In 2017, hamburger sales in France surpassed the classic French sandwich, the baguette with ham and butter, for the first time in history. Burgers were on the menu of 85 percent of French restaurateurs, and last year, an astonishing one and a half billion were sold, reported Gira Conseil, a consulting firm specializing in restaurants.
For lovers of French cuisine, it is even more striking that only 30 percent of hamburgers were sold in fast food outlets, with the vast majority sold in traditional restaurants. The burger has almost become a French dish and is often served with some of the tastiest French cheeses, such as Roquefort, instead of the plastic-tasting cheddar.
>>>VIDEO: Robots Making 400 Burgers an Hour Steal Teen Jobs
This is a significant change for a country that prides itself on its national culinary culture and has resisted the global onslaught of hamburgers for decades. Last year, the baguette with ham and butter lagged behind hamburgers in sales by as much as 300,000 pieces.
– I don’t know how to describe this phenomenon. It’s just crazy, said Bernard Boutboul, director of Gira Conseil, to AFP.
– One might even wonder if it’s possible that burgers will surpass our famous steak and fries, says Boutboul.
And here, perhaps, Boutboul hit the nail on the head. While the French consider their cuisine unique, the truth is that a good part of it is based on meat, bread, salad, and potatoes, which is not very different from the ingredients Americans use to make hamburgers.
