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An article that surfaced in today's New York Times tells tales of two food trucks that have recently popped up in Paris: burger-slinging Le Camion Qui Fume and a taco truck called Cantine California.
Though street food isn't a new thing to France, the idea of having trained chefs on the road applying professional technique to carefully-sourced ingredients is. And Parisienes seem surprisingly thrilled with this new "très Brooklyn" cuisine on wheels.
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.”