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It's been forty years since McDonald's landed in France. An arrival that has profoundly changed the national gastronomic landscape to the point of making the French the first consumers of hamburgers in Europe. On the occasion of this anniversary, RFI took a look at this extraordinary saga in the company of the author of the book A story of hamburger-fries , Didier Pourquery.
One afternoon, in the suburbs of Las Vegas, a resident offered us: " So, where do you want to eat ? And we answer: " To stay in the logic of the burger, let's test a new channel. It was Five Guys, Barack Obama's favorite burgers restaurant chain at the time. With the "oh! In front of the machine with colored drinks and "ah! In front of the fries and burger rustically wrapped.
These oh and these ah, but it is the firm McDonald's who programmed them, and this for almost a century. His story is uplifting. It reflects our society and the consumers we have become. This relentless logic of the burger has become a global gastronomic story that has crossed the walls of the East like those of the Vatican. Nothing stopped fast food.
It's been 40 years now that McDonald's officially settled in France - exactly in Strasbourg, September 17, 1979. An anniversary not really celebrated, because the American firm had in fact missed its French appointment. Indeed, it was a Frenchman, Raymond Dayan, who had first obtained the McDonald's franchise in the 1970s, and for a modest price, American officials absolutely not thinking that France would join the fast food and the " junk food ".
Nearly 1.2 million customers a day in France
Yet exactly the opposite happened. And it is this surprise that continues to comment and explain the author and journalist Didier Pourquery in his fascinating little book A story of Hamburger-fries , published in the collection New mythologies Robert Laffont. The latter is also inexhaustible on the subject: " The question I asked myself in this book is why it works so well in France, a country of gastronomy? "
The industrial saga of McDonald's is the story of a real rush ... to the East. " France has even become the leading European consumer of hamburger and is the second most profitable country for McDonald's in the world! McDonald's is still the second-largest employer in the world as a private company [after Walmart] . And in France, it's 74,000 employees, with 1.2 million customers a day in the nearly 1,500 restaurants in France! Adds the journalist, before becoming more thoughtful: " There is a public health issue around this. Junk food kills more than cigarettes, so it's worth thinking about making this application. Because it's Mac do that made the demand for burgers, a bit like Disney for some hobbies. The parallel is obvious. "
" Predictable, like their fries 7mm apart "
" When we enter a fast food, we go into a piece of factory! In a chain in both senses of the word [in a chain store, but also in a workplace chain] . This piece of factory is the Mac Donald brothers who invented it in 1948. A production system called "Speedee Service System" that began in San Bernardino, California. A gastronomic industrialization live. This is why it is so fundamental and important to understand : the standardization of fast food, the concept of Taylorization of work, with the minute to the gestures to make to make a burger and fries. And it works well commercially because it is efficient and predictable for consumers, like their fries that will have every day of the year 7mm aside. An invention whose brothers were more or less dispossessed in less than 13 years by Ray Kroc, a milkshake mixers salesman.
In addition to the industrial side, it is also a relation to the totally different food that has arrived with fast food: " McDonald's is a relationship uninhibited with food, you eat with your hands, you prick fries in the neighbor's cardboard box, "says Didier Pourquery.
To observe this behavior in restaurants acclaimed by children represents a true gastronomic psychological workshop according to the essayist, who amuses himself almost: " A German researcher explained that a hamburger could be compared to a maternal breast : it is sweet it's tender and it's warm [a burger is never hot] . With that special taste of fat and sweetness at the same time . By eating in a fast food, we communicate and unknowingly incorporate the transitional object of early childhood described by Donald Winnicott.
" Even José Bové is part of the McDonald's story! "
The success of McDonald's in France seems to represent the dark side of the " french paradox ", the well-eating French style. However, tasting a hamburger has absolutely nothing harmful. And the best diet is one in which it is advisable to eat everything, a little bit. But it is on the length that the fat as sugar ingested too quickly is unhealthy. Everyone knows it, so why do we keep going? " The strength of these restaurant chains is communication. We eat the image, we eat permanent stories. By doing this, they are talking about other things than the basics, which is ultimately the nutritional balance of what it offers. Their storytelling fires all the wood with the salad that comes from the Val de Loire or potatoes from the north of France. Didier Pourquery smiles: " Even Ms. Bové is now part of the McDonald's story! "
Preservative E250, acidity regulator E326, stabilizers (E450, E301)
And amused, the journalist describes the curious new rebels with the fingers saturated with bad fat that are the consumers of hamburgers: " There are strange reasons which make that when one consumes a hamburger, one comforts in a regressive behavior, even transgressive . Because we know we are hurting, it's a bit like when we smoke. It's not good for health, but unlike the tobacco industry, which has hidden the harmfulness of its products, McDonald's has made it clear. Everything is transparent, they are very strong on this point, and claim to have nothing to hide. "
A chapter in the book A History of Hamburger and Fries is devoted to the composition of the menus of the American giant. We discover the "ingredients" of bacon served: pork belly, salt, preservative E250, acidity regulator E326, stabilizers (E450, E301) glucose syrup, smoke flavors, flavors). For the bread ? Wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast, sesame seeds, wheat gluten, rapeseed oil, iodized salt, glucose, emulsifiers (E471, E472e), potato starch, barley malt, milk treatment agents flour (E330). " But this information, everyone knows them, ensures Didier Pourquery . McDonald's Canada was the first to give all these ingredients. "
McDonald's has also profoundly changed the way we eat in the community: " Nearly 60% of French restaurants now offer hamburgers on their menu. And it has even become trendy, even bobo, to enjoy this form of sandwich with soft milk bread stuffed with minced meat. It's a terribly adaptable industry that knows how to surf all trends. In the United States vegan or vegetarian burgers thus represent a heavy trend. The next burgers can be expected to be vegetable proteins or even other sources, such as insects. "
But why has not France managed to tell the story of ham-butter or chocolate toast? " 2016 is a turning point in France, it sold more burger than ham-butter, explains Didier Pourquery. The worry of the sandwich is that it has no mark. We do not always know what we are going to eat, there has never been an organization at the highest level to launch brands, not an emblematic company around ham-butter. To thwart McDonald's, some companies have tried to make irony around the burger, but if there is one area that does not support irony, it's food! ". So McDonald's continues its cooking, without humor, just with its relentless logic. A logic that has been successful for 40 years in France.