Before you even pick out a recipe, you should familiarize yourself with what’s on the market. You don’t even have to buy anything. Just look. Make yourself aware. Talk to people who know. Armed with real information, you can then return to this book, for instance, secure in the knowledge that “Hey, those carrots looked good! And the butcher says he’s always got some nice beef shoulder. Maybe (daube of beef) is a good idea!” You think that our role model, Madame Dupont, in some tiny town in the Gironde can just wander over to the fish market and say, “Donnez-moi a nice piece a freakin’ cod—and make it snappy”? No way.