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FOOD AND DRINK

Le Burger boom: What explains France’s ravenous appetite for hamburgers?

Burgers are everywhere in France – 80 percent of restaurants now offer it on their menus and its popularity is only increasing. Olivia Sorrel Dejerine explains how the country of fine-food become so obsessed with a simple Americanised creation.

Le Burger boom: What explains France's ravenous appetite for hamburgers?
Credit: Instagram / Coffee Club Paris

At lunchtime at the newly-opened Coffee Club in the 16th arrondissement in Paris, hungry customers were rushing in to fill their bellies with big, juicy, diner style burgers.

“The bread is the most important, then comes the meat and it absolutely has to have perfectly melted cheese in it,” said Julia, 31, describing her idea of a perfect burger. 

Julia who has become a regular at the Coffee Club told The Local she only ate burgers in burger joints where she knows it’s a specialty.

“Traditional French restaurants usually have burgers on their menus because it’s a popular meal,” said Julia.

“But I don’t think they put a lot of work in selecting the right bread, the good meat, so that’s why I never order it,” she said.

 

'A real French passion'

With 80 percent of restaurants in France serving a burger and specialist burger joints popping up around the country, the dish has become a real star of modern day French dining. 

For several years now, France's burger consumption has been soaring. In 2019 some 1.7 billion hamburgers were digested by the French, according the restaurant industry expert Gira.

“It’s enormous, it’s the only product in the food industry that has multiplied by 10 in terms of volume in the last decade,” Bernard Boutboul, president of the restaurant industry expert Gira Conseil, told the Local.

'A magic formula'

But where does this “hysteria for burgers” come from?

Before 2012 in France, burgers were nearly exclusively found in McDonalds and Quick (two fast-food restaurants), according to Boutboul. 

Today the iconic recipe, born in Hamburg and popularized in the US can be found in a wide range of French restaurants – streetfood joints, traditional brasseries and even starred restaurants.

“After the French restaurant Big Fernand introduced “the premium burger” in 2014, restaurant owners realised it was possible to create a burger of quality and 80 percent of them put one on their menu,” said Boutboul.

Eighty percent of the 145.000 restaurants in France (this includes brasseries, cafés, high standard restaurants…) which have a burger on their menu say it’s a top sell, according to Gira's statistics. 

“To the point that burgers served in restaurants have replaced the traditional steak-frites (a meal served in almost every French brasserie)”, said Boutboul.   

But why do the French in particular love the burger so much?

“It’s a magical formula,” said Boutboul.

“It contains the four products the French love the most: bread, beef, cheese and fries,” he said.

At the American themed diner Coffee Club in Paris' swanky 16th arrondissement, the burger is a bestseller.

An upgraded version of the American sandwich

It may sound ironic for some that a meal popularized in the US has become so famous in a country known for its haute cuisine. 

Far from colonizing France, the French's passion for burgers has on the contrary been the opportunity for chefs to take a stand against junk food and what we could call 'Americanisation'. 

“In restaurants, burgers are served on a plate, with French meat, fries made from French potatoes, it has been adapted to French standards, we’ve taken distance from the American aspect of the burger,” said Boutboul. 

“The French are gourmets, in the country of haute cuisine, we converted to “the good burger,” he said. 

 

Arthur, 34, who was having lunch at the Coffee Club, told the Local he recognised the French twist chefs had given the burger. 

“I live in the US, and I have to say that a burger in France will always taste better, it will always be better presented and its overall quality will be higher than in a fast-food, even in the US,” he said.

Today, he picked the vegetarian option over the real deal.

“I'm an absolute fan of burgers, but choosing the vegan or the veggie options allows me to still eat a meal that I love while making it more healthy,” said Arthur. 

“it’s a good alternative and plus it tastes really good even if it's not meat,” he said. 

The Coffee Club in Paris. Photo: The Local

More veggie versions

Founders of the Coffee Club, Margaux and Michel, chose to offer a range of different burgers – the traditional bacon cheese, but also with vegan steaks or with crispy fried chicken – because they know these are popular among their younger clientele. 

“It’s a way to please all kinds of people, vegetarians and others who like to vary from the 'ordinary' burger,” Michel told The Local.

“Crispy fried chicken is a recipe which is really trendy at the moment, that’s why we made a salad, a wrap and a burger with it,” he said.

