There’s cassoulet, crepes and duck confit. Oh, and would you like fries with that?
Bloomberg reports that France, a country that prides itself on its culinary prowess and appreciation for fine dining, has a dirty secret: They also love McDonald’s. Apparently, after the United States, France is the most profitable market for the Illinois-based burger giant and sales there are growing twice as fast. Sacre bleu! How did the preferred sandwich of coarse American palates become a French favorite?
In his book Au Revoir To All That, Michael Steinberger, wine columnist at Slate.com, says that a number of factors have led the French to embrace fast food and precipitated its decline as the world’s most dominant force in haute cuisine. French regulations, including a 6 percent tax for a sit-down meal, put a damper on fine-dining and make it difficult for smaller businesses to compete with large chains.
But Steinberger notes that McDonald’s is not the only big restaurant brand in France. Many respected French chefs have started turning small establishments into gastronomic empires. This strategy has made millionaires of chefs like Alain Ducasse, who has 22 restaurants around the world, and appeared on Forbes list of top-earning chefs. But where revenues grow, quality is perhaps compromised as smaller cooks run the show at far-flung branches around the world.
Even more telling? Revered French chef Jacques Pepin last year came out with a book called Fast Food My Way. To be fair, Pepin’s “fast food” includes recipes for smoked whitefish tartine and summer salad sante.
Photo courtesy of Avlxyz, via Flickr.