McDonald’s Open Doors 2011

Maureen
Maureen
September 20, 2011
Do you know?
– How food in Mcdonalds is prepared and served to customers hot and fresh?
– How Mcdonalds keep their world-famous fries crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside?
– What are the ingredients that go into our favourite McDonald’s foods?
Well, you will have all the answers when you visit McDonald’s Open Doors!

From 18 September 2011 to 19 February 2012, 25 McDonald’s restaurants island-wide will conduct 300 FREE sessions of kitchen tours, where members of the public will have a chance to step into McDonald’s kitchens and see for themselves what goes on in the kitchens and into the food.

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Tour started from the front counter to see how staff organize themselves. In a team of two, the staff in red shirt takes orders, and the other one in blue shirt is a runner where he/she will bring the prepared food to the counter.

On a daily basis, every restaurant conducts at least 72 safety checks. The kitchen floor is cleaned at least every hour to keep them grease free. Crews have to wash their hands every 15mins.

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Moving into the kitchen, we were first greeted by the fryers at the entrance. They have different fryers used for different ingredient. Each of them are adjusted to a suitable temperature and time. 100% vegetable oil, with no trans fat, is used to cook their famous fries. The french fries uses quality Russet Burbank variety potatoes and contain no gluten, wheat or beef extract flavouring. They filter the oil everyday and the oil is changed at least four times a week.

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Look at the blisters on the apple pie!
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The food is now made-to-order. Once you have placed your order, it will automatically go into the “Made-For-You” kitchen system.

There will be an initiator who upon reading from the screen for new orders, will start the process by toasting the buns. After that, it was passed on to the next crew who will topped the buns with salads and sauces. The following person will placed the warm patties on the buns, wrapped it up and placed on the counter to be served. You can always ask for more lettuce, more pickles in your food!

When handling raw and cooked food, different gloves have to be used. Blue glove for raw food, and transparent glove for cooked food.

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There are different grillers for chicken (right) and beef (left). If you are a fan of Mcdonald’s beef burger, here’s something to share with you. Only 100% beef is used in their burger. Their patties are made from whole cuts of forequarter and cooked on a grill with no oil added. Onl a dash of salt and pepper is used to bring out its natural and juicy flavour.

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To deliver consistency in their burgers, they even have instructions on how to assemble their burgers.

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This is the warmer for the meats. Once the green lights go off, it means the meat has expired. Different coloured tongs are used for picking different meat – blue for fish, green for chicken and red for beef patties.

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So that’s how dehydrated onions look like!
We also visited the storeroom. The heavier foods are placed in the lower racks and the lighter packagings are placed in the higher racks. They also leave gaps between the shelves and wall to allow air flow.

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Do you know which burger uses this bread?
The temperature of the freezer is kept at between -18° to -22° to ensure that food stays fresh. In here, patties, vegetables, cinnamon melts, frozen hotcakes and even eggs are found.

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Inside the Crew Room, the walls of the room were filled with announcements, notices and challenges which the management use as a communication board for the staff.

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After the tour, don’t forget to try out the new item on the menu -Holicks Mcfluffy. The crunchy bits made it a wonderful experience!


Here is the video of the Mcdonald’s Open Door 2009.

The kitchen tours will take place every 3rd Sunday of the month. Members of the public can now register online at http://www.mcdonalds.com.sg/opendoors

*This is an invited tasting*