Skip to footer

Bastille Day: French burger tips you must try

Happy Bastille Day! Celebrate the holiday by taking a few cues from the French on burgers.

|
Mal Langsdon/Reuters
Alphajets from the French Air Force Patrouille de France in the formation of a Croix de Lorraine cross and releasing trails of red, white and blue smoke, colors of French national flag, fly over the Champs-Elysees avenue during the traditional Bastille day military parade in Paris, France. You can celebrate the holiday by taking a few cues from the French when it comes to burgers.

Bastille Day is celebrated in France on July 14, commemorating the storming of the Bastille prison on this day in 1789. Since BurgerBusiness celebrates the revolution that freed burgers from their unexciting past, it seems proper on this day to learn a few actionable lessons from menus of some of the great French burger bars, of which there are many.

 #1: Know your cheeses. The French know a great deal about cheese and it shows on their burgers. I’ve never tasted, nor had I heard of “fromage Laguiole,” a cow’s milk cheese from Simmental cattle. But L’Atelier du Burger in Toulouse puts it on its Chef’s Burger (along with bacon, caramelized onion, a cooked egg, lettuce, tomato and house burger sauce). It uses Emmental, Morbier, Fourme D’Ambert (blue) and shaved Parmesan on other burgers. The West burger at Blend in Paris has four kinds of cheese. The “You Really Got Me” burger at Burger’N-Co. in Toulouse tops beef, chorizo and roasted peppers with melted Spanish Manchego cheese and finishes with a Spanish-style sauce. When Cheddar is used it’s not uncommon for the menu to say how long it has been aged. Goat cheese (often with honey) is a staple. And their good cheeses are usually cut thick, so you can taste and enjoy them, not cellophane-wrapped-cheese thin.

# 2: Chop some herbs. You sprinkle chopped cilantro on other dishes, perhaps, but probably not on your burger. Big Fernand in Paris uses cilantro, chives, tarragon, parsley and more on burgers. It’s a great way to overlay fresh flavors.

#3: Tiered pricing upfront. Like many French burger bars, Le Camion Qui Fume in Paris has a simple menu and a simple pricing scheme: Burger=8,90€ ($9.80); Burger of the Day=$10.46; Burger + side (fries, onion rings, coleslaw)=$12; Burger + fries + drink (soda, water) = $14.21; Burger + fries + dessert (cheesecake, cookie) = $14.21; Burger + fries + drink + dessert = $16.41. Obviously combo pricing isn’t unique to France or Europe, but French burger bars do less a la carte pricing and have smaller menus (maybe six burgers plus a daily special burger).

#4: Let them eat bread. There’s no excuse for a boring bun so the French don’t do that. Their buns look like bread. An exception is a recent Burger of the Week at Burger’s Banquet in Marseille, where a halved beefsteak tomato functioned as the bun (consider that for a non-meat special). In the middle was ham, mozzarella, pesto, coleslaw and lettuce. Higher-quality buns certainly have caught on in U.S. burger bars, but the French burger bars know that variety as well as quality sells.

#5 Eat your vegetables. And fruit. Roasted or grilled vegetables are frequent burger toppings. Mamie Burger in Paris tops an organic quinoa patty with grilled peppers, zucchini and eggplant. La Folie du Burger (Madness & Burger) in Marseille serves an All Inclusive Burger with eggplant (along with aged Cheddar). The recent Grilled Figue Burger special at Moon Burger in Marseille had pear confit, grilled onions, Emmental cheese and mâche greens.

The French learned burgers from us, so it’s only fair to take some ideas from their preparations. They do fresh and varied and bold all very well. If you could do any of those better, do so. Up the revolution.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Bastille Day: French burger tips you must try
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2015/0714/Bastille-Day-French-burger-tips-you-must-try
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe