In a separate book, called "Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution" contains a segment on Taco Bell. The book itself has plenty of sound practices and I enjoyed reading it. Regarding Taco Bell, the book says that in the pre-historic days of the 1980s, probably when Tony worked Taco Bell, the chain as a whole was not healthy and not as well off as the other larger chains. In an effort to improve the operational efficiency, the kitchens were downsized, and much of the cooking is now done off premises. The book goes on to say that although the physical building sizes of a Taco Bell has not increased over the decades, the amount of seating room has increased, in many cases doubled. The kitchens are reduced in size some to as little as 1/5 their original size. Etc. (I am paraphrasing the case study, as I do not have the book with me). So in the end, the company is customer focused rather than kitchen focused. The bottom line was affected very, very positively. As the execs discovered, in the prehistoric days of when Tony worked Taco Bell, having people with actual knowledge of cooking, and maintaining and cleaning cooking equipment *does not add to the profits and value* of the business. So they eliminated the maintenance and cooking by off-siting as much as possible, reducing the kitchens and increasing customer oriented space and perceived tastiness of the food.

Calvin

Hey, speaking of Tofu.. I'm by no means a vegetarian, I am a huge meat eater. Anyway, I discovered these chocolate covered tofu derivative ice cream bars. There is no actual dairy products used, but a form of Tofu. Barely any sugar, barely any fat... the nutritional label reads like it's nothing. They taste very good, I eat like 4 of them in a sitting ;-) without worrying. They're called Toffuti or something like that..

Calvin

Fast food burgers versus restaurant burgers -- definitely different animals. I maintain the bacon ultimate cheeseburger from Jack in the Box is still the best fast food burger. I have not found a favorite restaurant burger yet.

Calvin

Oh man, don't get me started on that line... haha. You outlined it well though... profits over all else. They all get rid of skilled labor in favor of uber-dumbed down tasks that require a minimum of training, to cut down on costs. The effects that has are far reaching... ludicrously high turnover rates in employment are one example, which benefits them in many ways, like lack of ability of their workers to organize, they don't have to provide benefits... etc etc. The worst of it is that it doesn't have to be that way... check out In 'n Out Burger... while not an angel... they pay $9.25 at the one down the road from me, prep all food in house, provide medical benefits, and at least make an attempt at being a good "corporate citizen". But i digress...

Profits over people/morality/conscience/social impact/environmental impact... this is what's now known as the American way. If you want to know the real scary [censored] going down these days, read the business section everyday. *sigh*

Loren,

The practices extoled in the book are firmly against uber-dumbed down task oriented specialists. They push heavily for elimination of specialist labor and essentially have the key players be generalists. E.g., cash register folks also run over to the back and put the tacos together, etc. Basically no need to have a dedicated person to whip up a taco, clean a bathroom, etc, same person does all the work. E.g. more work more pressure on the employees obviously, but a somewhat higher level of efficiency.

Calvin

interesting. Maybe i'll have to pick that book up. I seem to remember it being quoted in Fast Food Nation... but i could be way off on that.

Very interesting. This explains a lot.

I thought there was a change in the way they did things at some point. There was a period in either the late 80's or early 90's when our local Taco Bell (the one where I'd worked) sucked so bad that I actually stopped going for a year or two. Then it got new management and shaped up again, but since then, the food never seemed quite as fresh as when I'd worked there in the mid-80's.

That seems to be the timeframe I remember as well. The last time I had an awesome taco from Taco Bell was also right around the time they dumped the cinamon triangles for the twists.

There is still one or two Taco Bells here build around the old style kitchens. You can tell there are parts not used for anything now.

Hey! I miss those cinnamon triangles too

The "twists" have all the consistancy of styrofoam.

Just to add a UK flavour...

If you're ever in Bath, try Schwartz Bros. - there is (or was, not been there recently) one near Pizza hut and one on Walcot street. Absolutely gorgeous burgers, with the "order and get a number" system - no seating or anything else.

Absolutely amazing is the garlic mayo cheeseburger. Mmmmmmm

Hugo

What is scarry is that Taco seems to have improved its bottom line by making its product worse, with public so conditioned that 'market regulation' (i.e. that, with similar prices, buyers are expected to go to the guy with better wares) does not work any more.

Some local Croatian experience: When first McDonald's opened in Zagreb some ten years ago, there were queues so huge that police had to intervene... for a week. Now there are seven or eight of them, and I am sure the management is not satisfied with occupancy. They do all the usual marketing stuff: 'happy meals' with toys, kid's birthday parties, seasonal special offers etc; they even introduced a pork burger with hot mustard and lots of fresh tomatos and onions, so that it actually tastes reasonably good, and french fries are real potato. Salaries are low, but they cannot skimp on pension fund, medical benefits etc. Still, the favourite fast food remain deli-type sandwitches and something remotely similar to burger with Turkish origin (charcoal grilled ground meat patties - mixed beef and pork, originally is was mutton - very well seasoned (salt, pepper, onions, garlic), in something similar to pita bread - much more substantial than burger bun, only topping being a pile of fresh onions), typically sold in tiny establishments operated by the owner.