 

Veggie, chicken, fish, beef, whatever the recipe, the burger is a top seller but some French do have mixed feelings about that dish. 

'Cheap, unhealthy and American'

Older generations in particular seem more skeptical about the tasty sandwich. Maryse and Bernard, respectively 88 and 89, who were also having lunch at the Coffee Club, told The Local they were aware of that passion for burgers but were far from sharing it. 

On that Tuesday afternoon, Bernard told The Local he “exceptionally decided to eat a burger, because it’s a specialty there,” but he usually never has it.

“It’s an unhealthy meal with bread and plenty of fats, and it comes with fries,” he said. 

“There’s only one burger that I ever loved, it was a potato burger that I had in an ordinary brasserie in the Perche (a province in Normandy),” he said.

“The bread had been replaced by potato pancakes, and it was the best thing ever,“ he said.

Both told the Local they believed burgers were so popular because “it’s cheap, nourishing and it comes from the US.”

“It’s faster to make a burger than traditional French meals where you have to peel all the vegetables, make the sauces, it takes way more time and it’s way more expensive will all the workforce it requires,” Maryse said.

Hard to beat, hard to make

This was a statement that many people in the restaurant industry seem to disagree with.

“A burger is really complicated to make,” said Boutboul. “You have to grill the meat, melt the cheese, toast the bread, and assemble all the ingredients so that it is served warm.” 

Margaux, co-founder of the Coffee Club, said a simple, good, homemade burger was hard to beat, but also hard to make.

“A burger is a basic, but like all basics, it’s difficult to make a really tasty one,” she said.

But the challenge of getting simple dishes right is one familiar to French chefs, who for generations have perfected the art of using few ingredients and enhance the taste of each separate one.

One restaurant, ISTR, in the capital's tourist hub Marais, decided to make its post-lockdown comeback by launching a bold new invention, an oyster burger.

Whether that becomes a success or not remains to be seen, but Boutboul was certain of one thing:

“The French have become true burgers fans, we’re talking about a real passion,” he said.

By Olivia Sorrel Dejerine

 

Member comments

  1. While the hamburger is named after the city in Germany, all stories I’ve heard (and all listed on Wikipedia) put its invention in the US. Almost certainly, the idea for putting a patty of ground beef between two pieces of bread came was an American invention. Was it named by some German sailors who wanted to honor their home port? Was it named after the Hamburg America Line? Was it named after Hannah Glasse’s “hamburg steak” from 1758? Or did it come from the Erie County State Fair in Hamburg, New York? (I’m torn between the last two.)

    The fries, of course, are Belgian.

  2. Your French restaurant/cafe burger is far more likely to be made from finely chopped (haché) beef than minced/ground beef. That makes a big difference.

  3. Sadly for the French you are consuming the most burgers than anywhere else on earth apart from USA. Yes the fast food restaurants are ubiquitious and have steadily helped to ruin French cuisine over the last 30 years or so. On top of that their passion for Pizza is astounding too. They don’t have Italian restaurants as other countries they are 80% fat pizza! Many mothers are either lazy, too busy or just incapable now to make proper nutritional meals. The result is seen everywhere fat unhealthy people, obese kids, diabetis on the rise even amongst the young

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SCHOOLS

Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

School children in France are entitled to a lunchtime meal of three, or even four courses – but what if you prefer to provide meals yourself? 

Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

French school meals are, famously, pretty good – children get a three or even four-course meal of properly prepared dishes and the menu (including cheese course) is usually published in the local town newsletter so everyone can see the types of meals being served.

The concept of a proper meal at lunchtime is an important one. “The diet of a school-age child is essential for their growth, mental development and learning abilities,” the French Education Ministry says in a preamble about school meals on its website. “It must be balanced, varied and distributed throughout the day: for example 20 percent of total energy in the morning, 40 percent at midday, 10 percent at four o’clock and 30 percent in the evening.”

And it’s not all about nutrition, the social aspect of sitting together and eating a meal is also important – the ministry continues: “Mealtime is an opportunity for students to relax and communicate. It should also be a time for discovery and enjoyment.”

All schools provide meals in a canteen and most pupils take up the opportunity – however it’s also possible for pupils to go home at lunchtime so that they can eat lunch with their parents.

