Fast and quick meals
Arguably, the first fast and quick meals-food restaurants originated in the United States with White Castle in 1921. Variations on the fast-food restaurant concept include fast-casual restaurants and catering trucks. Fast-casual restaurants have higher sit-in ratios, offering a hybrid between counter-service typical at fast-food restaurants and a traditional table service restaurant. The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
The Big Mac hamburger made its debut in 1967. The Burger King Whopper sandwich made its debut in 1957. Some trace the modern history of fast food in the United States to 7 July 1912, with the opening of a fast-food restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots.
Most historians agree that the American company White Castle was the first fast-food outlet, starting in Wichita, Kansas in 1916 with food stands and founding in 1921, selling hamburgers for five cents apiece from its inception and spawning numerous competitors and emulators. The hamburger restaurant most associated by the public with the term “fast food” was created by two brothers originally from Nashua, New Hampshire. Prince Castle salesman Ray Kroc traveled to California to discover why the company had purchased almost a dozen of the units as opposed to the normal one or two found in most restaurants of the time. While fast-food restaurants usually have a seating area in which customers can eat the food on the premises, orders are designed to be taken away, and traditional table service is rare. Orders are generally taken and paid for at a wide counter, with the customer waiting by the counter for a tray or container for their food. A “drive-through” service can allow customers to order and pick up food from their cars.
Nearly from its inception, fast food has been designed to be eaten “on the go” and often does not require traditional cutlery and is eaten as a finger food. Modern commercial fast food is highly processed and prepared on a large scale from bulk ingredients using standardized cooking and production methods and equipment. It is usually rapidly served in cartons, bags, or in a plastic wrapping, in a fashion which reduces operating costs by allowing rapid product identification and counting, promoting longer holding time, avoiding transfer of bacteria, and facilitating order fulfillment. Because of commercial emphasis on taste, speed, product safety, uniformity, and low cost, fast-food products are made with ingredients formulated to achieve an identifiable flavor, aroma, texture, and “mouth feel” and to preserve freshness and control handling costs during preparation and order fulfillment.
This requires a high degree of food engineering. A value meal is a group of menu items offered together at a lower price than they would cost individually. A hamburger, side of fries, and drink commonly constitute a value meal—or combo depending on the chain. To make quick service possible and to ensure accuracy and security, many fast-food restaurants have incorporated hospitality point of sale systems. This makes it possible for kitchen crew people to view orders placed at the front counter or drive through in real time.
