On March 9, 1981, just two weeks after the 23-F, the first McDonald's in Spain opened at number 52 Gran Vía in Madrid. From that afternoon, a sepia-colored photo remains showing about 20 employees behind the counter - today there are more than 20,000 throughout the country - and, above their heads, a panel with no more than 10 products and their prices in pesetas. The regular hamburger - hamburger, as the sign read because suddenly Spain was very modern - cost 75 pesetas. The cheeseburger, 80, and the Big Mac, 140. Large fries, 65, and regular size, 50. Beer was only 45 pesetas.
That day, 10,000 hamburgers were served in the center of Madrid, and the workers recounted years later that when customers ordered a beer, they would stand at the counter drinking it as if they were leaning on the bar of a street bar.
It took exactly 30 years since its landing in Spain for McDonald's to launch in its more than 400 locations across the country the McIberica, an exclusive burger for our market that included manchego cheese and a slice of Iberian ham from black pigs fed on acorns and chestnuts. For some reason, the invention did not quite succeed, and the McIberica was transformed into a simple toast with ham when the chain started offering breakfasts. Today, you can also order a toast with Spanish omelette and even a bottle of gazpachomade in Spain.
Between the image of the hamburgers on Gran Vía in black and white and those mcmolletes of mcjamón with a sip of mcgazpacho that you can order at any Spanish location, almost all the secrets of the largest restaurant chain on the planet are hidden, as well as an x-ray of our society that the New York photographer and writer Gary He has now expanded in McAtlas, a visual and social anthropology on the implementation of the golden arches chain worldwide, from Madrid to Taupo, from San Bernardino to Kuala Lumpur. A book about McDonald's that - He warns - is not a book about McDonald's.
"This is not a corporate book, it is not the type of story that companies commission to commemorate a milestone. I am an independent journalist, and McDonald's Corporation had no editorial control over this work," he warns in the first paragraph of his work.
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"Around the world, there is no restaurant where people eat more frequently than at McDonald's," Gary He says. "I hope the book challenges preconceived ideas and changes the way people think about McDonald's in the world, its impact on eating and consumption habits, and how it functions as a crossroads of cultural cuisines, perhaps now more than ever."
Opened in 1996, the McSki is located at the Lindvallen ski resort in Sälen, SwedenGARY HE
He's journey starts in Morocco. "I had always been fascinated by the novelty of McDonald's international products, but in 2019, when I went to a McDonald's in Marrakech, during Ramadan, something changed in my mind," the author recounts from Brooklyn. "They offered an ftour food kit (the meal with which Muslims break their fast at sunset): harira soup, dates, shebaquia, and a yogurt and milk drink. This cultural change in the menu of the American chain intrigued me, but when I tried to find more information about McDonald's Ramadan menu, I found it difficult, there were only scattered fragments on various websites. It was a great opportunity to be the person who documented this common thread in societies around the world."
After the pandemic, the photographer packed his bags and traveled the entire McDonald's world in McDonald's for three years. Over 50 countries, six continents (Big Macs are still not sold in Antarctica), and hundreds of restaurants to tell how the company has adapted to each scenario. "Every item I photographed was purchased at a McDonald's and presented as a customer would see it: without studio photographic styling tricks, without fake ingredients, no avocados or cutting boards on the side to give the scene a special touch," he explains. "The final result is a collection of hundreds of photographs from over 50 countries documenting the McDonald's locations that allowed it to reach the top of the global food chain."
Gary He visited the McSki, a location opened in 1996 at the Lindvallen Swedish ski resort that has a window at the foot of the slope where you can pick up your Big Mac without even taking off your skis. He devoured the Green Chile Cheeseburger, exclusive to New Mexico, at the UFO-shaped McDonald's that opened in the conspiracy city of Roswell in the early 2000s. He ate on a decommissioned Douglas DC-3 airplane converted into a franchise of the chain in Taupo, New Zealand. He ordered a Maharaja Mac in India, the only country where they do not sell beef burgers. And he savored the marinated chicken bones served within the menu in China.
McSpaghetti is one of the star dishes on the menu in the Philippines.GARY HE
"It's the most surprising thing I've found," says He, the son of Asian immigrants. "As a child, I saw my parents chew the bones until they turned to dust, something very common among the Chinese and very different from American eating habits. However, I was able to document that McDonald's in Shenzhen sold boxes of slightly fried tail bones, ribs, and cartilage pieces."
