From the same producers that brought you the behind the scenes look at why McDonald’s advertisements make food products look different than the actual thing, McDonald’s Canada is back to answer fan questions with a video demonstration.
The question at hand this time concerns the sauce used in a Big Mac, with the consumer wondering what exactly is in the sauce. If you expect McDonald’s to present an answer that reveals anything less than fresh, think again — this is an advertising strategy for the the fast food chain, after all. Instead of a straight answer, McDonald’s turns the fan question into an opportunity for viewers at home to learn how to make an authentic Big Mac right in their kitchen without waiting around for the frozen stuff you can buy in-store or the quickly-made one in an actual McDonald’s.
The video shows McDonald’s Executive Chef Dan Coudreaut cooking the burger “exactly” as he would in a retail store’s kitchen, except instead of using pre-made ingredients, he starts from scratch. As it turns out, a McD’s Big Mac is pretty simple to recreate, and uses basic ingredients you can find in any grocery store without any secret recipe. Coudreaut shows you everything from how to mix the sauce to shaping the burger patty to flavoring the meat as you cook it on the skillet and finally, how to construct and stack the two-layer burger. He also explains why the flavor profile is chosen to work that way, and what spices are used to add a certain tang and sweetness to the sauce. If only this video came out right before the Fourth of July.
Of the many videos McDonald’s Canada has released since the boom over the behind the scenes photoshoot a few weeks ago, this cooking tutorial proves to be one of the more helpful and interesting answers. Though this is smart advertising strategy for the fast food chain to both be more transparent and gain fan interactivity, not all videos are deemed successful. For example, another recent question asked was “Why is the food at McDonald’s so cheap?” and the short answer to the question was economy of scale (when McDonald’s purchase ingredients in bulk, they are able to offer competitive pricing thanks to the discount they get from sourcing). This video was unfortunately met with about 64 percent dislikes despite that the answer did hold some truth — for McDonald’s and all restaurants. Wonder why viewers seemed unhappy with the McDonald’s Canada CEO’s response.
If you want to learn how to make a original Big Mac, watch the video in 720p HD glory below.