Story & photo Melissa Butters
Hailing from the southeast of France, Cecile trained at the School of Hospitality in Nice from the ripe age of 14. She moved to Australia over 15 years ago and has held her market stall ‘Peace Love and Crepes’ for the past seven years.
Cecile uses fresh ingredients from local farmers and stall holders, fully embracing the market’s policies. Buying local benefits the whole community and helps ensure food security. Customers can enjoy fresh, healthy, affordable organic food knowing that they are supporting the local economy.
Cecile’s wonderful crepes are freshly-made using husked buckwheat (the traditional French recipe uses unhusked black buckwheat which is difficult to source locally). To help create her robust gluten-free crepes she soaks the spray-free buckwheat overnight in water to initiate a process that breaks down the various toxic enzymes.
‘I love to be able to cook and make food,’ says Cecile. For Cecile, connections with people are as important as her connection with the food-making process. Even while she’s doing the washing up, she seeks feedback from customers returning their plates. ‘I love the people, I have my regulars, I get to engage and I get the feedback.’
The work can be demanding. ‘Sometimes it gets hectic – it’s physical. I’m used to it, I’ve done it from such a young age, and I love not being enclosed in four walls.’
Sustainability is core to Cecile’s approach. She is proud of her pesto, homemade from market produce, she also makes her own jam for the crepes using fresh Blueberry Field berries. The chocolate in her crepes comes from Santos in Mullumbimby. Baby spinach was previously extremely difficult to source in the area and is now supplied by a farm near the Mullum Markets. ‘It’s grown especially for me!’
You can find Cecile every week at the Mullum Farmer’s Market.
