Sunday, May 21, 2023, the sun begins to peek out in Rostrenen, a town of 3,000 souls in the Côtes-d’Armor. It is still early when the managers of Kebab d’Or, located in the heart of the town, discover a swastika tagged in bright red that stretches across the frontage. They file a complaint – it was unsuccessful – and erase the Nazi symbol in the process. In the eight years that they have been established here, these restaurateurs have never been threatened in this way. “The kebab is a culinary specialty. If you don’t like it, you don’t force anyone to eat it,” laments the owner of Kebab d’Or today.
Swastikas tagged on a kebab in Guémené-sur-Scorff (Morbihan) and in La Gorgue (Nord), stickers bearing the words “You’re fucking France… get out!” left by a far-right sympathiser on another in Saint-Flour (Cantal)… In recent years, the local press has reported several acts of racist vandalism on kebab restaurants. What do these small towns have in common? They all catapulted Jordan Bardella into the lead in the European elections on 9 June.
“A political dish”
This is to say that the kebab – this popular sandwich with Turkish origins that combines bread, meat cooked on a spit and other fillings – divides French society. “Food is a deeply structuring and identity marker. It says who we are individually, but also collectively, explains Pierre Raffard, teacher and researcher at the Free Institute for the Study of International Relations. Unlike sushi or pizza, the kebab is an eminently political dish.”
“It tells part of the story of French immigration,” says the man who has been working on the subject for 15 years. According to the researcher, the sandwich was introduced in France mainly by communities of Muslim tradition and in fits and starts. First imported by Greeks and Armenians fleeing the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s, then by Lebanese immigration in the 1960s, it arrived massively in France from 1980 with the arrival of a Turkish diaspora.
“The appearance of kebabs caused a storm of protest and this sandwich still encounters a certain hostility today,” says a study on the political, socio-cultural and territorial dimensions of the kebab by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, published in 2019. In a country where gastronomy is often elevated to the rank of national emblem, some candidates of the National Front (FN) very early on mentioned the kebab, as an example of a culinary “great replacement” or “kebabization” of society. Hence the rejection of the kebab by a part of society attached to French traditions.
The sandwich has also been constructed as a symbol of a suburban, working-class identity. “You have a lot of rap songs that mention the kebab,” notes Pierre Raffard. And a whole imaginary, often decried by a France that is afraid of them, has been built around these places: “An unhygienic sandwich, dirty restaurants, poorly frequented and used to launder money,” recalls Benjamin Baudis, author of Kebab – Doner Question (Orients editions, 2018).
Scapegoat
“It is seen as the tangible expression of a so-called creeping or visible Islamization of European societies,” explains Pierre Raffard. “This Islamization takes concrete forms: ‘Look at the increase in the number of kebabs around you.'” Because these restaurants, long established in socially marginalized areas such as working-class neighborhoods, have gradually sprouted in city centers.
With this anchoring in France, the sandwich has sometimes become the target of the FN, notably during the municipal elections of 2014. “The Frontist candidate in Perpignan, Louis Aliot, mentioned it for example in leaflets”, recalls the study of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation on this subject. After being elected in the city of Béziers (Hérault), Robert Ménard took up the issue in 2015. Indignant at the large number of kebabs – around twenty – in the city center, the mayor then explained that he refused any new installation. “We are a country of Judeo-Christian tradition, it is difficult for some, but we have to get used to it, he justified himself in an issue ofCorrespondent. When there are too many immigrants in a country, it is too many immigrants. […] In the food industry, too many kebabs is too many.”
Four years later, Benoît Hamon, head of the Génération.s list for the European elections, is on a trip to Béziers. Sitting on a terrace, wearing a blue suit and tie, the former Socialist Party candidate for the 2017 presidential election is enjoying “the best kebab” in town. “When we have come to explain today that you must not eat kebabs to be a good Frenchman, it is because we are really the lowest of the low,” he chides.
“Successful immigration”
“The left also tends to claim it as a political object,” observes Benjamin Baudis. It does not hesitate to praise its price – less and less unbeatable – which is the strength of this popular sandwich. In Germany, the land of origin of the kebab in the 1970s, the left-wing party Die Linke proposed last May to cap its price at 4.90 euros for all.
“It is also the symbol of successful immigration,” notes Pierre Raffard. A simple sandwich that has adapted to local cultures around the world. The kebab recipe differs in Mexico, Germany or France, where alternative versions have even emerged – such as the Grenoble or Lyon tacos, topped with cheese sauce. As does the way of eating it. Today, the kebab is often eaten on the spot, sometimes while watching television. “Which is specific to French food culture,” says Benjamin Baudis.
In France, nearly 360 million kebabs are consumed each year, according to the firm Gira Conseil, a specialist in out-of-home food consumption. “The sandwich has been established in France for several decades, it has made its mark in the common culture,” assures Benjamin Baudis. High school students, students, young parents… The kebab remains today a Proust madeleine for a part of the population. An affordable, fortifying, comfortable dish. With the explosion in the number of restaurants, we are even seeing a phenomenon of “boboïsation” of the kebab, particularly in large cities. In Paris, restaurants like Gemüse or Sürpriz sell better quality sandwiches at high prices, soaring beyond 10 euros.
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