Skip to main content

Move over, McDonald's: French taco poised for global expansion



#Food #Fastfood #Europe #France  #Frenchtaco  #O’Tacos 
At lunchtime on a street near the Gare du Nord in Paris, queues were forming at a fast-food restaurant. Construction workers jostled with schoolchildren for what has become a business phenomenon: the hefty, cheesy slab of indulgence known as the French taco.
France has always had a huge market for takeaways, from kebabs to McDonald’s, and fast food accounts for more than half the nation’s restaurants. Now the homegrown French taco is challenging the burger’s imperialist success and plotting its own global expansion.
The French taco, which bears little resemblance to anything Mexican, is a cross between a grilled panini, wrap, and kebab, with everything sealed inside a vast rectangular parcel – fries included. There is often a pile-up of different meats jostling together, such as chicken nuggets and merguez sausage, and several sauces. It was described by one French food writer who couldn’t finish one as a “hymn to junk food”.
The market leader, O’Tacos, is expanding in France at a rate faster than McDonald’s and has come to symbolize the entrepreneurship of France’s low-income banlieues. Started by three former school friends in the working-class outskirts of Grenoble, the chain is now so popular among 15- to 25-year-olds that politicians in small towns increasingly seek out franchises to boost deserted high streets.
Opening events and appearances by rap stars often attract large crowds, and diners get their money back if they manage to finish a Gigataco, which weighs several kilos. With more than 200 outlets in France, as well as franchises in Belgium and Morocco, the chain has a global turnover of more than €200m a year. A Belgian investment fund has come onboard to push international expansion.
The exact origin of the French taco is shrouded in myth, but it is believed to have been born 15 years ago in a kebab shop on the outskirts of Lyon as an experiment in combining a kebab and a wrap.
Patrick Pelonero, the co-founder of O’Tacos, was a builder in Grenoble in 2007 and looking for a way to make some money in the slow Alpine winter months. With his friends Silman and Samba Traoré, who are brothers, he created a product that was halal and where the customer can choose their own combination of a bewildering number of fillings held together with French cheese sauce.
“It’s a take on the traditional sandwich – tortilla, shawarma, whatever you like to call it – and it’s easy to eat,” Pelonero said. “Everything is inside, it’s clean, nothing drips on you, the meat doesn’t fall out the side.”





A queue outside an O’Tacos restaurant
Pinterest
 A queue outside an O’Tacos restaurant. The chain is popular among 15- to 25-year-olds. Photograph: PR Company Handout

Pelonero, who invented the cheese sauce after months of trials in his kitchen, said: “It was all intuitive and quite natural, it wasn’t pre-planned and I think people feel that. We did what we want, we followed no rules. We were lucky.”
He said the business was also about creating a meeting space for young people in poorer suburbs away from city centers. “It’s the place I felt I was never given in the banlieue. We thought there was a need for a place for young people to meet, to feel at ease, see friends, see family, stay a while.”
At the start, they couldn’t afford to advertise and relied on social media. O’Tacos has the biggest social media presence of any fast-food chain in France.
Other French taco joints are now vying for the market, from Tacos Avenue to the rapper Mokobé’s TacoShake. Concerned magazine nutritionists advise on how to reduce the huge calorie count (avoid the fizzy drink).
“It’s very much a French invention,” said Bernard Boutboul, of the food industry consultants Gira Conseil. He said the tacos’ high volume of food for €5 was a key factor in France, where McDonald’s prices are among the highest in the world. “Young people often say that after a Big Mac they’re hungry again at 4pm. After a taco, you wouldn’t be.”
Majd Hasnaoui, a former Paris nightclub events manager who opened four O’Tacos franchises in the Paris area in 18 months, said: “The kind of infatuation people have for O’Tacos – I haven’t seen that for a long time in fast food.”
Martha, a 16-year-old high school student, was finishing lunch. “I like the cheese sauce – you don’t get that anywhere else,” she said. Her mother wasn’t keen on the high-calorie count, but she still went at least once a fortnight. “It’s where you see your friends.”

Angelique Chrisafis @achrisafis Fri 15 Mar 2019 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Poetic Reflection on The New Year by Sharon L DuBois

#Happy New Year #NewBeginnings #SharonDubois #2025 H ow many times has one year flown by, without my humble, wide-eyed A mazement at the awesome wonders and blessings contained within? Is it P ossible that I have forgotten about the seemingly small, occasionally overlooked, daily miracles?? P eeking a blind eye around a blind corner to the approaching tomorrow, neglecting the precious gift of all Y esterdays. Reminder to self: Express genuine thankfulness for my family, friends, my job, which provides harvest-yielding seed, & All Praises to My Heavenly Father, whose Grace abounds brand spankin’ N ew every morning, as evidenced by my health, life,  and strength. With each drop of rain, and rising of the sun, I am made aware of the E ver-present opportunity to do a “new thing”, a “new way”, with a “renewed mind”!! No logical reason to W hine or complain about difficulties along the journey, “JUST DO IT!!” The sum total of each and every one of my Y est...

Kate Bush - Among Angels - 50 Words For Snow - Chronicles of the Snow Globe - Chapter 7

#KateBush, #AmongAngels ,#ChroniclesoftheSnowGlobe , #UnderIce , #50WordsforSnow,  Love pours life into death and death into life without a drop being spilled. This animation film is made by a dutch filmer: Michael Dudok de Wit and is called:Father and Daughter.

Celebremos el Mes de la Herencia Latina -Celebrate Latino Heritage Month

   #Latina,#HispanicHeritageMonth,#Latino,#Latinx,#Latino Every year between  September 15 and October 15 , Americans across the United States celebrate  National Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month  in honor of the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and/or South America. Originally designated as “Hispanic Heritage Week” by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, the 30-day period that is celebrated today was  signed into U.S. law as a joint resolution by President Ronald Reagan and Congress  in 1988.  So why does the celebration kick off in the middle of September? Well, September 15 was selected as the first day in symbolic recognition of the Independence Days for the Latin American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as Mexico (September 16) and Chile (September 18). Over the next month, many public schools throu...

Don't Look too Closely!

#OletaAdams #Dontlooktooclosely #Vulnerability #Empathy #Honesty #Truth Don't ask, if you really don't want to know Don't say you will, if your heart keeps saying you won't Don't try, if you really don't want to go All the way, to the end of the road Don't look too closely Or you will see Part of my secrets Coming out in me