Cheeky vacances à Paris - day 3 lunch, Le Camion Qui Fume

I first heard of Le Camion Qui Fume last year through David Lebovitz's blog and how it was a pioneer of the Paris food truck scene, selling authentic good quality US burgers. I was even more excited to find out that the owner of Le Camion Qui Fume was Kristen Frederick, a fellow Ferrandi alumnus!! Kristen was at school exactly the same time as I was but was taking the Anglo-cuisine program. 

We had no set plans for lunch but happened to be around the area where Le Camion Qui Fume would be serving lunch at the Place de la Madeleine. I had read that the queues were always long and as we were arriving towards the end of lunch, I did not have high hopes of getting served.

As predicted, the queues were there and initially, we were told that they were sold out for the day. However, after hanging around for a while, we were then informed that there were a few burgers left so we happily placed our order and joined the queue to collect. We were the last people to be served and the poor guy who was taking orders then had to tell everyone joining the queue after us that they were sold out. Most people left upon hearing this but he had to repeat this 3 times to an old lady standing behind who refused to budge and eventually stomped off with a typical Gallic shrug! The 2 guys in front of us had not pre-ordered but had queue jumped ahead of us thinking that they would get their burgers at the counter. Luckily for them, they were not turned away once they reached the counter but it was all a bit risky!

Our burgers were ready after around a 20 minute wait and they were some of the best we have had to date!!! Kristen wasn't around but I was told she would arrive at the end of service - unfortunately, we didn't hang around so I wasn't able to tell her just how great the food was (she prolly knows it anyway as Le Camion Qui Fume has been getting rave reviews from everyone and has even graced the covers of FT!!)
Update November 2012: Le Camion Qui Fume has just won an award as part of the Le Guide Fooding 2013 (Fooding d'honneur), many congrats!!

I always feel very happy when I see someone from our Anglo cuisine/patisserie programs realise their dream and have the vision/determination/drive of setting up their own business. Bravo Kristen et bonne continuation! :)

The system is 1) place your order at the table where the lady on the right hand side of the pic is standing, 2) pay and collect your ticket (they take card also) and 3) join the queue to collect on the left hand side.

We are about to collect!!

I ordered the Campagne (cheese, caramelised onions and mushrooms)......

...whilst JD plumped for the BBQ (cheese, onion rings, BBQ sauce). In a word.......awesome!! Burger patty was wonderfully juicy and tasty, bun soft and crunchy with each of our fillings complimenting our burgers perfectly, absolutely delicious!!

Update - November 2012: Kristen has just published a cookbook with all her burger recipes as well as some side dishes and desserts. Its a lovely book with a really interesting intro and the background behind Le Camion Qui Fume, mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous photos of the food (if I ever wrote a book, I would ecstatic if it turned out like this one!). The only disappointment is that the recipe for her yummy hamburger buns is not included which for me was a shame; perhaps it may get included in another edition, fingers crossed!! :)