By Kelsi Karruli for Dailymail.Com
19:28 05 Jul 2024, updated 19:32 05 Jul 2024
A former McDonald’s chef has revealed what foodies may not know about the chain, like what temperature its fan-favorite pies are cooked at and how employees were once trained.
Illinois native Mike Haracz worked at the company until 2019 and regularly shares his insider knowledge on TikTok about the fast food chain’s prices, burgers, and amazing secrets.
Recently, he delighted his fans with three things even the most die-hard McDonald’s fans probably don’t know.
In a video that has already garnered more than 31,000 followers, chef Mike shows which dish is cooked at a different temperature than the rest.
He also shared his thoughts on the action-packed location where the fast food giant trained its employees and tested new products.
The chef wrote with the fragment: ‘Former chef tells you the three things you may not have known.’
First, he revealed that McDonald’s uses the same supplier for several food products.
There is one dish, however, that has its own manufacturer, the former chef said.
He explained: ‘McDonald’s uses multiple suppliers for all of their products, not only because they are so big, but also because if there is a problem with one of them, they simply hire another supplier to make it.
“But there is one product for which they only have one supplier, and that is cakes.”
Secondly, Mike mentioned that for food safety reasons, there are certain rules regarding cooking temperatures.
There is an expression called ‘McDonald’s done’. This means that most dishes are cooked at 165 degrees for food safety reasons.
“But when you set cooking times and temperatures for food safety, you have to build in a buffer to make sure that even if you get the biggest chicken nugget in the worst fryer, it’s still cooked all the way through.
“So the average temperature should actually be 175 or 180 degrees. So, that’s when something is ‘McDonald’s done,’ it’s not going to be cooked to 160 degrees, it’s going to be way overcooked, which is your goal for food safety,” he explained.
Finally, the former chef talked about the facility (which has since closed) where the fast food giant trained its employees.
He explained that the large space was in the suburbs and that it was a great place for new employees to get up to speed quickly.
It was also used to test the products and crew placement.
Chef Mike compared it to a “movie set” and said it was always action-packed.
“It was a space of thousands of square feet where multiple kitchens could be set up to simulate life at McDonald’s,” he explained.
He also said that the people working at the facility were always cooking large quantities of food.
“The crew should actually carry out these orders,” he added.
So if you needed ’36 chicken nuggets or 50 milkshakes’ you could just get them.
Mike writes regularly about his time at McDonald’s. He previously explained why you shouldn’t go to a fast food restaurant before 10:30 and how menu items are determined in your area.