--- title: National Hamburger Day: Julia Child on McDonald's Big Mac description: A meaty gem from the archives of TIME: In 1973, the magazine asked the world's top food experts to review McDonald's. Here's what they said. canonical: https://time.com/4347115/julia-child-big-mac-hamburger-day/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-27T15:30:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:41.869Z article:section: History og:title: What Julia Child Said About the Big Mac og:description: A meaty gem from the archives of TIME, in honor of National Hamburger Day og:url: https://time.com/4347115/julia-child-big-mac-hamburger-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefffd3061e8fbacb/698894cf3c163983c045d63f/burger.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hamburger og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Julia Child Said About the Big Mac twitter:description: A meaty gem from the archives of TIME, in honor of National Hamburger Day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefffd3061e8fbacb/698894cf3c163983c045d63f/burger.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is What Julia Child Said About the Big Mac > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 27, 2016 3:30 PM UTC  A Big Mac on an American flag napkin A Big Mac on an American flag napkinUlrich Baumgarten—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 27, 2016 3:30 PM UTC As far as food holidays go, National Hamburger Day—which falls on Saturday—isn’t exactly the fanciest out there. (National Truffle Day, for example, fell at the beginning of the month.) But in 1973, when TIME took a look at the [McDonald’s](http://time.com/3817181/mcdonalds-history-gallery/) “hamburger empire” in a [cover story](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-09-17/page/1/), that didn’t stop the magazine from giving the iconic sandwich its due. At the time, the fast-food chain had just recently surpassed the U.S. Army as the nation’s “biggest dispenser of meals,” even though some people saw that success as what TIME called “a devastating comment on American values.” So, the magazine asked the nation’s top voices on food to render a verdict on [McDonald’](http://time.com/4053832/history-egg-mcmuffin-mcdonalds-breakfast/)s once and for all. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Instructed to keep in mind that they were eating samples from a fast-food joint and not from “an aspirant to _Guide Michelin_ accolades,” they were given a chance to weigh in on whether popularity corresponded to taste. Here’s what Julia Child had to say: --- > “” --- The other reviewers were Craig Claiborne, James Beard and Gael Greene. **_Read the rest of the reviews, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Ratings From the Gourmets](http://time.com/vault/issue/1973-09-17/page/102/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4347115/julia-child-big-mac-hamburger-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4347115/julia-child-big-mac-hamburger-day/"},"headline":"This Is What Julia Child Said About the Big Mac","datePublished":"2016-05-27T15:30:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:41.869Z","description":"A meaty gem from the archives of TIME, in honor of National Hamburger Day","url":"https://time.com/4347115/julia-child-big-mac-hamburger-day/","keywords":["Food & Drink","Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefffd3061e8fbacb/698894cf3c163983c045d63f/burger.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefffd3061e8fbacb/698894cf3c163983c045d63f/burger.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hamburger","caption":"Hamburger ( Big Mac from Mc Donalds ) on an American flag, Feature: fastfood, American fastfood,,.","creditText":"Ulrich Baumgarten—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/food-drink/","name":"Food & Drink"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4347115/julia-child-big-mac-hamburger-day/","name":"This Is What Julia Child Said About the Big Mac"}}]}] ```