PEUGEOT unveiled its take on the food truck on 2 April, at a special preview hosted by popular Paris event venue Le Carreau du Temple. The vehicle combines innovative new experiences to deliver high-quality food on the go. The PEUGEOT Foodtruck was dreamt up and designed by Peugeot Design Lab, the carmaker’s Global Brand Design studio, and dubbed Le Bistrot du Lion. The new restaurant on wheels took up residence at Milan Design Week 2015 on 14 April, before heading to the French Pavilion at the 2015 World’s Fair, Expo Milano, where the theme is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”
As Cathal Loughnane, Head of Peugeot Design Lab, explains, “The end-users are always at the heart of all of our designs. For the PEUGEOT Foodtruck, we wanted to create a complete food truck experience, not only creating a kitchen for the chef but a restaurant and cafe for the customers. A lot of attention was given to opening up the kitchen and allowing the chef and food preparation to be as close to the public as possible. We also wanted to create a real sense of surprise as the compact Peugeot Foodtruck transforms into amphitheatre like dining space Le Bistrot du Lion.”
The PEUGEOT Foodtruck is compact and perfectly suited to an urban environment. Its short front and rear overhangs providing enhanced manoeuvrability, while its long wheelbase offers considerable load volume.
Once on site, the PEUGEOT Foodtruck spreads its wings to double its width to offer a versatile space that can easily be adapted to a variety of environments and events. Le Bistrot du Lion includes areas for food preparation, dining and refreshments, as well as a DJ booth—capitalizing on the digital music platform launched by the brand, PEUGEOT MUSIC, which offers web radio and exclusive playlists.
Peugeot has selected the talented French chef Sven Chartier, of Saturne and Le Clown Bar in Paris, as the first culinary tenant of Le Bistrot du Lion. An ideal pairing of the brand’s first mobile restaurant with a chef who respects and believes in local sourcing and organic farming.
Chef Chartier will be using the new PEUGEOT salt and pepper mill set, which was designed to accompany the truck in all his culinary travels. The duo, dubbed Milan, is the brand’s latest homage to the alliance of the culinary arts and design. The Milan set are the first mass-market mills designed by Peugeot Design Lab. They will initially only be available for purchase at the French Pavilion during the 2015 Milan Expo, and then will subsequently be distributed through PSP Peugeot (Poivrières Salières Production) sales outlets.
Peugeot mills are sold worldwide, with 2.5 million units manufactured each year. They hold a prized place with the world’s chefs thanks to the precision of their gears and their remarkable longevity.