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Boeuf! Burger sales in France overtake classic ham baguette French scoff at claim burgers are outselling classic ham baguettes
(about 2 hours later)
Hamburger sales in France have overtaken those of the classic jambon-beurre baguette as diners surrender to the American fast-food favourite. It was lunchtime and outside the boulangerie just off Baron Haussmann’s celebrated Grands Boulevards in Paris, Pierre almost choked on his ham and butter baguette.
Burgers were on the menu at 85% of eating establishments in France last year, with 1.5bn being sold, according to a study by the Paris-based restaurant consultants Gira Conseil. Claims that the French now eat more burgers than the traditional jambon-beurre baguette sandwiches were definitely not to his taste; what’s more, he did not believe them.
More worryingly for the defenders of French cuisine, just 30% of the burgers were sold in fast-food outlets, the majority being consumed at restaurants with full table service. “C’est pas vrai! (it’s not true),” he said, spluttering. “It’s what you call fake news, non?” He looked wistfully at the crusty stick of bread, wrapped in greaseproof paper and a napkin in his hand.
Le burger has almost become French, often served with some of the country’s most famous cheeses, such as roquefort, rather than “plastic” cheddar. “I have nothing against burgers, but …,” he paused. “Are you American? Is this why you are suggesting such a thing?”
The country, which takes pride in its culinary culture, has been fighting a losing battle against the rise of the burger. At the Greater Paris union of patissiers and bakers, the response was much the same.
“We’ve been talking about a burger frenzy for three years. This year, we don’t know how to describe the phenomenon. It’s just crazy,” the Gira Conseil director general, Bernard Boutboul, told Agence France-Presse. “We have 2,500 members in four departments and they sell a lot of baguette sandwiches,” said the person who answered the phone. “The problem is I don’t think anyone counts them, so how do these people know more hamburgers are sold?
In 2016, hamburger sales were on a par with the ham-and-butter baguette – which is still the most popular sandwich in France – but last year they leapt by 9%. “I really don’t know what I can say, but it doesn’t seem a very fair comparison to me.”
“One wonders whether the burger might even overtake our famous steak frites,” Boutboul said. As claims that the American interloper, le hamburger, had knocked France’s favourite snack off the menu made headlines around the world, even the man who headed the research admitted this was not comparing like with like.
“Where is the country going to?” asked one Twitter user, while another suggested “we will all end up wearing Mickey Mouse ears in their rubbish theme parks”, in a reference to Disneyland. Bernard Boutboul, of the Paris-based restaurant consultancy Gira Conseil, interrupted his own lunch to tell the Guardian that reports of the jambon-beurre’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
More broadly, sales at fast-food outlets were “beating record upon record”, Gira Conseil found, making €51bn in 2017. His figures showed sales of the French classic had risen, though admittedly not as much as sales of burgers. About 2.4bn baguette sandwiches with a variety of fillings were sold in France last year, half of them jambon beurres, he said.
Despite a series of attacks on its branches by angry farmers two decades ago, France is now McDonald’s most profitable market outside the US, with more than 1,400 restaurants. During the same period about 1.4bn burgers were sold in France, the vast majority in restaurants. Approximately 85% of France’s 145,000 restaurants, excluding fast-food chains, now have burgers on la carte.
Jean-Pierre Petit, the man credited with helping France fall in love with “McDo”, is one of the brand’s most influential executives, pioneering McDonald’s attempts to adapt itself to local tastes. In France, it has introduced the McCamembert and McBaguette burgers with emmental cheese, Dijon mustard, various French salads and even macarons for dessert. Customers can also drink beer with their meals. “It’s not me that made the comparison between burgers and the jambon-beurre because you can’t compare the two. We’re talking about different things,” Boutboul said.
In his 2013 book, I Sold My Soul to McDonald’s, Petit admitted not having eaten his first hamburger until he was 30. “Let me explain: baguettes are taken away and eaten with fingers, burgers are mostly eaten sitting down with a knife and fork. It’s not comparing like with like.”
The only silver lining for foodies has been the rise in the number of French gourmet burger restaurants. The research was released in time for the annual Sandwich & Snack show in Paris early next month. Gira Conseil said it quizzed more than 1,000 food outlets, including bakeries and restaurants, across France.
Food truck culture, another import from the US, has spawned a number of hip burger chains such as Le Camion Qui Fume (roughly translated as “the smoky truck”). The home of haute cuisine has reported a burger boom in recent years, with various fast-food chains springing up across the country. It is also McDonald’s most profitable market outside the US and has been for several years.
Some outlets take pride in serving burgers made from premium quality beef, along with a glass of French red wine. “We’ve been doing this research for 30 years so we have a pretty good idea of what French people eat and what they like,” Boutboul said. “And for the last three years, there’s been this craze for the burger.
“Even the Americans are keeping an eye on what we’re doing in our gastronomic fast-food sector,” Boutboul said. “If you ask me if the burger is becoming more popular than famous French dishes like blanquette de veau or steak frites, that would be a better comparison. And the answer seems to be yes, it is.
“But the baguette sandwich? It’s still a French favourite.”
FranceFrance
BurgersBurgers
BreadBread
SandwichesSandwiches
EuropeEurope
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