of a network of relationships essential to the smooth running of the restaurant, and from the beginning Mauro sees this daily outing as a form of learning, an endeavor that requires him to take his time, prove his credentials. He explores the perimeter, deciphers the circuits, identifies the different actors and the connections that link the places—who supplies whom—knowing that a restaurant such as La Belle Saison is a niche market of only marginal interest.

So, to begin with, he pays visits. He wanders along each aisle of the market, scans each stand, compares prices, assesses the merchandise, before finally spending time deciding who will supply him with fruit and vegetables—You get a lot more bargaining power when you buy all the vegetables one guy is selling, he tells me as we walk side by side. We push the shopping cart that has replaced the large basket he used to carry, but which became full too quickly, forcing Mauro to make two visits; the cart spares his back while increasing his purchasing capacity and strengthening his abs, shoulders, and arms—in the first days he will grimace with pain when he stretches and I will bring him some Tiger Balm, warning him to be careful: he’s not supposed to cook with it. After a while, he ends up getting along well with a fruit and vegetable vendor who works hand in hand with a guy in Rungis whose task is to find him the best fruit and vegetable producers and to supply him with specific quantities of particular quality—forty-five pounds of new carrots for Mauro, small and preferably pointed, along with those rarer vegetables that he likes to cook with: Jerusalem artichokes, New Zealand spinach.

Beginning in 2010, Mauro works increasingly often with a new kind of grocery store whose raison d’être is to cut out the middleman between producer and consumer. The result is better prices and a rapid rotation of products, ensuring optimal freshness. Supplies arrive daily, precisely chosen. The products—fruit and vegetables, cheeses, charcuterie, fish and seafood—are collected by the grocer himself during regular trips to selected farms: he goes to Saumont-la-Poterie, in Seine-Maritime, to source the farmhouse Neufchâtel cheese; to Sarzeau, in Morbihan, for the filet mignon of smoked pork; to the La Croix de Pierre butcher, in Rouen, for the boudin blanc; to the Ferme de la Grange orchard, in Jumièges, Seine-Maritime, for Melrose apples and Conference pears; he will even drive all the way to the breeding ponds of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, on the English Channel, for the oysters. When he’s not driving his van, he takes a cart onto a train and rides it to the last stop so he can fetch yogurts made with unpasteurized milk from a particular farm in Eure.