The headline on Bing starts with this unlikely sentence: Why one former McDonald's chef...
That's falls into the category of "jumbo shrimp" or "deafening silence" - don't you think? So it must be time to head on over to find out what McDonald's chef might do and how would they attract a chef. That second question is easy - I would guess a lot of money would do it.
First of all, we're told that McDonald's does not have a single chef, instead it has a culinary team and Chef Chad Schafer is the Senior Director of Culinary Innovation. He works on core recipes like burgers and sauces. Chef Mike Lingo is a senior culinary manager who works on menu items and mentors newer chefs. Chef Janae Havis is a culinary innovation chef focused on food science and new flavour trends.
McDonald's most famous chef was Dan Coudreaut - he was with them from 2004 t0 2018. He is known for tweaking their recipe for the special sauce of the Bic Mac. Here is the magic moment: Mayonnaise Sweet pickle relish Yellow mustard White vinegar Garlic powder Onion powder Paprika
Wow! Can you imagine giving your culinary talents over to this? This is the stuff of cooking that my brother and I did when we were 10 years old. We loved adding ketchup to mayonnaise and spreading it on big Romaine or Iceberg lettuce chunks. Crunch, crunch. (You can buy it today as Heinz Mayochup).
On the other hand, I guess if there's a pot of gold involved, a person might do great things. What things would the current chef Chad Schafer be involved in? Changing the timing of when to toss the dehydrated onions onto the grill, or altering griddle batch sizes from eight patties to six, or switching to a brioche-style bun. It is brioche-style as there are no dairy, eggs or butter in a brioche-style bun. These just don't seem life-altering chef moments.
Hop over to the McDonald's website and see hat the current head chef - Chef Chad - aanswers to questions like:
I love being a chef because..."of the people I get to work with.
Being a chef at McDonald's..."is a privilege.
"We can make a difference in how the globe looks at food and the people that create it."
In closing, it is worth taking a moment to look at the contrasts we have in the world - we go from McDonald's juniour hamburgers starting at $1.50 U.S. to the most expensive single-portion burger on the planet is "The Golden Boy" - costing almost $6,000 U.S. Its onion rings are champagne-battered with Dom Perignon.
