Fast Food

1. Fast Food

2. „Hamburger sind das Manna des American Dream. So wie Gott für sein erwähltes Volk Brot vom Himmel fallen ließ, so scheint er all jenen, die das „Gelobte Land“ in den USA suchten, Frikadellen zwischen Weißbrotscheiben als Nahrung zugedacht zu haben.“ (Wagner)

3. Outline • Definition: What Is Fast Food? • A Cognitive Linguistic Approach • Empirical Data from google.de • The History of Fast Food • Facts and Anecdotes • Focus I: Hamburger • Focus II: Döner Kebap • Healthy Fast Food?

4. Definition: What Is Fast Food? • definition by infoplease.com • fast' food':food, as hamburgers, pizza, or fried chicken, that is prepared in quantity by a standardized method and can be dispensed quickly at inexpensive restaurants for eating there or elsewhere. • fast-food:Pronunciation: (fast'fOOd', fäst'-), [key]—adj.of or specializing in fast food.

5. Definition: What Is Fast Food? • definition by Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995) • fast food /‘· ·/ n [U] food such as HAMBURGERS which is prepared quickly in a restaurant •  Is there an opposite of fast food?

6. A Cognitive Linguistics Approach

7. Empirical Data from google.de • fast food: 6.2 million vs 640.000 entries • hamburger: 5.25 million vs 1.84 million entries (note: a search for hamburger includes terms that refer to the city of Hamburg, too) • döner kebap: 16.600 vs 8.640 entries

8. The History of Fast Food (I) • fast food has a long tradition • it originates in the necessary or habitual structuring of eating • Roman and Greek fast food: filled fig leaves, barley cakes • Middle Age fast food: bean soup, bacon, millet gruel • food stalls in China

9. The History of Fast Food (II) • originally sold on markets, fairs and bazaars  ethno fast food (i.e. falafel, bagels, köfte…) • today‘s fast food began as an urban phenomenon

10. The History of Fast Food (III) • Germany: first Würstchenbude in Regensburg (appr. 900 years old), movable food stalls in the late 19th century • Great Britain: fish and chips vendors in the late 19th century • USA: food machines (e.g. at Times Square, 1902)

11. The History of Fast Food (IV) • first pizza parlor: 1905 • first fast food chain: White Castle, 1916, spreading from Wichita, KS, all over the USA • first drive-in: 1921  car hoppers

12. The History of Fast Food (V) • “Golden Fifties“ of fast food: 1950 Dunkin‘ Donuts, 1952 Kentucky Fried Chicken, 1953 Burger King, 1955 Mc Donald‘s, 1958 Pizza Hut

13. Facts and Anecdotes (I) • 1993: Mc Donald‘s sells its 100 billionth hamburger • each day, 28 million people eat at Mc Donald‘s • statistically, nobody in America is further than 3 minutes by car away from a Mc Donald‘s • every year, 1.200 – 1.500 new Mc Donald‘s restaurants are opening • the world‘s biggest Mc Donald‘s is in Peking (40.000 guests per day)

14. Facts and Anecdotes (II) • you can study Hamburgerology in the Mc Donald‘s Universities • 1982: House of Representatives votes against introducing a cheeseburger week every year in October

15. Focus I: Hamburger (I) • definition by infoplease.com • ham•burg•erPronunciation: (ham'bûr"gur), [key]—n.1. a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground or chopped beef, usually in a roll or bun, variously garnished. 2. ground or chopped beef. 3. Also called Ham'burg steak". a patty of ground or chopped beef, seasoned and fried or broiled. Also,ham•burgPronunciation: (ham'bûrg). [key]Also called beefburger.

16. Focus I: Hamburger (II) • today‘s hamburger is a variation of the Hamburg steak • the Hamburg steak was introduced to the American cuisine by German immigrants in the 19th century • it originated in the Steak Tartare from Russia which again was a modification of Mongolian food of Genghis Khan‘s times

17. Focus I: Hamburger (III) • hamburgers are rarely called “hamburgers“ in fast food restaurants • instead: Whopper, Big Mac, Hamburger Royal TS, Jumbo Jack, Big and Tasty… •  Is there a real hamburger? •  What is a real hamburger?

18. Focus II: Döner Kebap (I) • definition by wikipedia.org • Döner kebab (as döner kebap in Turkish and often simply döner or donair), which literally means "rotating roast meat" is originally a Turkish dish made with mutton.

19. Focus II: Döner Kebap (II) • Döner Kebap style food originates in the Middle East (Arab countries, Turkey, Central Asia) • popular in Germany, while in Turkey, Döner Kebap is partly regarded as the decline of Turkish culture

20. Healthy Fast Food? (I) • In 1921, White Castle hired a student of medicine who only ate White Castle hamburgers for 13 weeks  a doctor acknowledged that he did not suffer damage to his health afterwards • In 2004, the movie Super Size Me proved the opposite

21. Healthy Fast Food? (II) • both Mc Donald‘s and Burger King have a calculator for the nutritional value of their products on their website • Big Mac: 503 kcal, 26g protein, 44g carbohydrate, 25g fat • Whopper: 600 kcal, 27g protein, 47g carbohydrate, 34g fat

22. Healthy Fast Food? (III) • Gael Greene (restaurant critic): “ [Fast food] is so hard to digest, I would even drown in the Dead Sea“ • Time Magazine: “cheese made from glue, a very thin tablet of something that comes close enough to a piece of meat“ • Wolfram Siebeck: “brake lining with onions“ • 1972: “junk food“; 1989 “slow food“

23. Any Questions?

24. Thanks for your attention!