|| 12 September 2019

French Gyrocrêpe Machine

Why should a hurricane remind me of a French crêpe machine? Last week when I was so frequently checking the progress of Hurricane Dorian, I was doing so on the NY Times website page that showed an animated graphic, a revolving disc (representing Dorian), progressing up the eastern seacoast of the USA.

The little revolving disc reminded me of a recent email from our Chic & Slim Special Correspondent Kat in which she included a short video (Merci, Kat) of the Gyrocrêpe machine she had spotted in a Hypermarché E.Leclerc where she was shopping.

The Gyrocrêpe is made by the French company Gyrdis who promises the machine will make “180 sweet or savoury pancakes per hour, with a quality equal to handmade.”

I have no idea how many crêpes-per-hour a human can produce. As to whether the Gyrocrêpe's crêpes are equal to homemade, Kat did not comment. She apparently was not tempted to try one.

Like the French vending machines for pizza and baguettes on which I recently commented, the French crêpe machine seems un-French to those of us who think of French food as being more artisanal. But no doubt the hypermarché chain E.Leclerc sees the machines as a way of cutting labor costs for their 600 stores in France. Especially since it would be more difficult to hire a talented crêpe maker than someone who could simply pour batter into a machine.

As for weight control, the machine in a hypermarché makes it easy for someone to simply buy a crêpe instead of expending the energy to buy the ingredients, take them home, mix the batter and cook the crêpes. On the other hand, what is rolled inside the crêpe will also make a difference as to whether machine crêpes might cause weight gain. Steamed low-cal vegetables and slivers of chicken breast would bring different results than sautéed bananas drenched in sweet chocolate sauce and topped with brandied whipped cream.

be chic, stay slim — Anne Barone

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