Although packed ground meat (both fresh and frozen) is available in supermarkets and groceries, no self-respecting cook will use it: every butcher will grind any cuts of meet one chooses. However, people in hurry do buy broiled chicken and pork or wienner schnitzels (veal, pork or turkey), ready-made salads etc. in supermarkets (and quality tends to be very good). Industrial food preparation does not have to mean abysmal quality if consumers are not brain-washed into accepting anything as long as packaging is right.

I ate at two different McD's in Zagreb (the bus station and just off of Tomislav square) and found that both were pretty much the same as home, sure was good to have a Big Mac after drinking Ozujsko all day....

So, John, you still prefer Big Mac to 'Cevapi u somunu', eh? Banja Luka was famous for them.

And I'm vegetarian!

All I can say is WOW to this post.

Lactose intolerant?

To add the Uk spice, www.burgerking.co.uk have a nice build your own burger thingy in Flash

But by far the best burger I've ever had has got to be from Gartengen between Vik and Sundvollen in Norway, expensive as hell, but well worth it!

For the best fast breakfast, there is a Burger King just 5 minutes drive from my house (7 miles or so - dont'cha just love the Edinburgh city bypass!) which until very recently would serve me a large Bacon Double Cheeseburger with extra bacon, extra cheese and mushrooms for £3. Admittedly they always complained and said they couldn't do all those toppings but every time I insisted they seemed to manage okay.


As far as fast dinners go, I have to recommend Thai food. We have a Thai restaurant which delivers the most gorgeous food imaginable, and doesn't even charge extra for the privilege.


mmm...sticky rice, Gai Pud Suppurod and a Stella (well, Thai beer really sucks!)

In answer ro the original question, a HAMBurger is about 99p in the UK, and a Whopper around £2.29

Although they do have specials for January
- Cheeseburger 69p
- Double Cheeseburger £1.29
- Triple Cheeseburger £1.69

It's great they run the specials to tempt everyone off the New Year diets ....

Re: Thai food, don't forget the Mee Krob!

I usually order the cheeseburger crappy meal at the drive thru.

Tofurkey is a tool of satan.

Evil, evil product.

And I'm not the biggest meat eater either.

why do they attempt to make vegetarian items that look like the original product that contains meat. like the garden burgers and the tofu hotdogs. why not just come up with original ideas. I haven't seen a tofurkey but is sounds scary

I saw them try to carve a Tofurkey on TechTV during the hollidays... It was like someone carving cooked spam.

It's easier to market alternatives to foods people are already familiar with. And veggie burgers are very conventient. Tofu hot dogs I can't tell from the other packaged brands in the supermarket myself, who knows what the hell is in oscar mayer hot dogs for sure. But Tofurkey and fakin bacon are especially scary because they attempt to look like animal products in a fairly natural state, where as hot dogs and pre formed burger patties do not. And trying to carve a tofurkey is just sad.

You hit the nail on the head there.... convenience.

That is why fast food is so popular, and why to market a healthy replacement to it, you have to include the ease-of-use.(with the added benefit that it won't kill you :> )

A few places here I can think of for "healthy" fast food are:

Quizno's - Sub shop that toasts the subs. Really good, and after working for one a few years back, they have pretty decent food standards. They have definitly expanded quite a bit recently.

Boston Market - Really good chicken and turkey meals from whole birds. Unfortunatly they haven't expanded much recently, and the one I went to all the time with a drive-thru closed down.

Crooked Grill - A resturaunt here in Colorado Springs that inspired the "loose meat" resturaunt seen in the TV show Rosanne. They were right across from my place of work a few years back, and I still stop by about once a month. They used to operate in another state under a different name.

Koya - Nice Japaneese place in the mall that serves quick meals similar to the big sit down resturaunts. It's usually where I stop now in the mall.

Those are the places I enjoy the most here that can still qualify as "fast" food. Usually the smaller ones are the best. After realising recently how many of my meals came in a combo deal with fries and a drink, I began reevaluating my habits.

Boston Market - Their quality went down hill when McDonalds bought them and they bacame McBoston McMarkets...

Kenny Roger Rotisserie - Anyone remember when Kenny Rogers created a semi-fast food chicken rotiserie restaurants?... Now these places was good before they went under.

no way boston market is great except the meat loaf that stuff is awful