RENDEZVOUS Expats à Paris THE NOUVELLE VAGUE


HOW TODAY’S EXPATRIATES ARE BRINGING NEW ENERGY AND ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS TO PARIS


Words: Mary Winston Nicklin L


ong before tennis star Serena Williams and actress Scarlett Johanssen purchased Parisian pied-à-terres, and even before Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald painted the town red, Paris has lured foreigners who project dreams – some noble, others banal – upon the metropolis by the Seine. Mythologised in literature, music, and film, the city looms large in the popular imagination. Undeniably, Paris’s cinematic ambiance casts a spell – the rain-swept streets (à la Woody Allen), the sidewalk cafés, the pearly white light reflecting on the Haussmanian facades. In fact, the city has been so idealised that some visitors, notably the Japanese, fall victim to the ‘Paris Syndrome’, a real affliction that’s experienced when the reality falls short of their expectations. Beyond the tourists – Paris is the world’s most popular city for travellers – there’s been a long tradition of expatriates who set down Parisian roots. Historian David McCullough’s popular book, The Greater Journey (2011), focuses on the waves of American émigrés who flocked to Paris as early as the 1830s. He wrote that “They spoke of it then as the dream of a lifetime”, and the experience of Paris was essential to achieving their ambitions in life and work. For artists like John Singer Sargent, doctors such as Elizabeth Blackwell, and writers including James Fenimore Cooper, Paris provided endless inspiration. “Good Americans when they die go to Paris,” as Oliver Wendell Holmes famously quipped. Today’s expats aren’t just nibbling at the ‘moveable feast’ that is Paris. A handful are passionate entrepreneurs who are actually importing a certain savoir-faire to the city, most noticeably on the food scene. By challenging old traditions, this new generation is altering the urban landscape and, in turn, inspiring Parisians to launch their own innovative ventures. These pioneering expat tastemakers hail from all four corners of the globe. Take the food truck, for instance – when California native Kristin Frederick first launched Le Camion qui Fume (‘The Smoking Truck’, www.lecamionquifume.com) in 2011, Parisian sceptics derided the concept as a fleeting trend. “Just before we opened, everyone told me it wouldn’t work,” she says. Would the French embrace an American import or react with a classic Gallic shrug? “Because we were the first food truck to launch in Paris, we were taking a big risk that the French public wouldn’t be interested in lining up in front of a truck to order a burger that they would then have to eat in the street.” However, Frederick, who first came to Paris in 2009, to attend culinary school, wasn’t serving ordinary fare. Her burgers, made from the finest French ingredients, quickly won over a city of gourmands. “We just tried to make the burgers as good as possible – no gimmicks – that’s what’s important to French people.” Homemade buns, boeuf haché maison, a confit of caramelised onions, a variety of cheeses like aged gruyère and bleu d’Auvergne – Parisians were soon lining up in hour-long queues. In fact, the launch of Le Camion qui Fume coincided with a growing burger obsession in Paris, with a host of eateries serving up gourmet


versions of the classic American meal. “The burger phenomenon has become an opportunity for French chefs to compete and compare their talent,” says 40-year-old François Leblanc, a life-long Parisian. “It’s a way to valorise our great variety of terroir-driven products in making a simple, universal plat. So the Parisian burger is very much a cultural hybrid.” Frédéric Weill, of the 12th arrondissement, says that, “France is simultaneously the land of gastronomy and la malbouffe, with a very French problem in reconciling the two. For a few years now, we’ve seen a blossoming of burger restaurants, as if the French cook has digested the burger and appropriated it as part of French culinary patrimony. That’s why I love eating burgers in Paris. My friends and I even created the ‘75’ burger on MyBurger.fr.” That website brings together recipe-sharing burger fans, and Weill’s signature patty boasts ingredients solely from the Paris region, where ‘75’ is the postal code. As the food truck pioneer in Paris, Frederick paved the way for a veritable fleet of camions that today navigate the boulevards. Food trucks have appeared on Top Chef, the popular TV series, where they’re judged by such star cooks as Jean-Francois Piège and Thierry Marx. And soon, a food truck-themed show, Mon Food Truck à la Clé, will debut on the France 2 channel, and see entrepreneurs compete to pound the pavés. A darling of the influential LeFooding.com, Frederick has gone on to launch Le Popcorn Bar (inside Luc Besson’s movie complex, just outside Paris) and Freddie’s, the city’s first American-style sandwich shop, where the Philly cheesesteak is the star of the show. It isn’t that the traditional French jambon-beurre has been displaced – in fact, young entrepreneurs have been inspired to bring it back en vogue. For example, Thomas Vaugien, the former barman at L’Avant Comptoir, has just opened an artisanal sandwich shop, Jambon, Beurre, Cornichon (www.jambonbeurrecornichon.com), near Grands Boulevards.


FINDING A NICHE “The neighbourhood bistrot – with the zinc bar, la bonne cuisine Française – will always be appreciated in Paris,” explains Carina Soto Velasquez Tsou, a Colombian who’s lived in the city for 11 years. She partnered with husband Adam Tsou and Josh Fontaine, both of whom are originally from Connecticut, to open a trio of food-and-drink concepts that have taken the city by storm.


“What’s dynamised the Parisian scene is a younger generation of highly-trained professionals,” she says, “like the bartenders and baristas, who exude passion in their specialised line of work.” Carina herself is a mixologist, and first made headlines when she ran the show, and mixed some clever libations, at L’Experimental Cocktail Club. It all started in 2011, when the nightlife triumvirate opened Candelaria (52 rue de Saintonge, www.candelariaparis.com) in the Upper Marais. In a city known for boeuf bourguignon rather than burritos, opening an authentic taqueria wasn’t without risk. Happily, the crowds were soon


people ❙ pleasure ❙ places


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IMAGES: © GUILLAUME BELVEZE; ROBIN DE LESTRADE; DIANE YOON; DAVID BONNIER/TANA EDITIONS; LE CAMION QUI FUME


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