Charm of the Burger Not Lost on French

Here, in its entirety, is a restaurant review which appeared in early April in the prominent French newspaper Figaro: “Au Quick, le ‘giant’ (16.70F) manque un peu de personnalite mais le dosage de sauce est parfait. Les frites (8.60F) meriteraient peut-etre un peu plus de cuisson. Au dessert, surprise, une patisserie bien de chez vous, la gosette d’abricot (5.50F). Arrose d’un Coca, un repas correct et rapide pour 36.60F.”

“Quick”, in case you’re wondering, is a $120-million-a-year Franco-Belgian hamburger chain, with some 78 units scattered all over France--and the meal thus reviewed in Figaro was a typical hamburger-chain repast: a “giant” burger (which, said the newspaper, lacked “a bit of personality,” but was perfectly dosed with sauce), an order of French fries (which “could have used a little more cooking”), and an apricot turnover (which surprisingly enough, wrote Figaro, was “as good as home-made”). “Washed down with a Coke,” concluded Figaro, this added up to “a fast and decent meal for (approximately) $6.”

Figaro, which does not ordinarily pay a great deal of attention to the quality of the victuals at fast-food emporiums, was assessing Quick as a part of a business story on the rise of fast food in France--which was in turn inspired by an event then taking place at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris: The eighth annual Salon International de la Restauration Rapide, or Fast Food Show.

Hamburger-associated exhibitors were plentiful at the Porte de Versailles--among them three suppliers of frozen hamburger patties, three of hamburger buns, and another three of frozen French fries, plus nearly 30 companies selling friteuses or deep-friers, 17 griddle manufacturers, five purveyors of milkshake machines, several suppliers of “barquettes gastronomes” (disposable bowls and plates), and a couple of ketchup vendors.

On the other hand, the show also reflected the fact that there is much more to “le fast food” in France today--and the French really do call it that--than merely hamburgers. Among the other products displayed by the 200-plus exhibitors were a line of ready-cooked omelettes and dehydrated scrambled eggs, two kinds of frozen croissant dough and countless varieties of frozen pizza .

Also present at the show there were representatives of Norway’s budding Southern Fried Chicken chain, which offers, among other specialties, something called Norse Fried Nuggets--and which claims, in English, that its products are imbued with “Lip Licking Flavour.” Well, language is a tricky thing--but I, for one, would not like to have to be the marketing consultant who tried to explain to the proprietors of the firm just why that phrase doesn’t quite have the punch of its obvious model, “Finger-Lickin’ Good” . . .

But dried eggs, tripe, and Norse Fried Nuggets aside, it is still obviously the hamburger--which Figaro goes on to call “this fetish food” (and which disrespectful French youngsters have been know to refer to as “le s’dini”, which stands for “le sandwich degoulinant aux ingredients non identifies,” or “the dripping sandwich with unidentified ingredients”)--which has taken France by storm.

I was in Paris when the first McDonald’s opened there in the early 1970s, in Les Champs arcade on the Champs-Elysees. There were editorials denouncing this affront to French culinary tradition in the newspapers, and jokes about it on the street. Oh well, sighed the French, the tourists will probably like it. Today there are 84 McDonald’s units in France, 27 of them in Paris and another 17 in the suburbs. There are 17 Burger Kings in and around Paris, too--not to mention countless representations of the Quick and Freetime chains, as well as such newer enterprises as Magic Burger and Love Burger (whose slogan is “un amour de burger”). To express the popularity of the hamburger in France in slightly different terms, in 1987, the most recent year for which figures are available, the French used some 71 million burger wrappers and 80 million frite bags--this in a country whose total population is somewhere around 60 million.

Well, you know what they say about the track record of all those Frenchmen when it comes to making value judgments. Thus, strictly in the interests of research, I decided to try a burger, fries, and an apricot turnover washed down with a Coke at a Parisian Quick myself. Figaro was right. I did indeed have a fast and decent meal for (approximately) $6. Then I walked over to Le Muniche, had a dozen small Belons, a steaming platter of choucroute garni, and a nice hunk of Muenster cheese, washed down with a half bottle of Alsatian Riesling. It cost about 40 bucks, was more than decent, and was fast enough for me.