McDonald's sues critic who calls it 'obscene'

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McDonald's has been sued over burning coffee, blazing pickles, scalding tea and hot water in courtrooms around the world.

They have been threatened by vegetarians, environmental groups, homosexual rights advocates, obese children and most recently, a 420-pound man who says McDonald's wouldn't hire him because he was, well, 420 pounds.

Now the Golden Arches is striking back, and with gusto.

McDonald's regional headquarters in Italy is suing a fancy food critic for $25 million, saying his review of its cuisine hurt business.

"It takes a big effort to imagine this food as healthy," wrote Edoardo Raspelli in the Italian newspaper La Stampa in December.

"The ambience was mechanical, the potatoes were obscene and tasting of cardboard, and the bread poor. I found it alienating and vulgar," he continued, adding that McDonald's signature Big Mac hamburger is nothing more than "fodder" and that the restaurant "symbolized oppression of the palate."

Mr. Raspelli is the author of a dozen cookbooks and a proponent of the "slow food" movement, an Italian-based, antiglobilization group founded in 1989 by European restaurateurs and chefs who want the continent to return to its heritage of gracious dining.

McDonald's thought it was gracious enough, apparently. On Wednesday McDonald's attorney Allesandro Facchino appeared in a Milan courtroom to mount a defamation lawsuit against the food writer.

"What he said harmed my client's reputation, and it is completely false," Mr. Facchino told the court in a preliminary hearing. "We have the proof that McDonald's uses nothing but the finest ingredients, and we will go through this point by point."