Went for McDonald's Open Door Kitchen Tour today at the McDonald located at Sun Plaza, Sembawang. You can register for the Open Door Kitchen Tour here. There are limited slots for the tours as each tour is limited to 20 person and is held only once a month, on the 3rd Sunday of the month.
No photography was allowed. Hence, I am unable to have any photos of the kitchen
The Open Door Ambassador (ODA) was the one who conducted the tour, showing us the storage area, crew room and kitchen. He also explained to us how burgers and fries were cooked. Automation seems to play a big role in today's kitchen operations. Even the fries that are dispensed are automated. The duration to cook food, be it fries, patties or even burger bread are automated having a count down timer.The ODA kept emphasizing on hygiene, food safety, quality standard, freshness and best quality ingredients. I am very impressed with the ODA. He certainty did a good job in driving these messages during the tour and did well to engage us.
After the tour, this was given.
Again, it drives the key messages that McDonald wants to send to consumers. Whoever though of this Open Door Kitchen Tour is a genius! What a way to promote their key message and counter 'Super Size Me' without being seen as defensive. Or well, maybe I thought too much, this is not meant to counter the documentary. =)
Food for thought:
1) There are two different stoves. One for cooking only the beef patties, the other for chicken patties. This is to respect those who do not eat beef
2) The stoves for cooking the beef and chicken patties are automated.
3) The beef patties are kept for a maximum of 15 minutes before it is thrown away. This is to ensure that customers get juicy beef patty which are not dry or overcooked.
4) There are 2 sets of gloves. Blue ones for frozen/uncooked food. White ones for cooked food. This is to ensure high hygiene standards.
Conclusion:
I always wonder how McDonald's keep their food standards similar with their high turnover rate in the kitchen and with hiring of youngsters. Now I get it! The answer is due to automation in the kitchen and having count down timers for cooking duration. Moreover, kudos to their training and also supply chain operation which played an important role.
I remember doing a Burger King tour as a primary school excursion before! haha, it was fun. I just did a tour of Google office and blogged about it and their free food cafeteria. That was just awesome.
ReplyDeleteHi rubbisheatrubbishgrow. Really? Could you share the link on the post on Google office?
ReplyDeleteMcDonald's is my one of the favorite snacks channel. It is an interesting information about the McDonald's open door Kitchen Tour. Thanks for sharing with us.
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