What is termed fast food in the United States today most commonly consists of hot, freshly prepared, and wrapped food items, served to customers across a counter or through a drive-up window. Known as both fast food and quick-service food in the restaurant industry, these items are routinely sold and delivered in an amount of time ranging from a few seconds to several minutes; they now vary widely in food type, encompassing virtually all kinds of meats, preparation methods, and ethnic cuisines. Inexpensive hamburgers and french fried potatoes are still the products most readily identified as fast food, but the list of items sold in the format continually increases. Fried fish and shellfish, hot dogs, chicken, pizza, roast beef, and pasta are commonly sold at quick-service outlets. In addition to these staples, many quick-service restaurants sell a broad menu of Americanized Mexican, Greek, and Chinese foods. Some fast-food outlets offer specialty items, such as sushi, clams, or ribs, and others even sell complete home-cooked meals over their counters. Though menus and delivery formats vary greatly, fast food s chief common denominators include immediate customer service, packaging to go, and inexpensive pricing. The precise origins of fast food are vague, probably predating written history. Hungry people are as old as civilization itself, as are entrepreneurs eager to satisfy their hunger. Food vendors in ancient cities sold prepared items to passersby on the street. The actual foods varied greatly, depending on period and culture, but they generally comprised simple, inexpensive fare sold to people of modest means. Immigrants brought a variety of food styles to America, often preserving these for decades as a comforting connection with their ethnic past. Though many immigrant foodways were elaborate and ritualistic, most groups had one or two simple items that they consumed on a daily basis. As a rule, immigrant groups preferred their indigenous grains: corn from the Americas, rice from Asia, and wheat from Europe. Often these served as the basis for the peasant foods of their homelands. Pasta and flat breads came over with Italians; tortillas, beans, and tamales arrived with northbound Mexicans; and Germans brought dark breads, along with a variety of fatty sausages (which later mutated into the hot dog). Asian immigrants continued to eat rice as the basis of their diet.
In the early twentieth century fast food remained primarily the fare of the masses. Vendors wheeled their pushcarts daily to factory gates, selling their wares to hungry workers. Often catering to the tastes of the particular factory s dominant ethnic group, they charged customers pennies for basic items such as sausages, meatballs, or stew. Though popular among male industrial workers, this pushcart version of fast food never became mainstream cuisine.
The urban diner was the transitional phase between the vendor s pushcart and modern fast food. Most early diners were small restaurants, with limited seating, sometimes constructed out of converted railway carriages or streetcars. They served simple foods to working-class customers on a short-order basis, usually cooking each meal individually when ordered. Menus varied, but fried foods were common. Though diners often emphasized speed in delivering food, customers routinely lingered before and after eating.
The hamburger still stands out as the single most important American fast food, though the precise origin of this meat sandwich is the subject of historical disagreement. People have eaten chopped beef throughout the ages, and it was long a fixture in many world cultures. The lineage of the American hamburger seems to point directly, as its name indicates, back to the German city of Hamburg. First appearing on American restaurant menus in the mid-nineteenth century, ground beef patties bore the title hamburg steak. By the century s close, vendors regularly sold meatballs wrapped in slices of bread at county fairs and summer festivals. Regional legends attribute the invention of this snack to several different individuals, but its true originator remains a mystery.
The Rise of Modern Fast Food Our modern image of the fast-food restaurant dates back to 1916, when Walt Anderson began selling hamburger sandwiches from an outdoor stand on a Wichita street corner. Anderson simply flattened a meatball and placed it between two halves of a bun. His sandwich quickly became popular, attracting long lines of hungry buyers. By 1921, Anderson had joined local insurance broker Edgar Billy Ingram to form the White Castle System. After opening several identical restaurants in Wichita during their first year, the partners quickly spread their business to neighboring cities, then to nine major urban areas throughout the Midwest and on the East Coast. What separated the White Castle System from earlier shortorder restaurants was its very streamlined menu, comprising only hamburgers, coffee, Coca-Cola, and pie; a uniform architectural style; and strict standardization of food quality, preparation methods, and employee performance. By the close of the 1920s, White Castle s agaggressive marketing and rapid spread had made the hamburger one of the most popular foods in America.
Other entrepreneurs soon noticed White Castle s success in the hamburger business. Very closely copying White Castle s products, architecture, and company name, competing new chains also thrived, carrying the hamburger craze across the nation to smaller cities and towns. The White Tower chain appeared in 1925, eventually challenging White Castle s dominance in several northern cities. Krystal s, opened in 1929 in Chattanooga, soon became the hamburger powerhouse of the southeastern states. White Castle s hamburger sandwich, along with its many imitators, became a daily staple for many working-class Americans. It proved so successful, in fact, that by 1930 the president of the American Restaurant Association identified the fast-food hamburger as the most important food item in the nation.
Hamburgers became even more a mainstream food during the 1930s. The larger restaurant chains began marketing their products to middle-class buyers, and even more Americans became burger lovers. Despite the harsh economy of the Great Depression, most fast-food chains continued to thrive, and in many cases grew considerably. Most continued selling the White Castle Vstyle hamburger, but late in the decade the Big Boy chain spread east from California, introducing its new doubledecker hamburger sandwich along the way. By the end of the Depression, America was a solidly hamburger-eating culture.
