McDonald’s Corp. has put a baguette sandwich on its menu in France in an attempt to appeal to local tastes, and it has won the approval of a veteran French chef, reports Business Insider.
“I’m lovin’ it,” Pierre Koffmann said after tasting for Bloomberg Television at a McDonald’s on Rue de Rivoli, in Paris. “If I was hungry walking by, I’d buy it with pleasure.”
“The garnish is good: There’s plenty of salad and plenty of everything. The bread isn’t a pure baguette because this one is shorter, but it’s good bread. Not the top bread in Paris but it’s good. I’m not disappointed by it,” said Koffmann, who held three Michelin stars at La Tante Claire in London in the 1990s.
McDonald’s effort to cater to the local palette coincides with a French economic slump and a 13-year-high unemployment rate that’s driving more of the country’s citizens to throw their culinary pride to the wind and embrace fastfood offerings. France is Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s most profitable market after the U.S., with 1,228 outlets in 934 towns, 4.2 billion euros ($5.6 billion) in 2011 sales and 66,000 employees.
“We are looking for a balance between our DNA, our roots, and points of local reference,” Nawfal Trabelsi, chief marketing officer of McDonald’s France, said in an interview. “Local reference is a path that has to follow certain steps.”
The McBaguette features ham, cheese and potato, topped with lettuce and mayonnaise. It costs 4.50 euros with a drink. (There are also chicken & pepper and spicy-beef options.) It appears on a new “Casse-Croute” menu after being tested last year. Casse- croute is the French expression for grabbing a lunch sandwich.
Koffmann preferred it to a baguette from a local baker.
“I’ll go with McDonald’s,” Koffmann said. “The garnish is better. This other one was probably made this morning at 6. It looks better, with good-quality bread, but McDonald’s has a lot more garnish. The McDonald’s is warm. Bread is always better warm. It’s a trick, but McDonald’s is doing the trick.”
Read more of this report from Business Insider.