OMG McDonalds shifting toward quality food at an affordable price

[DainBramaged]

remember the first time I decided to buy a Chicken Ceasar Salad for lunch from McDonald's. Because I'm not a big salad fan, I was a bit hesitant. I walked into McDonald's and heard the busy sounds of cash registers, fryers, people yelling orders, and the smell of fresh greasy fries. To my surprise, the meal was complete with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, onions, croutons and a succulent piece of chicken breast placed neatly above the forest of greens, partly sliced, and topped with spices. Not only did this salad look good, it was delicious! At this moment, the curiosity of what goes on inside the McDonald's kitchen filled my mind.

Meet Dan Coudreaut, the head chef and culinary innovation director at McDonald's headquarters. Chef Dan graduated top of his class at the Culinary Institute of America, and created elaborate meals at the Four Seasons Restaurants. He leads the staff of chefs at McDonald's sprawling kitchen based in the suburbs of Chicago. It is a lab of culinary creativity. Foods such as the Angus Burger, Snack Wrap and Asian Salad are the result of effort and prime ingredients.

The chefs come up with the idea, create the perfect blend of ingredients and finally market the final creation at an affordable price for more than 25 million customers who visit the 14 thousand McDonald's locations.

I think that the real challenge is to create complex, tasty meals at an affordable price. Usually, a quality meal that is healthy, like the salad, is priced too high for the average person to enjoy. McDonald's does this with simplicity and good ties with suppliers. The fast food concept helps cut cost because it ensures plainness when crafting meals at the main kitchen. For example, Chef Dan proposed making a basic sandwich with three sets of toppings as a general rule. This makes it easier for line cooks in all McDonald's chains to duplicate the recipe. All of the hard work is done at the headquarters.

This is a glimpse into the latest McDonald's strategy- affordable culinary innovation. It sometimes goes unnoticed because the menu remains constant for the most part. The company introduces new choices that blend in with the current menu options to not fully surprise customers. Dessert options have been rebranded with new milk shakes, sundaes, baked goods and now premium coffee. Now, of course, you will always get your usual fries and burger, but what's important is that you can be healthy with new alternatives. Doesn't sound like junk food to me.

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/09/18/mcdonalds-shifting-toward-quality-food-at-an-affordable-price/?icid=main|main|dl3|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walletpop.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F09%2F18%2Fmcdonalds-shifting-toward-quality-food-at-an-affordable-price%2F


Sounds like propaganda to me............

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[HopeHoops]

1. LOL! Man, The Onion SURE comes up with some good ones, eh?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[demwing]

3. MMmm...Onion Burger....

[BolivarianHero]

2. Unlikely, but theoretically possible...

They could probably sell very good things for cheap using economics of scale...hmm...Just like the public option :D

[fasttense]

4. I would be very careful about McDonald's fresh produce.

You know they buy it from the cheapest source. Never from local organic farmers. The cheapest source often lathers the food in pesticides and poisonous fertilizers, picks hard unripened pieces and gasses the food to make it look ripe. Not to mention pay their workers slave wages and treat pickers like dirt so that there are few clean facilities for pickers to visit between breaks.

Real produce can't take the punishment required to ship in and still be fresh and tasty.

[HopeHoops]

5. They don't HAVE fresh produce.

They have bad imitations of vegetables. The soda trays aren't the ONLY things made out of recycled cardboard!

[Cirque du So-What]

6. I generally avoid McDonalds like poison

but this past Friday I was in a hurry and the only place visible from the freeway was a Mickey D's. I decided to try the new 1/3-lb. Angus burger - $5 as currently promoted - and was pleasantly surprised. I got the 'deluxe,' which had mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, dill pickles, American cheese and Bermuda onion. This was the best burger I've ever gotten at McD - bar none. I won't be making regular trips there, but in a pinch, it'll definitely do!

[izquierdista]

7. Thank you, Ronald

However, you won't see me, because the last time I ate at McDonald's was 1975. Coupons in the college newspaper enticed me in, the cardboard burgers told me never to return.

[TwilightGardener]

8. McD's Southwest salad is very good. They even give you a little

lime wedge. Don't understand why people have to find fault with EVERYTHING they do.

[Obamanaut]

10. You asked an easy question to answer. Even though the salad

might be good, and they are making an effort to offer stuff other than greasy fries - McD will not be accepted here.

And if you go in Walmart, DO NOT mention it here. A brazillion posts will be made along the line of "I've not stepped foot in one since the dawn of time."

If all DU members were required by law to have a DU bumper sticker, I betcha we'd see some of those stickers at both of those "hated" places.

[TwilightGardener]

11. Yep--I shop at WalMart, eat at McDonald's sometimes...in short, I'm an

ordinary American, but I know that's frowned upon here. Oh well, anyone who has a problem with it can go piss up a rope.

[Obamanaut]

13. LOL, and thanks for that n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. I love their breakfasts

The rest of their menu sucks, IMO.

[ikri]

12. Remind me again about those "healthy" salads

That Chicken Ceasar salad certainly is a complete meal, just one slight issue with it

The Chicken Ceasar Salad contains more fat, salt and calories than a Big Mac!

30 grams of fat (8 saturated) and 525 calories in a Chicken Caesar Salad compared with 21.5 grams of fat (9.5 saturated) and 485 calories in a Big Mac.

If they start talking about "healthy" or "affordable" options then look hard at what's being hidden.

[DainBramaged]

14. Those who condemn us for condemning McD's condemn others to a world of fat

and fat is the gospel of McD's, along with salt and sugar,

YUCK

healthy my wrinkled, white, hairy, pimpled ass.