Halal on the menu?: Contested food politics and French identity in fast-food

Many regard France as a nation with a distinctive and world-renown cuisine. However, the common hamburger became the center of a public dialog in 2009-2010 as the nation grappled with the meaning of fast-food processed by halal standards. Using content analysis of national newspapers, we analyze how the French media framed the introduction of a halal hamburger onto the menu of fast-food restaurant Quick. Media framing was unsettled and contentious. We explore this discursive contest and show that the framing of responses ranged from those supporting acceptance of the halal menu based on free-market logic or cultural diversity, while most constructed arguments that the menu was a threat to the very essence of French republican ideals. Such interpretative disputes hold valuable insights for furthering our understanding of food boundaries and the 'othering' of populations as a strategy to reinforce national identities. We show how, in their efforts to construct meaning around halal hamburgers, the media constructed a defensive gastronationalism which served as a political tool to reinforce French identity within national borders, using everyday foods, and, in this way, drew boundaries around who was French.