Flipping burgers in McDonald's may not seem a glamorous career option for a law graduate from the prestigious Paris II University in the city's Latin quarter. But, for Denis Hennequin, joining McDonald's at 21 as an assistant manager, responsible for everything from cleaning tables to making Big Macs, proved a masterstroke.

Twenty-six years later, Hennequin has just finished his first year as president of McDonald's Europe. He is the first non-American to hold the post, which is one of the top six jobs at McDonald's, the iconic and biggest fast-food outlet in the world.

"Many of McDonald's top-level management work their way up, often starting as part-time employees," says Hennequin, who was attracted to the fast-growing McDonald's brand, which at the time had just 17 outlets across France.

"In the legal profession I could have waited until I was 55 or 60 to become a partner in a big law firm, but at McDonald's I was told there would be opportunities. It was growing fast."

Working his way to the top of the corporate ladder in McDonald's France, Hennequin spearheaded the firm's expansion there to 1,061 restaurants. It is now one of the firm's most successful markets in Europe, where McDonald's spans 41 countries, has 6,300 restaurants and annual turnover in excess of $7 billion (€5.51 billion).

But even for a Frenchman, selling burgers in the gastronomic capital of the world was not simple. In one famous incident in 2002, an activist farmer drove a tractor through a McDonald's outlet in southern France to protest against Americanisation.

"To me, love and hate is the strange relationship between the US and France," says Hennequin, who speaks English with an American twang. "The French are fascinated by the success and the aura of the US in many ways - film, movie directors, music and culture - and there has always been competition between the French and the US."

Following the attack, Hennequin decided that McDonald's had to speak loudly and express its own point of view. He pursued an "open doors" policy, taking out national advertisements and setting up a freephone service to explain the ethos of the firm.

"We are born in the US, we are a global brand, but we are a local company. We employ French people, French entrepreneurs are our franchisees, we have local suppliers," he says. "So while globalisation can be criticised for de-localising and destroying some jobs, McDonald's does the opposite. We are the good side of globalisation, bringing a positive contribution to the countries where we operate."

Despite the positive comments by its executives worldwide, criticism of McDonald's is fierce. A quick trawl of the internet highlights several anti-McDonald's websites blaming it for everything from destroying forests to lowering labour standards and making children fat.

The hugely popular Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me, in which Morgan Spurlock gorges on Big Macs and fries for a month, has also done the firm few favours by associating it with an obesity epidemic that is alarming politicians.

"I think it [ Super Size Me] was damaging for our people. There is a pride in working for a company and trying to do well in your job, but if you look at purely the business results, I think it didn't have an impact," says Hennequin, who accuses people of making a scapegoat out of McDonald's by blaming it for the obesity crisis. "We have done a lot of work with nutritionists and with the public authorities. We do accept we need to be part of the lead to come to a solution, but not to be blamed as the originators of the problem," he says. "It is a complex situation that has to be addressed by all stakeholders . . . When I was a kid I used to rollerskate to school, but I don't allow my kids to rollerskate to school. Kids have access to computers and TV programmes all day. Parents are working and the fridge is open. Guess what kids do when they come back home from school?"

McDonald's is addressing the problem by providing healthier options in its restaurants. For example, it is now the biggest single seller of apples in Britain following the launch of its fruit portions, says Hennequin.

But all the bad publicity following Super Size Me has done little to curb Europe's appetite for Big Macs. Following a rather lacklustre performance last year, McDonald's Europe sales have rebounded over the past two quarters. August store sales grew 8.8 per cent on their performance last year, led by the three biggest European markets of France, Germany and Britain, while overall McDonald's second-quarter sales in Europe were the company's best results in a decade.

"The US has had some success in their turnaround but Europe has been a little slower. It is 42 countries, it is not a united states of Europe, so it did take a little more time to find out what synergies we could build," says Hennequin. "My three strategies to turn around Europe were upgrading the customer experience, building the brand transparency and being locally relevant."

Since 2001 McDonald's has also shifted its growth strategy to focus on increasing sales and customers in existing stores rather than opening new outlets. Even so, in Europe McDonald's opens 150 new stores every year, spreading the "golden arches" brand further east to exotic states such as Belarus, Georgia and even Azerbaijan.

So has Hennequin any ambition to go west and work at the corporate headquarters of McDonald's in the US? A wry smile suggests he is not ruling anything out, but a Frenchman selling burgers to the Americans, now that really would be something.