France, birthplace of Jack Lang, who called a hamburger “anti-food” in the early 1980s; land of José Bové who, with his comrades, in 1999, ransacked – sorry: dismantled – the McDo in Millau (Aveyron), accused of “making the French eat shit”.
The same France, in 2023, represents McDonald’s second largest market in the world, behind the United States, with more than 2 million meals served per day in 1,565 restaurants. France is also home to the largest McDonald’s in the world, on the Champs-Elysées, and the longest French fries production line on the planet (McCain, exclusive supplier of McDonald’s), in Matougues (Marne), where potatoes hit the sharpened grid at 100 km/h which cuts them into sticks measuring 6 mm on a side.
How did the former junk food symbol manage to reverse the trend? At the request of RMC Story, the American company authorized – which is rare – director Steeven Ballein to film, for a year, in a few representative restaurants. But also to meet suppliers (notably Charolais beef), to witness the development of a new “ephemeral burger” recipe. And to visit three factories: the one that produces the Big Mac steaks (twice 45 g and 10 cm in diameter), that of the Bimbo QSR buns, and the McCain factory of all superlatives.
Unbridled internal promotion
He produces a tantalizing documentary, fascinating almost from start to finish, provided that the annoying subject is avoided: if the McDonald’s company gave its agreement, what did it ask for or forbid in return? Contacted on September 27, Steeven Ballein clarified: “Places were refused to us, [like] the kitchens of the McDonald’s on the Champs-Elysées, which have the particularity of forming two kitchens next to each other. [And] in the McCain factory, I was not allowed to film the machine that freezes the fries. » Top secret. “Otherwise, overall, I haven’t had many rejections. »
No problem, in particular, to detail the group’s franchise policy: 328 share 1,400 McDonald’s in France. Nor to follow one of them, Frédéric, 65 years old, at the head of eight establishments, whose hyperactive daily life we ??discover. At the management level, unbridled internal promotion builds employee loyalty and makes them accept “hellish rates”. Like Angelina, hired at 18 without a diploma and made manager in nine months: at 24, she doesn’t hide her ambitions.
The height of self-criticism? The very funny sequence, filmed with Kiibiki, a YouTuber with 261,000 subscribers, who will taste the latest McDonald’s creation live, the one based on county cheese, the development of which we followed before… The observation is there. A quarter of a century after José Bové, “McDonald’s employs thousands of people and has integrated itself into the French landscape,” summarizes Steeven Ballein.
