In Paris, Everyone Wants a Burger

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  07.18.08 | 11:56 AM ET

imageThe French are mad about juicy beef patties on sesame-seed buns, and restaurants all over the City of Light are offering Gallic translations of the ultimate all-American meal, writes Jane Sigal in the International Herald Tribune.

Think wagyu beef with a “black ketchup” of blackberries and black currants; a Cheddar cheeseburger with pine nuts and thyme mixed into the meat; or seasonings of cornichons and fleur de sel.

One restaurant, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, offers “Le Burger,” which is actually two small burgers topped by slabs of foie gras.

“It is a startling turnaround in a country where a chef once sued McDonald’s for $2.7 million in damages over a poster that suggested he was dreaming of a Big Mac,” Sigal writes.

Photo by mcanevet via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: Food, Europe, France, Paris, News and Briefs

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


2 Comments for In Paris, Everyone Wants a Burger

Alison Wallace 07.18.08 | 3:28 PM ET

Yes, but every major hotel in Paris has always offered a hamburger to its clientele, what could be more indulgent than a burger in the Hotel Meurice ‘a la room service’ in your fluffy white dressing gown but I hope this fad fades I hate to see the ‘margret de canard’ dropped off the menu and replaced by a duck hamburger

Dave 07.18.08 | 6:55 PM ET

I sure hope this is not going to be considered a change for the worst.  Getting a hamburger anywhere else than from USA seems off to me.  I would go to other countries to try their unique style of food and not a imitation of USA food.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.