Fast food did not become respectable when McDonald's sold its five billionth hamburger. It happened in 1972, when Wimpy opened its first branch on the Champs Elysees. McDonald's has now made it to Moscow and Peking, Wimpy has established itself on the beach of Maui and Colonel Sanders has opened the first of what is eventually to be a chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken shops in Cambodia, Saudia Arabia and Estonia. Not only have fast food chains become respectable, they have gone multi-national.

Despite, or possibly because of the popularity of fast food eateries, some food critics see the advent of this style of dining as heralding the end of good cookery. The major error in such thinking is that fast food in and of itself is not necessarily synonymous with junk food. New Orleans corn fritters, Maine oysters, Wiesbaden knockwurst, Greek sausage rolls and Chesapeake Bay soft-shelled crab sandwiches are all treats that will be admired by any lover of the culinary good life. And, in each of the places where these are sold, they are thought of as fast food. Nor do America and Europe have an exclusive claim to fast but delicious regional foods. Egyptian ta'amia (spiced bean cakes), Jordanian sfeeha (meat, cheese and tehina pastries), and, let's face it even well made Israeli or Palestinian felafel or humous can make for marvelous and delicious snacks

Neither is fast food limited to ethnic foods or the treats that our mothers (or grandmothers) used to serve us. There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with a hamburger, a pizza, a spiced chicken wing or an egg roll. As with corn fritters or felafel, it all depends on the integrity of the people making them. A burger made with high quality beef and served with lettuce, tomato, onion and a flavorful dressing all on a well made seeded bun can be a delight whether it is served up in a grand hotel for thirty dollars or at a mass market hamburger joint for $3.50.

Another error made by those who criticize by reflex alone is their assumption that fast food is destroying people's ability to appreciate really good cookery. Looking at the picture realistically, no one has ever proposed fast food as a substitute for haute cuisine. In fact, purveyors of fast food are not going out of their way to attract those people who gladly devote a full day's work to the kitchen or a week's salary in pursuit of a fine meal. The rich continue to dine at three star restaurants; the poor continue to be underfed. As sociologist Richard Sennett points out, the massive proliferation of fast food eateries is a late twentieth century phenomenon that caters primarily to an ever
Increasing middle class.

More and more people commute to work. They want to return home at a reasonable hour, so they choose not to spend too much time in mid-day dining. Fast food eating is just that - fast. In their leisure time, people want to dine out, especially with their families, but they do not always want to spend a great deal of money. Fast food emporiums are relatively inexpensive. And, because it exists everywhere today, it is convenient. In the middle of a shopping spree, while on a casual stroll or on the way the cinema one finds that it takes only a few minutes to order and consume a full meal at Wendy's, Juicy Lucy's or Hoagy. Sennett says that "although the rich and discriminating may munch on an occasional hamburger, they see such foods primarily as comic relief, an experience to talk about over their next bite of artichauts a la reine".

Even food snobs have their own fast food story. Not too many years ago, I had occasion to fly to The Hague. I spent the entire flight anticipating the marvelous rijsttafel upon which I would soon dine in one of that city's excellent and and very expensive Indonesian restaurants. My flight was delayed, however, and by the time I had checked into my hotel it was nearly 1 a.m. The better restaurants were already closed, and all that was left to me was a McDonalds. I was hungry and, frankly, I was curious. I ordered a Big Mac, a large order of chips and a thick chocolate shake. And frankly, I loved it. I even managed to put away a second Big Mac. It may not have been great cuisine but it was tasty, filling, inexpensive and great fun. And it did, by heaven, make me laugh.

Futurologist Alvin Toffler considered the development of mass-market fast-food chains thirty years ago. "As knowledge increases more and more rapidly, as we become more and more geographically mobile ... we will seek consistency and standardization in our environments, touchstones of sameness to remind us that the world has not changed too much." Fast food offers such assuredness: one can be quite certain that a Big Mac consumed in Milwaukee will taste exactly the same as it will in Kyoto, Frankfurt or Dublin.

As to the argument that many parents feel - that an entire generation of children has been and is being raised on a diet of hamburgers and chips - frankly, I agree with those nutritionists who find this a simplistic "worry. A recent study at Johns Hopkins University Hospital indicates that even a diet heavily dependent upon fast-foods will be no more or less nutritious than the foods most people eat in their own homes. Dr. Ann Cohen wrote that "even the cheapest hamburger comes with lettuce and tomato on it, and egg rolls are, after all, filled with vegetables."

Peeking into Gulliver's, Hoagy or Chinatown Express, one can not help but note that even though they are dining on homogenized, frozen, mass-produced victuals, most of the people here are enjoying themselves. Nor can one deny that there is a certain charm to fast-food. It may be that in catering to mass tastes, these eateries have uncovered a great secret - that we are all part of the mass. And that may not be such a bad thing.

As to the future of haute cuisine, Robert Courtine wrote in the French daily Le Monde that he visited some of Paris' best restaurants, setting various traps in each. He ordered tomato salad and gave bad marks when the tomatoes were not peeled and if he was not asked what kind of oil he wanted in the dressing. Another food critic of my acquaintance made a scene in one of Lyon's best restaurants when his crepes Suzette were made with orange rather than tangerine peel. As long as there are men and women who are truly afflicted by a bad meal and chefs who have nervous
breakdowns when their sauce curdles, the standards of great cookery are safe.

© Daniel Rogov