Le Burger has arrived

8220;It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit,8221; said Heacute;legrave;ne Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. 8220;Eating with your hands, it8217;s pure regression. Everyone wants it.8221; It is a startling turnaround in a country where hamburgers were everything that French dining is not: informal, messy, fast and foreign.

But as French chefs have embraced the American food, they have also made it their own, incorporating Gallic flourishes. 8220;It8217;s not just a fad,8221; said Freacute;deacute;rick Grasser-Hermeacute;, who, as consulting chef at the Champs-Eacute;lyseacute;es boicirc;te Black Calvados, developed a burger made with wagyu beef and seasoned with a ketchup of blackberries and black currants. 8220;The burger has become gastronomic.8221;

Yannick Alleacute;no, who earned a third Michelin star in 2007, serves a thick, succulent hamburger at Le Dali. With smoked bacon, lettuce, dill pickles, mustard, mayonnaise and fries, the burger costs 35 euros, about 56. L8217;Atelier de Joeuml;l Robuchon offers Le Burger8212;two small burgers topped with slabs of foie gras.

The only thing more surprising than the about-face in chefs is the enthusiasm with which their patrons devour these burgers. 8220;I didn8217;t think we would sell so many,8221; said Sonia Ezgulian, guest chef at Cafeacute; Salle Pleyel. On some days, as many as a third of her customers order the burger.

It is not as if hamburgers were unknown in Paris. American restaurants here have long served them. But usually, the local burgers were flat, overcooked and shunned even by American expatriates. In developing the Salle Pleyel burger, Samuel and Ezgulian felt the weight of tradition. 8220;We8217;re a little terrified of making a mistake,8221; said Samuel.

Ceacute;line Parrenin, a co-owner of Coco 038; Co in St Germain, didn8217;t feel any such compunction when she and her business partner, Franklin Reinhard, invented the Cocotte Burger. The Cheddar cheeseburger, with pine nuts and thyme mixed into the meat, sits on a toasted whole-wheat English muffin pedestal with a fried egg placed on top.

How did the juicy hamburger come to be one of the signature dishes of Paris? French chefs reinventing American classics in the US made it safe for their countrymen to try it back home. Romain Corbiegrave;re, the chef at Le Relais du Parc, grew up with burgers, but didn8217;t think of putting one on his menu until he tasted Laurent Tourondel8217;s Black Angus burger in New York last October.

Americans might be flummoxed by the etiquette associated with eating burgers in Paris. Ketchup may appear in a porcelain bowl. Alicia Fontanier, co-owner and chef at the tiny gourmet bar Ferdi, laments that many of her customers insist on using silverware. Socialites and fashionistas stop by for her burger, the Mac Ferdi. Fontanier said, 8220;Nine out of 10 people use knife and fork.8221;

At Floors, a three-story diner, Emil Lager, a waiter, said that many of the diners seem self-conscious about ordering burgers. 8220;The muscled guys order a double with bacon, egg and fries, and a Diet Coke,8221; he said. 8220;They don8217;t want to gain weight.8221; Also, he explained, Parisians don8217;t really understand about drinking a milkshake with the burger. They order it as dessert.
-JANE SIGAL