-Of all the dishes McDonald's has created to adapt to local cultures, which one has been the most successful?
-The answer is clearly the Filet-o-Fish, created in 1965 by Lou Groen, a Cincinnati franchisee, to attract the local Catholic population that did not eat meat on Fridays. The dish was so successful that it spread throughout the country and is now sold in almost every market where McDonald's is present. Any of the local dishes introduced worldwide could follow a similar path...
-And which McDonald's dish would you never try again?
-I really didn't like the gratin potato from Australia, which was McDonald's version of the same dish that is so popular in Australian fish and chip shops. In fact, I tried it in several establishments to make sure. Apparently, the locals agreed with me, and the promotion did not last long.
-Is there still an iconic McDonald's product, or has its brand diluted in each culture?
-The fries. Long after McDonald's has disappeared, the science behind perfecting their fries will endure in all restaurants, from fast-food chains to high-end bistros.
The first McDonald's in China opened in Shenzhen in 1990. The star dish: marinated chicken bones.GARY HE
Perhaps the only thing more recognizable than their fries is the McDonald's logo, two golden arches that were part of the original structure of one of the first restaurants that Richard and Maurice McDonald opened in San Bernardino, California, in 1952. Gary He cites several studies that claim that the chain's brand is now more recognizable than the Christian cross: "McDonald's may even be more popular than Jesus Christ".
Their arches now crown nearly 42,000 establishments in over 100 countries and serve more than 75 million customers daily, generating around $130 billion in annual global sales. And McDonald's products have not only raised our cholesterol but have also influenced world geopolitics.
In 1986, The Economist magazine devised the Big Mac Index to measure the purchasing power and standard of living of each country based on the price of McDonald's most famous hamburger in each territory. And in 1999, New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman developed the theory of golden arches, according to which no country with a McDonald's in operation has ever gone to war with another country that also has a McDonald's.
McDonald's churros were born in Mexico, but are now included on menus in South Korea, Turkey, and Qatar.
McDonald's churros were born in Mexico, but are now included on menus in South Korea, Turkey, and Qatar.GARY HE
The theory lasted only a few months—since then, India and Pakistan, Israel and Lebanon, and Russia and Ukraine have been embroiled in conflict—but at least it served to identify the presence of the hamburger chain as an indicator of a globalized economy, political stability, and capitalist openness. "Sometimes we exaggerate the importance of the tricks used by writers and publications to attract attention," says He. "But all this shows the extent to which McDonald's is a shared experience."
In 1967, the first McDonald's outside the United States opened in Canada. In 1971, it arrived in Tokyo, the Netherlands, and Australia. In 1979, the Happy Meal began to be distributed throughout America, and in 1983, McNuggets. In 1990, the restaurant opened in Moscow, and in 1992 in Beijing.
-How long will it take to open a McDonald's on Mars, Mr. He?
-We'll probably see one in Antarctica first!
And then maybe we'll see a McSeal menu with penguin nuggets and cormorant sundaes...
"McDonald's has been able to adapt to cultural differences, something I don't see in many other chains," says the author of McAtlas. "Over the years, this has created a strong affinity with the brand which, despite the geopolitical challenges of being the symbol of Americanism, makes the brand a favorite among customers around the world."
Opened in 1953, the McDonald's on Lakewood Boulevard in Downey is the oldest in operation.
Opened in 1953, the McDonald's on Lakewood Boulevard in Downey is the oldest in operation. GARY HE
There is a scene in the movie Pulp Fiction that perfectly sums up the McDonald's strategy portrayed by Gary He in the pages of McAtlas. You may remember it, with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson sitting in a cream-colored 1964 Chevrolet Malibu:
"You know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?"
"Don't they call it a quarter pounder with cheese?"
"They use the metric system, they wouldn't know what the hell a quarter pound is."
"So what do they call it?"
"They call it... a Royale with cheese."
-Royale with cheese... And what do they call a Big Mac?
-A Big Mac is a Big Mac, but they call it... Le Big Mac.
-Le Big Mac... Ha, ha, ha... And what do they call a Whopper?
-I don't know, I didn't go to any Burger King.