Restaurants

The fruit and vegetable market (as opposed to the flower market) sells 160 types of fruit and 180 varieties of vegetables. We see only a tiny fraction of these, but everywhere we turn are jostling colours and new shapes – baby this, purple that. Gauthier grinds to an ecstatic halt (the first of many) at the sight of some strawberries. They are Spanish, so not quite local, but they mark the beginning of berry season and taste delicious.
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Super market sweep

There was some English rhubarb lying in clean, pink columns and Gauthier – with the air of a fashionista appraising the new season’s trend – noted that rhubarb was ‘so now’. English asparagus is also very ‘now’ and is cropping up on most of London’s elite menus. Indeed, both turned up with scrumptious clarity of flavour on my plate at Roussillon that night. Glamorous chervil and parsley roots, round courgettes, broad beans in enormous shells, peas, cantaloupe and countless others led to what turned out to be the glory of the market: heaps of unassuming Jersey Royal potatoes, currently at their best. The other winners, according to Gauthier and Thornicroft, were mushrooms, especially morels. Chanterelle, silky trompette, St George and mousseron are also still in season.

Even if scouring large-scale markets before dawn doesn’t appeal, you can still ring in the spring at the numerous markets and produce stands around London. As Gauthier says: ‘Chefs don’t have any supernatural powers. Follow your instinct and remember – touch everything!’

New Covent Garden Market, Nine Elms Lane, SW8 5NX (020 7720 2211/ www.cgma.gov.uk) Vauxhall tube/rail/ 2, N2, N44, 44, 88 bus. Open Mon-Fri 3-11am, Sat 4-10am. Pedestrians free, vehicles £4.

Roussillon, 16 Barnabas Street, SW1 8PE (020 7730 5550/ www.roussillon.co.uk) Sloane Square tube. Mon-Fri 12noon-2.30pm,
6.30-10.30pm; Sat 6.30-10.30pm.