Les Américains order a MEEELLION doughnuts ... from French baker

Some bright spark in the United States of America, as much a culinary home to the doughnut as it is a technological home to mass surveillance, has sent an order to a French baker for 1,000,000 samples of the fried confectionery. According to Le Figaro, a client of the baker in Las Vegas told a friend in Los Angeles that he …

[Ole Juul]

how the baker is going to deliver

If the baker is in France, I would say that delivery is not possible in a timely manner if they are going to be up to French standards where day old bakings are unacceptable. Doughnuts basically go stale shortly after they cool down and even in North America are not considered prime if they're old.

[heyrick]

Re: how the baker is going to deliver

The key word is INDUSTRIAL baker. They'll probably freeze them.

[Richard42]

Re: how the baker is going to deliver

The rural French prefer dried bread to moist, fresh bread. (At breakfast)

Put down a fresh stick, and yesterdays crunchy, dry one and they'll take the latter.

[heyrick]

Re: how the baker is going to deliver

I live rural enough that our house is wired up three phase and our water (that we do NOT drink) is pumped up from a well.

With that in mind, I can tell you that the rural French would react in horror if the bread is more than a few hours old - even at breakfast. Hell, it goes gummy in no time in stone farmhouses, so fresh bread is important. Most communities have a bread oven, not that there are many who know how to use it these days. Who a baker decides to pass off older bread on can make our break their business (protip - anybody with an iPhone won't know the difference; upsetting the granny brigade will be a slow and painful demise). Old bread is good only for "pain perdu" (or the peasants, in olden times).

[Nolveys]

Re: how the baker is going to deliver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP

[Anonymous Coward]

Baldrick has a cunning plan...

using unusually small donuts to cater to the delicate, finicky, lady-like appetites of Mr & Mrs Flyover-State...

[Little Mouse]

Re: Baldrick has a cunning plan...

Right now that customer is salivating at the prospect of a fleet of trucks turning up to deliver his order.

When it actually arrives in just four or five of those large house-removal-sized boxes, he'll be so upset he'll probably jump up and down on his oversized hat, shooting two pistols into the air.

[Eddy Ito]

Re: Baldrick has a cunning plan...

Depending on the meaning of "smaller-than-standard" it may be considered a single serving.

[Mpeler]

Re: Baldrick has a cunning plan...

Oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that rascal rabbit!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a coming out ta get ya, ye yellow-bellied varmit....

(bugs:) Ahhhh, they're just a buncha maroons.....

[TeeCee]

My head exploded.

"we offer a smaller-than-standard sized doughnut purposefully geared towards the American market."

Er, surely that should be larger, as in "unfeasibly colossal". There's a reason why lardbucketry is rampant amongst the left-pondians and it's the size of the food portions provided.

I once went to a nouvelle cuisine restaurant in San Matteo. I did wonder how the yanks would square the "small portion artistically presented in the middle of a plate" thing with their eating habits. The answer to that little conundrum turned out to be plates 2' 6" across......(!)

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: My head exploded.

Same principle for dougnuts, serve them by the half-dozen but it will be OK because they're only "little" French ones.

[Alister]

Re: My head exploded.

"we offer a smaller-than-standard sized doughnut purposefully geared towards the American market."

It reminded me of the probably apocryphal story where, during the Cold War, America sent a shipment of condoms to Russia. The prophylactics in question were XL size, but were marked up "Medium" in an attempt at psychological warfare.

I wonder if the French will be sending super-sized doughnuts to America marked as "Small"?

[Ben Bonsall]

Re: My head exploded.

Probably based on the (also probably apocryphal) WWII story- Royal marines discovered that a condom stretched over the barrel of their machine guns stopped the oil from turning waxy on cold nights. Churchill heard about this, and approved an order for 18 inch condoms to be issued to them for this purpose, on the condition that they were clearly marked 'Made in Britain' and 'Medium size'

[Tom 38]

Re: My head exploded.

I think this is the same as "slider" burgers. It looks incomprehensible, surely they'd be more in to half pounders, but no, they just eat 24 tiny slider burgers.

[dotdavid]

Re: My head exploded.

"It's only a small donut, look the hole is tiny"

[Mpeler]

Re: My head exploded.

And though the holes were rather small,

They couldn't count them all.....

[Mpeler]

Re: My head exploded.

If you were in California, that's San Mateo......at least our food is worth eating.....

[chivo243]

Million hotdogs?

Not so fast, the Nathan's hotdog eating contest happened just two days ago...

http://www.nathansfamous.com/contest

It will take a few weeks to get the hotdog inventory numbers back up to normal.

[disgruntled yank]

indeed

I agree that "smaller" is not what American cuisine is all about. However, even with all credit to French baking and the wonders of air freight, I don't see Paris as a reasonable source for doughnuts to be consumed here.

[Mark 85]

1,000,000 doughnuts???

I wish the article gave more info.. such as over what time period? I note in the link that they are frozen which some commenters seemed to have missed. Since they basically export most of their products, I'm guessing the only thing unusual is size of the order. If the customer is a commercial distributer, the whole thing makes sense.

[Whit.I.Are]

Re: 1,000,000 doughnuts???

The US gets through about 10 beeellion doughnuts a year, so 1 meeellion would last a bit less than an hour.

[John Brown (no body)]

As others have said....

...almost certainly frozen, possibly even uncooked.

On the point of the size, Yanks can't seem to make proper chips either, insisting on those skinny little fat-laden "fries" by the bucket load. The only reason for "french fries" is so MacD's etc can cook them faster and make more profit.

[Mpeler]

Re: As others have said....

That's because we don't like your oversized fat-laden chips that are still dripping with oil when they hit the plate...

Ahhh, WimpyBurgers... Always wondered what they had to kill to make that patty...heyyy, where'd all the horses go...

[Anonymous Coward]

Delivery?

I'm told that quantity of doughnuts, placed in a line, will reach from France to the US, but the ones in the middle will be a bit soggy.

[skeptical i]

While Berlidon's donuts (or doughnuts) are no doubt quite tasty

when they're fresh made on-site, will they really be that much more fabulous than what a local Las Vegas-based baker can crank out? Will the average Vegas customer even notice? Yay for Berlidon's, but the local bakeries in Vegas can't be too pleased about this squandered opportunity.

[Mpeler]

Re: While Berlidon's donuts (or doughnuts) are no doubt quite tasty

Do, or donut.

There is no fry...