After prospering in the Depression, however, the fast-food industry suffered a serious setback during World War II. Shortages of necessary foodstuffs, such as meat, sugar, tomatoes, and coffee, meant limited menu offerings and often a significant loss of business. Attempting to continue providing meals to their customers, fast-food restaurants experimented with different items that were still in abundance, including soy patties, chili, and french fried potatoes. Even more damaging than commodity shortages was the very low unemployment rate, which meant that most workers bypassed the restaurant industry in favor of higher-paying work. Adjusting to this labor shortage, chains soon replaced their all-male workforce with women and teenagers, two groups who would become their most common employees. Despite attempts to find palatable alternative foods, and despite the shifts in workforce, much of the fast-food industry was a casualty of the war; by 1945, more than half of America s restaurants had closed down, including several of the major fast-food chains.
Rebuilding the fast-food industry after the war proved a slow process. No single chain emerged to claim dominance, and little innovation occurred. Individual companies struggled to restore their prewar prosperity, and new regional chains tried to gain a foothold. Suffering the effects of escalating costs and still under the threat of continued shortages due to unstable food supplies in war-torn countries, fast-food restaurants often had to double prices to remain in business.
As population shifted from America s cities to suburbia during the 1950s, the fast-food industry quickly followed. Early chains such as White Castle and White Tower, resisting moving to the suburbs, were quickly eclipsed by upstart franchised chains. Burger King and McDonald s outlets became common fixtures at suburban crossroads, selling burgers, fries, and shakes to hungry families. Burger King s Jim McLamore and McDonald s Ray Kroc each sought to build one of his restaurants in every American town, and they opened hundreds of new Burger Kings and McDonald s each year in the 1960s. To accomplish this rapid expansion, they relied heavily on franchise investors, enforced strict product uniformity throughout their chains, and aggressively advertised in every newly opened territory. With Mc- Donald s and Burger King s success, Burger Chef outlets soon appeared nearby. Arby s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell were not far behind. By the late 1960s, fast food no longer meant just hamburger restaurants, but had diversified to include quick-service pizza, roast beef, chicken, and tacos. To give an idea of the dimensions to which the fast-food industry has grown, in 1999 Americans consumed over 26 billion pounds of beef, much of it as hamburgers. In that year McDonald s alone had more than ten thousand restaurants in the United States, from which it grossed in excess of $13 billion in revenue.
Criticism of Fast Food
Despite the widespread popularity of fast food in modern American culture,
...
What is termed fast food in the United States today most commonly consists of hot, freshly prepared, and wrapped food items, served to customers across a counter or through a drive-up window. Known as both fast food and quick-service food in the restaurant industry, these items are routinely sold and delivered in an amount of time ranging from a few seconds to several minutes; they now vary widely in food type, encompassing virtually all kinds of meats, preparation methods, and ethnic cuisines. Inexpensive hamburgers and french fried potatoes are still the products most readily identified as fast food, but the list of items sold in the format continually increases. Fried fish and shellfish, hot dogs, chicken, pizza, roast beef, and pasta are commonly sold at quick-service outlets. In addition to these staples, many quick-service restaurants sell a broad menu of Americanized Mexican, Greek, and Chinese foods. Some fast-food outlets offer specialty items, such as sushi, clams, or ribs, and others even sell complete home-cooked meals over their counters. Though menus and delivery formats vary greatly, fast food s chief common denominators include immediate customer service, packaging to go, and inexpensive pricing. The precise origins of fast food are vague, probably predating written history. Hungry people are as old as civilization itself, as are entrepreneurs eager to satisfy their hunger. Food vendors in ancient cities sold prepared items to passersby on the street. The actual foods varied greatly, depending on period and culture, but they generally comprised simple, inexpensive fare sold to people of modest means. Immigrants brought a variety of food styles to America, often preserving these for decades as a comforting connection with their ethnic past. Though many immigrant foodways were elaborate and ritualistic, most groups had one or two simple items that they consumed on a daily basis. As a rule, immigrant groups preferred their indigenous grains: corn from the Americas, rice from Asia, and wheat from Europe. Often these served as the basis for the peasant foods of their homelands. Pasta and flat breads came over with Italians; tortillas, beans, and tamales arrived with northbound Mexicans; and Germans brought dark breads, along with a variety of fatty sausages (which later mutated into the hot dog). Asian immigrants continued to eat rice as the basis of their diet.
In the early twentieth century fast food remained primarily the fare of the masses. Vendors wheeled their pushcarts daily to factory gates, selling their wares to hungry workers. Often catering to the tastes of the particular factory s dominant ethnic group, they charged customers pennies for basic items such as sausages, meatballs, or stew. Though popular among male industrial workers, this pushcart version of fast food never became mainstream cuisine.
The urban diner was the transitional phase between the vendor s pushcart and modern fast food. Most early diners were small restaurants, with limited seating, sometimes constructed out of converted railway carriages or streetcars. They served simple foods to working-class customers on a short-order basis, usually cooking each meal individually when ordered. Menus varied, but fried foods were common. Though diners often emphasized speed in delivering food, customers routinely lingered before and after eating.
