A small tour…….in McDonald’s kitchen!

What good is a blog if there is no mention about food if the blog itself is a meal in itself? 😀 So, here goes the first post about food! Yesterday I happened to go to McDonald’s at SRS(no one seems to know what exactly this stands for. That’s what my friend claims) near Peenya Industrial area. If you are surprised that a McD is open in such an area, so was I the first time I heard it. This branch seems to be far better w.r.t to the ambiance compared to the one in Gopalan mall.

While me and my friend were gulping down McChicken, a petite young lady comes up and asks, “Do you want to see the kitchen, sir?” We didn’t expect that one coming! This seems to be a new initiative by McD to help improve the customer relation and also a form of marketing. Good going! We agreed for this and the lady took us around explaining how the the great McD kitchen works. Lets begin the tour.

Before we enter the kitchen, we are given muslin caps to be worn. As soon as you enter, on the left you find the French fries being scooped and put into the cardboard containers.

Scoop in the golden food!

Immediately to the right, you find the potato fingers being fried. The oil is boiled only at a particular temperature and for a specific time which ensures that you don’t get fries which are over/undercooked.

Fresh potato fingers being fried

Right opposite to this is the counter where the veg burgers are prepared. McD ensures that the veg and non-veg sections are segregated. This ensures that the vegetarian guys don’t end up actually finding a chicken patty in their McAloo Tikki. Hehehe… We got to see how a McAloo Tikki is made. It’s a fairly simple process. I clicked the next 3 pics secretly since one of the staff mentioned that we are not supposed to shoot photos. When you can freely let in customers to the kitchen and show how things are done, why not allow pics. Heck! Are they scared that we might capturing a rat in a pic? 😀

For all burgers, the buns go into a grill which flattens the bun to a large extent. It sits there for around a minute before it is pulled out.

Then comes the layers in your sandwich…. The guy at the very back was still doubtful if I had stopped clicking the pics…… or was he verifiying an order which had just come in? 😉

Tada! Your meal is served

The 2 steel contraptions which you see right above the ingredients containers are used to dispense mayonnaise. Pull the trigger and the goop falls right in the middle of your buns. The board which partially reads “shelf life” shows how long each ingredient can be used. The arrows are turned based on the number of minutes it has been out of the cold storage. The maximum time which was set was set for the onions of about 2 and half hours(if I remember right). If the ingredient is not used within that time, it goes straight to the bin. Wonder how many hotels follow this in India? I had heard about this kind of working abroad, but it is really wonderful to see in India as well.

The non-veg section is pretty much the same picture and we are taken to the storage section inside.

Packing storage(left) and the cold storage with vegetables(right) Digu is wondering what to do in case we get stuck inside 😛

The freezer feels like we have just walked into a snowy region in our T-shirts and I want to be out of there within 20 seconds. The cold storage mainly houses stuff such as cheese and patties. Most of the food come from Pune.

Say cheese and cuckudoo! 😀

Utensil cleaning area. Small, yet does the job

After all this, we are given a feedback form and we give a positive feedback (honest!) and for that, we are given ice-creams! Digu and me actually posed for this shot. Hehehe…. 😛

That was  really wonderful experience and would like to know if other branches are doing the same. I’m pretty sure M.G. Road and branches in malls can’t afford for these kind of tours because of the crowd. It’s tough to handle kids and not a good idea to have them in either McD’s or our own kitchen at home. Wait for more foodie posts in the future 🙂