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Created Apr 1, 2003 | Updated Apr 1, 2003

There is a joke that goes, “What are the four major food groups? – McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King and A&W.”

Fast food has become a part of every day life. Walk into any mall and you will see Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets nestled beside fashion boutiques and bookstores. Every street you walk down will have at least one fast food joint – more often than not, a McDonald’s with the signature yellow “M” outside. Fast food outlets have become the modern-day diner hangout central for adolescents, a quick and easy solution to rushed office lunch breaks, even a toy collector’s haven.

But fifty thousand years ago, “fast food” meant food that was slow-moving and easy to catch*. Our pioneering ancestors certainly didn’t have hamburgers and French fries for lunch. How and when was fast food born, and how did it evolve to become the teenager’s staple food in modern times?

Hot dogs - The world's first fast food

Long before there were hamburgers and milkshakes, there were - hot dogs*. Yes, you got that right.

The sausage, it seems, has always been a favourite food of humankind. It was a favourite fare back in the time of the Romans, and it certainly was a treat to King George VI (1895-1952) who ate his first hot dog in 1939 at a picnic organised by the Roosevelts in Hyde Park*.

The history of the baseball stadium/pavement stall hot dog can be traced to the year 850 B.C. where it was mentioned in Homer's "Odyssey":

"As when a man besides a great fire has filled a sausage with fat and blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it quickly roasted..."

It is said that Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar's cook discovered the first wiener some time around 64 A.D. Back then it was the custom to starve pigs for a week before slaughtering, so as to ensure that it would be clean and fit for eating. One roast pig that passed through Gaius's kitchen had apparently bypassed the cleaning process. Gaius slit the pig's belly to check if the pig was fit to eat, and was duly surprised when the pig's intestines popped out, puffed out and hollow. He exclaimed, "I have discovered something of great importance", stuffed the intestines with ground venison and bround beef mixed with cooked ground wheat and spices, and tied them into sections - and voila, the first wiener was born.

At the time, sausages were associated with a Roman festival called Lupercalian. Since this Lupercalian Festival was celebrated on February 14th and 15th, was the predecessor of the modern-day Valentine's Day, and included a sexual initiation rite, it is hardly surprising that when Catholicism arose and Constantine the Great embraced Christianity in 325 A.D., he completely banned sausage consumption.

Needless to say, the sausage was not seen again* until the 15th century when the Germans in Frankfurt developed the frankfurter - thick, soft, fatty sausages that Constantine would have hated. The modern-day sausage only came into being in the 1690s, however. It was created by a German butcher named Johann Georghehner, who subsequently went to Frankfurt to promote this new food.

German immigrants brought frankfurters with them to the U.S. in the 1860s, where they were sold with milk rolls and sauerkrauts from a push cart in New York City's Bowery. It was there that the frankfurter would evolve into the hot dog that we all know today.

How the frankfurter acquired a bun

In 1880, a German named Antonoine Feuchtwanger was peddling hot sausages in the streets of St. Louis, Missouri. His sausage business was not going well - because the sausages were piping hot, he felt obliged to provide a white glove with each purchase so that customers hands and fingers would not get burned. This, of course, did nothing to raise his profits. His more practical wife suggested that he cut costs by putting the sausages in a split bun - which his baker brother-in-law dutifully supplied in the form of long soft rolls that fit the meat.

Despite H. L. Mencken's derogatory description of them as "same rubber, indigestible pseudo-sausages that millions of Americans now eat, and they leaked the same flabby mustard", these hot dogs (called "red hots") did extremely well in the American society. Visitors who went to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 consumed massive quantities of them; in the same year, these red hots became the standard fare at baseball parks* (and would continue to do so until today).

Hot dogs?

