American-style hamburgers, called "le burger" in France, is now the European country's hottest selling dish, according to a study by Gira Conseil.
About 3/4 of restaurants are selling them, considering that they are now outpacing traditional French dishes. Furthermore, the restaurants who serve them state that the dish is their best-selling item on the menu.
"Burger mania (in France) is unstoppable," said Bernard Boutboul, head of Gira Conseil, in an interview with Uproxx. "If it goes on like this, then one can assume that within two years, sales of the jambon-beurre and burger will be neck and neck."
Jambon-beurre is France's most popular lunchtime dish, though its status may change in the net few years if the hamburger's popularity keeps rising. It is a ham-and-baguette sandwich, and its sales have decreased over the years to 1.23 billion, while burgers have risen to 1.19 billion.
Although the success of the dish may initially be credited to fast food chains like Burger King and McDonald's, it is actually the higher-end restaurants getting most of the sales. Only a third of the hamburgers sold in fast food restaurants can be credited to the dish's rise, which means 2/3 of restaurants are the ones processing most of the orders.
"It all started in 2010 when the Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alléno launched his burger à la carte in the Le Maurice (a top Parisian hotel) and won the title 'best burger in the world'," Boutboul said. "That was the beginning of interest in this sandwich, which was until then a little derided."
However, France still has a long way to go before it can catch up to other countries. According to researchers from the NPD Groupe, every person in France consumes 14 burgers a year, while in the UK, it's 20. Surprisingly, Americans are only second at 30, while Australia takes the top spot with 38.
Apart from McDonald's and Burger King, there western burger joints set to invade. The most recent of which is Five Guys, one of President Obama's favorites, which is scheduled to make its French debut at Paris' Gare du Nord train station.