The hamburger still stands out as the single most important American fast food, though the precise origin of this meat sandwich is the subject of historical disagreement. People have eaten chopped beef throughout the ages, and it was long a fixture in many world cultures. The lineage of the American hamburger seems to point directly, as its name indicates, back to the German city of Hamburg. First appearing on American restaurant menus in the mid-nineteenth century, ground beef patties bore the title hamburg steak. By the century s close, vendors regularly sold meatballs wrapped in slices of bread at county fairs and summer festivals. Regional legends attribute the invention of this snack to several different individuals, but its true originator remains a mystery.
The Rise of Modern Fast Food Our modern image of the fast-food restaurant dates back to 1916, when Walt Anderson began selling hamburger sandwiches from an outdoor stand on a Wichita street corner. Anderson simply flattened a meatball and placed it between two halves of a bun. His sandwich quickly became popular, attracting long lines of hungry buyers. By 1921, Anderson had joined local insurance broker Edgar Billy Ingram to form the White Castle System. After opening several identical restaurants in Wichita during their first year, the partners quickly spread their business to neighboring cities, then to nine major urban areas throughout the Midwest and on the East Coast. What separated the White Castle System from earlier shortorder restaurants was its very streamlined menu, comprising only hamburgers, coffee, Coca-Cola, and pie; a uniform architectural style; and strict standardization of food quality, preparation methods, and employee performance. By the close of the 1920s, White Castle s agaggressive marketing and rapid spread had made the hamburger one of the most popular foods in America.
Other entrepreneurs soon noticed White Castle s success in the hamburger business. Very closely copying White Castle s products, architecture, and company name, competing new chains also thrived, carrying the hamburger craze across the nation to smaller cities and towns. The White Tower chain appeared in 1925, eventually challenging White Castle s dominance in several northern cities. Krystal s, opened in 1929 in Chattanooga, soon became the hamburger powerhouse of the southeastern states. White Castle s hamburger sandwich, along with its many imitators, became a daily staple for many working-class Americans. It proved so successful, in fact, that by 1930 the president of the American Restaurant Association identified the fast-food hamburger as the most important food item in the nation.
Hamburgers became even more a mainstream food during the 1930s. The larger restaurant chains began marketing their products to middle-class buyers, and even more Americans became burger lovers. Despite the harsh economy of the Great Depression, most fast-food chains continued to thrive, and in many cases grew considerably. Most continued selling the White Castle Vstyle hamburger, but late in the decade the Big Boy chain spread east from California, introducing its new doubledecker hamburger sandwich along the way. By the end of the Depression, America was a solidly hamburger-eating culture.
After prospering in the Depression, however, the fast-food industry suffered a serious setback during World War II. Shortages of necessary foodstuffs, such as meat, sugar, tomatoes, and coffee, meant limited menu offerings and often a significant loss of business. Attempting to continue providing meals to their customers, fast-food restaurants experimented with different items that were still in abundance, including soy patties, chili, and french fried potatoes. Even more damaging than commodity shortages was the very low unemployment rate, which meant that most workers bypassed the restaurant industry in favor of higher-paying work. Adjusting to this labor shortage, chains soon replaced their all-male workforce with women and teenagers, two groups who would become their most common employees. Despite attempts to find palatable alternative foods, and despite the shifts in workforce, much of the fast-food industry was a casualty of the war; by 1945, more than half of America s restaurants had closed down, including several of the major fast-food chains.
Rebuilding the fast-food industry after the war proved a slow process. No single chain emerged to claim dominance, and little innovation occurred. Individual companies struggled to restore their prewar prosperity, and new regional chains tried to gain a foothold. Suffering the effects of escalating costs and still under the threat of continued shortages due to unstable food supplies in war-torn countries, fast-food restaurants often had to double prices to remain in business.
As population shifted from America s cities to suburbia during the 1950s, the fast-food industry quickly followed. Early chains such as White Castle and White Tower, resisting moving to the suburbs, were quickly eclipsed by upstart franchised chains. Burger King and McDonald s outlets became common fixtures at suburban crossroads, selling burgers, fries, and shakes to hungry families. Burger King s Jim McLamore and McDonald s Ray Kroc each sought to build one of his restaurants in every American town, and they opened hundreds of new Burger Kings and McDonald s each year in the 1960s. To accomplish this rapid expansion, they relied heavily on franchise investors, enforced strict product uniformity throughout their chains, and aggressively advertised in every newly opened territory. With Mc- Donald s and Burger King s success, Burger Chef outlets soon appeared nearby. Arby s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell were not far behind. By the late 1960s, fast food no longer meant just hamburger restaurants, but had diversified to include quick-service pizza, roast beef, chicken, and tacos. To give an idea of the dimensions to which the fast-food industry has grown, in 1999 Americans consumed over 26 billion pounds of beef, much of it as hamburgers. In that year McDonald s alone had more than ten thousand restaurants in the United States, from which it grossed in excess of $13 billion in revenue.
Criticism of Fast Food
Despite the widespread popularity of fast food in modern American culture,
...
