World’s Best Picnic Spots

find your favorite place for an alfresco meal

The Food Truck Phenomenon

gourmet on-the-go goes global

What’s in Your Basket?

essentials for the perfect picnic

PLUS:Diary of a Chef:

a conversation with Makers of Notes from

a Kitchen

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JULY 2012

the

Picnic issue

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In France, there is still a widespread belief that the daily diet in the United States consists of grossly large servings of fast food. But in Paris, American food is suddenly being seen as more than just restauration rapide. Among young Parisians, there is currently no greater praise for cuisine thana term that signifies a particularly cool combination of informality, creativity and quality.

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merican chefs are at the helm of some of Paris’s hippest restaurants, like Daniel Rose, of Spring or Kevin O’Donnell of L’Office and. And the city’s collective crush on high-end hamburgers

continues: Parisians are paying 29 euros, or just over $36, for the popular burger at Ralph’s, the Hamptons-Wyoming-chic restaurant in the palatial Ralph Lauren store. “Younger Parisians are really into the New York food scene and the California lifestyle,” said Jordan Feilders, 28, who started Le Camion qui Fume in March. “There’s a good trans-Atlantic food vibe going on Twitter and Facebook.”

Mr. Feilders was raised in France, but his family has roots in Canada and the United States, and he was living in Los Angeles before moving back to Paris last year to inaugurate the truck. From the start, he said, his vision included stylish visuals and fresh burgers. The truck is an off-white cream and decorated with bright phrases like “Fresh Cut Fries” and “Real Cheese.” In designing it, Mr. Feilders said, he chose for it to “speak” in English.

“We drive by the Louvre every day,” Mr. Feilders said. “And I imagine the kings and queens of France looking out the window, thinking, What the heck was that?”

Street food itself isn’t new to France. At outdoor markets like this one, there is often a truck selling snacks like pizza, crepes or spicy Moroccan merguez sausages, cooked on griddles and stuffed into baguettes. But the idea of street food made by chefs, using restaurant-grade ingredients, technique and technology, is very new indeed. Gilles Choukroun, a chef and outspoken advocate for the globalization of French cuisine, said that about five years ago chefs here began to pay attention to street food, as they saw their counterparts in New York, Los Angeles and London trying new ideas outside the confines of a restaurant kitchen. “The French understand that many new cuisines are coming to light in your country,” he wrote in an e-mail in French. “There are more and more young leaders in the U.S., creating a truly new and interesting cuisine.” In April, he served his own interpretations of cheeseburgers and milkshakes at an outdoor event called Street Food Graffiti, a “gastro-rock” homage to the film “American Graffiti,” which still enjoys cult status in France.

But American chefs, not French ones, managed to get the first food trucks rolling here. Mr. Feilders waded through the thick red tape of four separate Paris bureaucracies: the business licensing commissariat; the mairie de Paris, or the local municipal office; the prefecture of police; and the authority that oversees the markets. Unlike some food trucks in the United States, the ones here are not allowed to troll for parking spots, or roam from neighborhood to neighborhood. They are assigned to certain markets and days.

Many of the truck’s patrons are American expats, but even more are young Parisians enamored of the informality of New York-style noshing. “We see it on all the police shows on television,” said Sophie Juteau, who was among the first in line for Le Camion Qui Fume’s dinner shift. “Eating from the ice cream trucks, the hot-dog carts: that is, like, our dream.”

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1. ombre blanketReminiscent of a summer sunset, this blanket can fit the everyone! Take it to the park or snuggle up with a loved on on the beach. $40, anthropologie.com

2.mason jar sippers A fun and eco-friendly way to transport your favorite summer beverages. Don’t forget to include a lot of ice!$13, target.com

3. wicker picnic basketEquipped to fit everything from picnic eats to up to two bottles of wine, this stylish tote is the perfect picnic vehicle. $55, potterybarn.com

4. bamboo cutleryReusable and easy to clean, this flatware is perfect for any picnic outing. Kid-friendly and mother approved. $30 for 4 settings,potterybarn.com

trendy essentials for the perfect picnic

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