McDonald's Reveals Its Restaurant Secrets

gosu_smurf

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7 Jun 2011
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Found this article explaining pretty in depth how Mcdonald's run it's show behind the scene. Quite informative with lots of photos..

Here in Singapore, McDonald's serves some five million customers a month from over 115 restaurants islandwide. First established in 1979 with an outlet in Liat Towers (once the world's best performing McDonald's restaurant), the hamburger chain is encouraging members of the public to participate in its "Open Doors" global initiative. Since 2009, over 5,000 customers have participated in this programme, inclusive of a guided kitchen tour. I suppose this is a good initiative to combat some of the controversies surrounding the burger behemoth.

Thanks to the good folks at Omy.sg, I had the chance to tour McDonald's restaurant kitchen at its King Albert restaurant as part of the Open Doors initiative. It was quite an eye-opener and I encourage those interested to know more to sign up for this.



McDonald's staff called "ambassadors" help to lead its restaurant and kitchen tours.


To keep things moving quickly on the frontline, ordering and fulfillment functions are kept separate, with staff working in a duo.


The world famous fries (crispy on the outside and fluffy inside) are deep fried in 100% vegetable oil with zero cholesterol. I found out that the oil is sometimes kept for 2 or 3 days - not exactly the freshest perhaps?


Frozen breaded meat (fish or chicken?) taken out to be deep fried and served.


This sign tells the crew the intensity of the crowd, from low, medium, high to ultra-high. Its a good way to gear kitchen hands on the speed/volume of production needed.


With explicit instructions like these, you shouldn't have an excuse for layering your sandwich wrongly!


Beef patties and chicken patties are cooked on separate griddles (beef left and chicken right) to cater to customers' religious sensitivities. And yes, all McDonald outlets are Halal since 1982.


Our tour leader showing how a raw quarter pounder beef patty looks like before it is...


...placed on the griddle and cooked. This is precisely timed - about 18 seconds I believe.


These trays contain the key meat items that will be assembled into burgers and other items on the fly. By doing away with food warmers (like in the past), McDonald's can ensure that their burgers do not sit for too long.


Just in time "Made-For-You" sandwich assembly ensures that food stays hot and fresh when served to customers.


Orders are conveyed on a screen like this to notify crew members on what's needed.


Shelf lives of vegetables and toppings are monitored to ensure freshness.


Lots and lots of buns in the house.
 
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gosu_smurf

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A butt-freezing -19 deg Celcius is maintained in its huge freezer.


This helps ensures that beef, chicken, fish and other food items are kept hygienic.


The huge storage area in the restaurant contained all the different dry and freeze-dried items used. Yes, fast food restaurants do need prodigious supplies of disposables to keep the grill running.


My favourite part of the visit was the staff quarters. Here, off shift crew are munching away on their free meals of burgers, frieds, shakes and more (what else do you expect?).


The crew noticeboard provides a wealth of information on daily procedures, best practices, learning points and more.


The 3 Service Hallmarks of a McDonald's restaurant staff. Surprisingly simple but highly commonsensical.


Yes, incentives are the way to go in propelling a world class service culture.


The 10 cardinal rules of Customer Service Opportunity (CSO) in McDonald's.


I like this "Enthusiasm Calendar" - a good way to boost staff morale and bonding through events and activities that drive team spirit, learning, and recreation.


At the end of our tour, we were treated to chicken wings, nuggets, fries, Horlicks McFlurries and more...


Here's famous food blogger Catherine of Camemberu showing us how to make the "Cheezels" tasting fries.

For more information on McDonald's food quality and safety issues, do check out the FAQs here. More photos of my tour are appended below for your viewing pleasure.

http://coolinsights.blogspot.com/2011/09/mcdonalds-reveals-its-restaurant.html
 
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7 Nov 2011
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This is good. All fast food chains are required to pass the Health requirements before they can operate a business. It is mandatory. Nice photos there.;)
 

Lee11

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2 Nov 2011
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I hate McDonalds. I tried it a couple of times and each time it left me feeling ill for days. I am not a masochist, so choose to stay away. Cheers for the insight, interesting!
 

LLuDawg

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12 Nov 2011
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I quite like McDonalds so it is good to see that they are trying to be higher quality. However I do not think all McDonalds are the same as some of the ones we have are certainly not that big and high tech. Great pictures! They make me hungry and want to work for McDonalds. Unfortunately I don't think the pay is the best haha.
 

mika

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3 Nov 2011
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Yes nice to know and see the efforts of giving quality foods and good quality service.
The most favorite part of the tour is the free taste in the end. lol
 

MellowGuy

New Member
8 Nov 2011
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I have never seen a McDonalds like this here in my area of the US lol. I think Singapore has done well in maintaining a more positive environment or at least from what these pictures show.

I've not worked in a McDonalds but I've done some time in other fast food restaurants and I must say the happy cooperative atmosphere in these pictures were not present at all during my shifts. The demand was always on "Ultra High" and the incentives were just not as appealing to work with.

And pray you never have an insider "tour" in a fast food joint here. They barely pass inspections.
 

Germs

Member
9 Nov 2011
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Very nice read, I've wanted to look around a McDonald's since i was a kid, but now i know whats there, thanks.
 

Alli

New Member
13 Nov 2011
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Interesting insight into their operations- it is amazing how streamlined they have everything, down to the exact number of seconds each thing cooks for...quite an impressive operation
 

karmaman

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21 Nov 2011
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I wonder if the food in Singapore is higher quality like the restaurant obviously is. The McDonald's here in America serve really salty, gross tasting hamburgers. The french fries taste good, but they're too unhealthy to eat more than once a month. I try to avoid fast food, and if I do dine out I go for something that tastes better than McDonalds.
 

Shawndellah

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29 Nov 2011
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Wow very fascinating to read. I really enjoyed seeing all the photos too of the stuff that really goes on in a McDonald's store. It makes you stop and think twice about what you're buying and putting in your body.
 

Sandy

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9 Nov 2011
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I used to live on fast food, with Mc Donald's being one of my all-time favorite "restaurants", grabbing a Fillet 'O' Fish combo every day for lunch. Now the thought of eating there, or any fast food place, is repulsive to me. After watching Fast Food Nation and hearing all the horror stories of what their employees sometimes do or add to the food, I never want to set foot in any of these establishments again. Yuck!