It’s 10am and an expectant queue is forming in front of Marie Thérèse Pisano’s stand at the Cours Saleya food market. On display is an array of local specialities, including the caramelised onion tart known as pissaladière, and petits farcis: stuffed vegetables no bigger than a golf ball. The loyal customers, however, have something else in mind. Eventually it appears, hoisted by muscular arms – a giant copper tray bearing a deep golden pancake with crisp, almost blackened edges. Marie Thérèse begins, with dexterity, to tear off pieces using a small, widebladed knife and piles them into paper cones, which she hands out to the hungry crowd clustered round.