Back in January, I made a public spectacle of my relationship with the fast-food monolith, McDonald’s, in a column titled, “A break-up letter to McDonald’s.” The column outlined why I could no longer support the chain’s practices (unnecessarily gendered toys). But now I am ready to give McDonald’s another chance.
No, this does not mean any of the restaurant’s previous transgressions have been forgiven. We still have yet to see an end to its use of excessively gendered marketing, mistreatment of employees and detriment to the environment. But McDonald’s has made one serious stride toward improving its image.
The restaurant recently hosted a dinner in Tribeca, inviting celebrity chefs to cook gourmet meals for reporters and bloggers, in the hopes of diminishing the chain’s reputation as a junk food joint.
The goal was to demonstrate to the public, by starting with the press, that McDonald’s ingredients are not low quality, as their low prices indicate.
“The products … that we have across the menu are fresher than — no disrespect intended — what most of you have in your refrigerators,” CEO Don Thompson said at a conference in May.
Well, McDonald’s, consider this media puppet swayed. The only problem: These gourmet meals, obviously, will not be available for purchase at any McDonald’s restaurants. So the closest this dinner actually came to proving the ingredients’ freshness is proving a potential for freshness.
Even on a day-to-day basis, it makes sense that McDonald’s offers fresh ingredients when we consider how many customers any given restaurant cycles through in one day. It would be impossible for a McDonald’s not to have fresh ingredients.
So, I’ll grant that, yes, these ingredients are fresh and have the potential to create gourmet meals—given the right circumstances (in the company of press who will spread the gospel of a reformed Mickey D’s).
Does this dinner mean anything for actual and established restaurants? Probably not much. But the company is considering offering mandarins, as well as other fruits, in Happy Meals, which already include a bag of crisp green apples as a substitute for French fries.
Among salads and smoothies, a little extra fruit in a smiling red box seems a step in the right direction. But it still isn’t enough.
It won’t be easy to convince the public that a fast-food hamburger can be gourmet, let alone healthy, but it might do to convince it that a hamburger is not its only affordable option.
Should McDonald’s keep up this health trend, I might consider returning to my first love of the dining world.