The idea of taking in a packed lunch (panier-repas) is much less common in France – but is it actually banned?

The rules on lunch

At écoles (up to age 11), the local authority or établissement public de coopération intercommunale (EPCI) is responsible for providing quality school meals. This generally involves meals being provided via a central kitchen, and then delivered to the school’s kitchen, where it can be kept warm, or reheated as necessary.

The system is slightly different in collèges and lycées (attended by children aged 11 and up). In those establishments, catering falls into the purview of the wider département or region – and is routinely managed directly by individual establishments, which will have catering staff on site to prepare meals. Often, meal services are outsourced to private businesses, which operate the kitchens.

There are various rules and regulations in place regarding what food is offered, and how long a child has to eat – which is, in part, why the school lunch period is so long. Children must be allowed a 30-minute period to eat their meal, from the moment they sit down with it at the table. 

Then, they’re given time to play and relax before afternoon classes start.

READ ALSO What you need to know if your child is starting school in France

At a minimum lunch must include a main course with a side dish, a dairy-based product, as well as a starter and/or a dessert. Meals must also, the government says, be composed of 50 percent sustainable quality products (including 20 percent organic).

Some local authorities go further and serve only or mostly food that is organic, locally sourced or both.

Water and bread must be freely available, but salt and condiments can only be added in preparation – no sauce bottles or salt and pepper on the tables. 

Daily menus are generally available to view on school websites and many town newspapers or newsletters also publish them.

Parents pay a fee for the school lunch, which is calculated according to income and can be free in the case of low-income families.

Packed lunch

But what if your child doesn’t like the school lunches and you don’t have time to pick them up, cook a full lunch and take them back in the afternoon everyday? The obvious solution would seem to be to send them in with a packed lunch, as is common in the UK and USA.

In theory this is possible, but only in certain circumstances and with very strict rules and caveats. 

The Ministry, in a written response to a Senator’s question in 2019, said: “The use of packed lunches [home-supplied meals] by primary school students can provide an alternative to school meals. This method of catering is authorised in particular for children with a medically established food allergy or intolerance, requiring an adapted diet.”

READ ALSO How to enrol a non-French speaking child in school in France

It added: “the preparation and use of packed lunches in schools must follow certain rules. First of all, it is important to respect the cold chain”.

The cold chain is a term applied to food handling and distribution – it’s usually used by food-preparation businesses, but in the context of a packed lunch it means that food prepared at home must be kept in appropriately cool conditions until it is ready to eat. It would be the responsibility of parents to ensure that the food is delivered to school in containers appropriate for the job (ie an insulated cool bag).

Once at the school, it is up to whoever manages the kitchen to ensure that food is properly reheated. This becomes the sticking point at which many parents’ requests to send their children to school with a packed lunch, rather than go to the canteen, or eat back at home, are refused.

The reheating concern suggests that schools are also expecting parents to prepare a proper meal – rather than just throwing some sandwiches and a cereal bar into a bag.

Unless there’s a genuine and proven health reason for your child to eat a home-prepared meal, most parents will probably find the school won’t budge on this – even in cases of a strike by kitchen staff or lunch monitors.

READ ALSO Just how much do private schools in France cost?

The Ministry’s written response explains: “[A]s this is an optional public service, the municipality can justify its refusal to admit the children concerned by objective material and financial constraints, such as the need to equip itself with additional refrigerators, or for additional supervisory staff to supervise them during lunch.”

As well as the practicalities, for some schools this is an equality issue – because of the varied fee structure for school lunches what happens in effect is that richer parents are subsidising a good quality lunchtime meal for poorer students in the class; if everyone brought in a packed lunch and therefore stopped paying the fee, the lower-income kids would miss out. 

What about allergies or other health issues?

Children with allergies or other health issues that require a particular diet must be accommodated. An individual meal plan – known as a projet d’accueil individualisé (PAI) can be set up. More details (in French) are available here, on the government’s website.

It also becomes easier for parents to provide home-produced meals in such instances. As ever, it is up to the parents to ensure any meals are appropriately packaged and transported to school.

Not all schools

Some individual schools in France do permit pupils to bring in meals from home. They must be taken to school in an appropriate cold-storage container, and they will be stored in the kitchen area until they are needed, when meals will – if necessary – be reheated.

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