It’s hard to imagine a world without hamburgers. It has become part of pop culture and has blossomed from a billo snack into one of the most popular dishes in the world. However, there is still debate about which pioneer of culinary art can take the credit for this culinary coup. There are many theories about who invented the dish. Whether the hamburger made its way overseas from the beautiful German Hanseatic city of the same name or was first developed in the USA or whether in reality someone completely different had a hand in it – we can’t say 100% yet.
What is undisputed, however, is that the hamburger began its triumphal march in a fast-food restaurant in Los Angeles at the end of the 1940s. The basis was McDonald’s system catering, which made the hamburger its core product. Five absurd burger facts dug from the back rooms of the Internet Archive.
In the ’60s, McDonald’s had a problem. During Lent, burger sales plummeted so much that the fast food chain had to come up with something. This is how the first prototype of a veggie burger was created. He flopped tremendously. Only six of the “Hula” burgers are said to have been sold at the time. It simply didn’t suit customers’ tastes; it was probably too extravagant. It was, in the truest sense of the word, a slimmed-down version of Hawaiian toast. Just a grilled pineapple ring was placed in the bun and a slice of cheese on top.
And then there’s this story about the boxer Cassius Clay. He had just won the Olympic gold medal in boxing in 1960. According to legend, he walked into a fast food restaurant with the medal, placed it conspicuously inconspicuously on the counter, and then ordered a burger. There he was told: “We still don’t serve n******.” (in the friendlier translation: “We still don’t serve black people”, where the word serve also stands for serving). Cassius Clay, who was also notorious for his verbal quick-wittedness, is said to have countered the racist statement: “That’s okay, I won’t eat them.” Cassius Clay later called himself Muhammed Ali. The late American is considered the greatest boxer of all time and is the only person to have won the world title three times.
In the USA, the cheap burger chain McDonald’s had to deal with resolute regular customers a few years ago. It started with a slice of cheese and ended with a lawsuit. The two customers came regularly to the fast food restaurant in Florida and preferred to eat the Quarter Pounder, which is roughly what is sold in Germany as Royal TS. They just didn’t like the cheese on it and had the staff take it down. The problem: Even though they ordered the burger without cheese, the price didn’t change. This annoyed the Pfennigfuchser so much that they filed a lawsuit against the fast food chain in 2018. They asked for a whopping five million dollars. The Miami Herald quoted the indictment at the time as saying that the customers were “forced to pay for two slices of cheese they did not want, order or receive, in order to purchase their coveted product.”
Oprah Winfrey is a superstar of US television. Her show had an immense influence on the country’s pop culture. Books that she recommended became bestsellers, and things that she condemned were no longer taken lightly by Americans. This phenomenon became known as the “Oprah effect.” Her power was so great that in 1996, with a little burger comment, she angered Texas ranchers so much that they sued Winfrey for more than ten million dollars. After a post about the beef industry, Winfrey said she would never eat a burger again. As a result, beef prices collapsed. In 2002, after years of legal wrangling, a judge finally dismissed the lawsuit. And Winfrey’s beef scandal was over.
Burgers are no longer just available in fast food restaurants. Hamburgers with all sorts of extravagances have been trendy for a while now. Burger restaurants have been popping up in recent years, especially in urban areas. Even in the most upscale restaurants, burger variants are no longer frowned upon, but are actually in vogue. So it’s no surprise that, in addition to the cheap burger offerings, luxury variants are now also being offered for sale. Larger sums of money are then due for this. The currently most expensive burger in the world is available in Las Vegas at the famous Mandalay Bay Hotel and is a creation by chef Hubert Keller. For the Fleur Burger 5000, hungry people have to shell out the equivalent of more than 4,600 euros. There’s Wagyu beef, truffles and foie gras.
