Heard in Davos 2009: Dispatches from the Conference

Time for Burger King to Cater

If an army travels on its stomach, it's not surprising that the Davos army can be drawn by scents of comestibles.

AP

Cappucino in the morning is replaced by hot soup wafting in the chilling Alpine air near lunch. Like migrating birds, you can see groups of people slowly drifting off from their trudge to the conference center to the catering tables.

We've already heard from two of our guest bloggers on food and this was before lunchtime.

Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan wrote about how he is hoping the WEF moves away from so much fish and meats. And Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen likes the breakfast far more this year.

I've blogged a lot about the steady diet of pizza that happens. But I knew we had an opportunity when Burger King CEO John Chidsey walked into the CNBC trailer to wait for an upcoming interview just as our pizza lunch was being set up.

"Shouldn't this all be Burger King?" I asked, waving to the spread on the table.

He agreed and promised to work on it for next year. I'm holding him to it. (For those concerned about our journalistic ethics, the free food question has always been a thorny one in journalism. But we paid for the pizza, we can certainly pay for Burger King for one day.)

In fact, in these economic times, that's just the thing we should be doing.

As Chidsey told me, companies like Burger King, McDonald's and Wal-Mart are a little more insulated from the downturn as people look for value.

Just what value menu items $1 will buy you across the world depends on just how bullish you are on the greenback.

  • Watch the interview with Burger King CEO John Chidsey