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> rec.food.cooking,uk.food+drink.misc,alt.food.fast-food,rec.travel.europe...]
>
>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle4560082.ece
>
> From The TimesAugust 19, 2008
>
> Supersize ... moi? How the French learnt to love McDonald's
>
> McDonald's makes more money in France than it does in Britain, and Paris
> has
> as many golden arches as London - but no self-respecting French diner will
> admit to eating there
>
>
> By Hugo Rifkind
>
> "Magali, the photographer, is appalled. We are in McDonald's, just around
> the corner from the Louvre in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, and we are
> tucking into some breakfast. With a beer. Because we can.
>
> "But what ees thees?" she demands.
>
> Croque monsieur. Well, technically a Croque McDo. Jambon and a spot of
> fromage. It's rather good.
>
> "No," says Magali. "It is not. A croque is something ... beautiful. But
> thees is ... my god."
>
> Correction. Magali is not appalled. This is something deeper than
> appalled.
> This is existential.
>
> Magali doesn't eat in McDonald's. In fact, she says, she doesn't know
> anybody who eats in McDonald's. Stop any Frenchman on the street - and we
> stop plenty - and he will shrug and snarl and say that he doesn't eat in
> McDonald's, either.
>
> Yet an awful lot of people do eat in McDonald's. In this city of all
> things
> haute cuisine and gastronomique, you will find almost 70 restaurants under
> golden arches, with even more dotted around the outer suburbs. That's much
> the same as London, but with only a third of the people.
>
> McDonald's, or "macdoh" as it is ubiquitously known, is France's dirty
> secret. In 2007, as you may have read on our business pages, the chain's
> French revenues increased by 11 per cent to ?3 billion (£2.3 billion).
> That's more than it generates in Britain. In terms of profit, France is
> second only to the US itself - and this in the land that first realised
> that
> food wasn't just about eating. How on earth did this come about?
>
> Asking the customers can take you only so far. At the next table a family
> are eating together. "We're only in here because we're in a rush," says
> the
> father, much like a husband explaining a mistress to his incredulous wife.
> "It's not normal. We would never eat in McDonald's usually." He says that
> he
> is from Montreal, anyway, and that we may refer to him only as Mr X. The
> rest of the family stay silent, and munch, and blush.
>
> This year, for the first time, McDonald's looks likely to make the bulk of
> its earnings from outside the US. This has much to do with the French, and
> not just with their eating. McDonald's in Europe has changed. Three years
> ago, Denis Hennequin - president of the chain in Europe and a Frenchman -
> embarked on a makeover of the Continent's outlets. Just outside Paris
> there
> is now the McDonald's European design studio, which has created a variety
> of
> theoretically upmarket restaurant templates.
>
> "We have eight concepts at the moment," says Stephen Douglas,
> implementation
> director in the European design studio, "but none are France-specific."
> They
> are Quality, Eternity, Generation, Lim, and Pure and Simple, with three
> variations thrown in to make up the eight. Some are intended to give a
> business vibe, some are targeted at families. Eternity is the most
> impressive and design-heavy. "It provides a fast-food environment that is
> significantly different," says Douglas, "inspired by an American
> architectural heritage." In other words, your average McDonald's no longer
> looks like a crèche in a lunatic asylum on a cross- Channel ferry.
>
> But it's not exactly a chic French bistro, either. And the food remains
> much
> the same, in France or anywhere. There are different regional flourishes,
> to
> be sure. You can drink your beer in France, although nobody except me
> seems
> to bother. You can have your (photographer-derided) croque. Also, as you
> may
> remember from Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction, what you call a
> cheeseburger
> is known in these parts as a Royal Cheese, and your cheese is the Alpine
> delicacy reblochon.
>
> All of which might seem terribly exciting if you lived in, say, Stornoway.
> But Paris? Part of the chain's success may be down to the way that France
> has changed, and continues to change. In the British stereotype, the
> Frenchman - banker or binman - takes a long lunch. He goes to the flawless
> restaurant around the corner, sits down at his usual white-and-red-checked
> table, undoes his top button and tucks in. He starts with a baguette, he
> orders a bottle of red wine. Two, maybe three hours later he finishes his
> cheese, emits a discreet belch and settles the bill, which comes to about
> ?3. Then he gets back to work.
>
> This is no longer true. Or at least, it is no longer entirely true. As the
> French have begun to adopt Anglo-American working practices, they have
> also
> begun to adopt Anglo-American eating practices. One oft-quoted statistic
> is
> that the length of the average French meal has fallen from 1 hour 22
> minutes
> in 1978 to a mere 38 minutes today.
>
> To find out how they fill that 38 minutes we head to the 9th
> arrondissement,
> an area full of offices and office workers, evidently requiring a
> considerable number of lunches each day. The streets here are relatively
> narrow and the buildings relatively high, but flat-fronted and
> wood-shuttered in that very Parisian way. At street level, everything is
> food: Pizza Venezia, Café la Roseraie, quite a few McDonald's, too. We
> pass
> one with a super-fast takeaway hatch, like a walk-thru drive-thru. It is
> next door to a gym.
>
> Aside from the many McDonald's, we are told, the big change around here is
> that an awful lot of these little cafés don't have much room to sit. You
> are
> not expected to sit. You are expected to grab your food and go away. Like
> an
> American. Or, worse, like a Brit.
>
> Typical of these new places is the shorthand-unfriendly
> CinQfrUitSetLeGumEScHaQueJoUr. That is to say, "five fruits and five
> vegetables each day" but with the words all run together and capitals
> applied with wild Gallic abandon. Fast food or not, the vibe here is all
> about health.
>
> "Our typical clientele is businessmen. A lot of creative types," says
> Robert
> Renaud, 47, who is the co-owner and knows everybody who so much as wanders
> past the window. "The women love it: they are much more up for trying
> something new. The men just want ham and cheese baguettes."
>
> Robert agrees that Parisian life has changed. People have a quick lunch so
> that they can leave earlier and have a longer dinner. It's not that they
> are
> no longer interested in savouring mealtimes, he says, just that they are
> favouring one over the other. "Most people are between the ages of 30 and
> 35," he adds. "The old people don't like the idea of takeaway so much."
>
> Philippe, 35, is one of his last customers and has grabbed something
> involving salad and goat's cheese. He agrees that people no longer have
> the
> time for a long lunch, but takes a more complex view on senior resistance.
>
> "The French do not disapprove of fast food as a meal," he insists. "What
> is
> wrong is to eat between meals. It is the mealtime that is sacred, not the
> type of food. When your Lord Sandwich invented the sandwich, he did so to
> eat without stopping. This is not French."
>
> True enough, even when the French visit McDonald's, they do so
> differently.
> They are more likely to visit as a family event, much like our "Canadian"
> family above. A French McDonald's is busy on a weekday lunchtime but
> busier
> still at the weekend. Here, in the birthplace of the Michelin guide,
> McDonald's is considered a treat. It's enough to make you weep.
>
> Healthy fast food is something new. Unsurprisingly, panting hard on the
> heels of a convenience food culture comes the chubby spectre of obesity.
> French obesity rates have rocketed in recent years. According to
> estimates,
> 11 per cent of the French are obese and 40 per cent are overweight. This
> is
> better than the UK or the US, but it grows by about 5 per cent every year.
> One thinks of those previously untouched indigenous tribes that manage to
> wipe themselves out in a generation after being introduced to booze. The
> French are failing to eat in moderation. For a culture that prides itself
> on
> its waistline, this is a difficult failing to accept. Only a few years
> ago,
> remember, there was a bestselling diet book called French Women Don't Get
> Fat. But they do.
>
> Not before time, the French seem to be wising up. In recent years, at
> least
> in Paris, there has been a boom in fast-food eateries of the sort
> described
> above. The pioneer in this respect is a newish chain called Cojean. It was
> set up in 2001 by Alain Cojean, who had spent the previous 15 years
> working
> in research and development for - yes - McDonald's. Cojean is a very
> different beast.
>
> We visit the branch across the road from the Louvre. Cool and airy, it is
> tastefully converted from an elaborately corniced patisserie. It sells
> fresh
> salads, proper coffee and sandwiches that are resolutely not triangular.
> We
> pick a ham and melon salad with noodles and rocket. The melon tastes as if
> it has just fallen from a tree, and the ham just scraped from a happy pig.
> There is a surprise bit of jagged plastic lurking in the middle, true
> enough, but we are not in McDonald's so we have no urge to sue. It just
> adds
> to the sense of handmade authenticity.
>
> At the next table we find Johan, Gilles and Caroline, all groomed, trendy
> and in their twenties. Johan works in an office near by. The other two are
> students. They eat, they debate. It is all very French.
>
> "It's not too embarrassing to go to McDonald's. Although I wouldn't go
> often."
>
> "Not more than three or four times a month."
>
> "No. And I don't think of the burger as being part of an invasion of
> American culture, or anything like that. Burgers generally are much better
> quality than they used to be. There is a tendency to eat better. More
> healthily."
>
> "This stuff is much better than McDonald's. It's really good. I'm not
> ashamed to be here at all."
>
> If only Cojean would cross the Channel. Everything looks wonderful, and at
> only ?6 a pop. This place is to Pret A Manger what the Eiffel Tower is to
> the Blackpool Tower.
>
> Even with takeaway food, the French are deeply reluctant to eat at their
> desks. They prefer to hang around in the office kitchen or sit in a
> communal
> area. The food may have changed but the concept of lunch remains so
> ingrained in French life that none of the many diners we meet bothers to
> mention what, for a Brit, is the most striking French culinary fact of
> all:
> they don't pay for their lunch. Their employer does. Mais oui. Bien sur.
>
> The French economy may be Anglofying at a rapid rate but, for now, the
> ticket restaurant survives more or less intact. This is a voucher,
> normally
> for between ?6 and ?12, which every employer provides every day, by law,
> and
> which may be spent only on lunch. So you have to go out for lunch. You are
> being paid to go out for lunch. It is the rules. The French take the
> ticketrestaurant for granted to such an extent that they barely notice it.
> Most would probably be appalled to realise that the system actually
> originated, like the sandwich, in Britain. Virtually forgotten about here,
> they generate heavy tax breaks for employers in France and are often
> credited with sustaining the French restaurant industry. And, in these
> troubled times, they could provide a clue to the French fast-food boom.
> Whereas ?10 will pay for only two thirds of your plat du jour, it will pay
> for your whole takeaway.
>
> Or a meal for two in McDonald's. Not, of course, that we have yet found
> anybody French who is prepared to admit that the macdoh is their
> lunch-spot
> of choice. Around the corner, on Rue La Fayette, we try once more.
>
> Dareth, 33, works in property. "This burger is disgusting," he admits.
> "Every couple of months I get a craving. It's a chemical thing, I think. I
> don't even work near here. I just came for the McDonald's. I had to."
>
> And does this embarrass him, as a Frenchman?
>
> "I wouldn't know," shrugs Dareth. "I'm from Switzerland."
> </>
>
>
> ADDENDA:
>
> Burger culture clash
>
> (from Pulp Fiction)
>
> Jules: You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France?
>
> Brett: No.
>
> Jules: Tell 'em, Vincent.
>
> Vincent: A Royale with cheese.
>
> Jules: A Royale with cheese! You know why they call it that?
>
> Brett: Because of the metric system?
>
> Jules: Check out the big brain on Brett! You're a smart motherf***er.
> That's
> right. The metric system.
>
>
> Designer burgers
>
> The best in the UK
>
> A marked trend in recent years has been the rise of the "posh" burger.
> Madonna offered guests at her 50th birthday bash kosher-prepared Wagyu
> beef
> burgers, and chains such as the Gourmet Burger Kitchen are doing a roaring
> trade in burgers made from Aberdeen Angus beef or even organic wild boar,
> trading on the fact that, while we all want to be healthier, sometimes
> only
> a slab of meat in a bun will do. Here are some of those whetting the UK's
> appetite for wholesome fast food.
>
> Gourmet Burger Kitchen
>
> A chain with locations across the UK (www.gbkinfo.com)
>
> Woodies Diner
>
> 366 Kingsway, Brighton BN3 4QT (01273 430300)
>
> Eagle Bar Diner
>
> 3-5 Rathbone Place, London W1 (020-7637 1418)
>
> Haché
>
> 24 Inverness Street, Camden NW1 7HJ (020-7485 9100)
>
> Vingt-Quatre
>
> 325 Fulham Road, SW10 9QL (020-7376 7224)
>
> Relish
>
> 217 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1EP (0131 2258770)
>
> River Bar & Grill
>
> 89 Victoria Street, Liverpool City Centre L1 6DG (0871 8114800)
>
> Handmade Burger Company
>
> Upper Mill Arcade, Touchwood, Birmingham (0121 7113004).."
>
> </>
>
>