Nobody is entirely certain where the word "hot dog" originated. It is said that in 1902 a sports cartonist by the name of Tad Dorgan was at a Giants baseball game, desperate for ideas as his deadline approached - when he heard concessionaire Harry M. Stevens cry out, "They're red hot! Get your hot dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" Inspiration struck, and he hastily drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. However, his spelling was none too good - a problem he solved by simply writing "hot dogs!" (this cartoon was, alas, never found)

Other sources credit Adolf Gehring as the inventor of the term "hot dog". According to this legend, Gehring, a food and drink vendor at a St. Louis ball game, had run out of ware and was forced to visit a baker to buy bread, and the butcher for sausages and wieners. The baker had only long dinner rolls, which the desperate Gehring bought. Having cooked the meat on a portable wood stove, he started making his rounds in the park. One man apparently hollered, "Give me one of those damn hot dogs", and soon practically everybody else in the crowd were calling out for "hot dogs".

Hamburgers in history

The history of hamburgers is somewhat hazy and debatable, since there is no clear documentation chronicling its origin. However, many claim that the first hamburger ‘patty’ was born in medieval times when the Tartars (a band of Mongolian and Turkic warriors) placed pieces of beef under their saddles. The meat, tenderized when the warriors rode, would then be eaten raw*.

The ancestor of the modern hamburger arrived at American shores in the nineteenth century when German immigrants brought with them a dish called Hamburg Style Beef, which in turn had been brought to Hamburg from Russia some time around the 14th century. It was in America that this raw, chopped piece of beef would evolve over time to become the succulent patty sandwiched in a bun that we call ‘hamburger’ today.

Now, it has been established that the development of the hamburger took place in America around the turn of the century. However, there is great dispute over what happened after the German patty arrived in America. Among the chief claims are:

Wisconsin claims that it is the “Home of the Hamburger”, and that the first modern hamburger was made by Charles Nagreen in 1885. According to this claim, Nagreen, at the age of 15, started a meatball business at the Outagamie County Fair, but his business was a flop because meatballs were hard to handle when one was strolling around. Inspiration struck, and Nagreen flattened the meatballs, stuck them between a couple of slices of bread, and named it a ‘hamburger’. The innovation apparently turned the business around, because Nagreen’s County Fair hamburger business continued yearly until his death in 1951. Today, Wisconsin boasts a Hamburger Hall of Fame, and holds an annual Burger Festival in August, whose events include “the world’s largest hamburger parade*”.
Another possible origin of the hamburger in the same year is Stark County, Ohio, where Frank and Charles Menches sold sausage patty sandwiches at fairs in the Midwest. Legend says that these brothers ran out of pork one day when butchers found it too hot and humid for the occupation of slaughtering pigs. Undaunted, the brothers simply substituted the sausage patty with ground beef, and named it ‘hamburger’ after Hamburg, New York, where the fair was being held.
Another claim dates the history of the modern hamburger to 1890 when Louis Lassen of New Haven, Conneticut served the first “burger” at his New Haven luncheonette, Louis’s Lunch, when he ground up some beef and served it in the form of a sandwich to a customer who had to eat on the run*
In a departure from the trend of claims that the hamburger was born in America, we find that a restaurant cook in Hamburg, Germany named Otto Kuasw was making his own hamburgers in 1891. This was a thin patty of ground beef sausage fried in batter and sandwiched between two slices of lightly buttered bread along with a fried egg. This sandwich, known as Deutsches Beefsteak, was the favourite of sailors who stopped at the Hamburg port. It is said that the sailors brought tales of this famous hamburger America in 1894 when they visited the port of New York and told restaurateurs there about Kuasw’s sandwiches. Needless to say, the restaurant chefs began making these hamburgers for the sailors.
The most popular story of the hamburger is that of the 1904 St. Louis World Fair. It is the belief of most Texans that the credit for the first hamburger goes to Fletch “Old Dave” Davis from Athens, Texas, who decided to try something new for once. Taking raw hamburger steak, he grilled them to a crisp brown, and then sandwiched the patty between two thick slices of homemade toast and added a thick slice of raw onion on top. Patrons loved the new sandwich, and word spread like wildfire, causing Old Dave to open a hamburger* concession stand (at the urging of family and friends) at The Pike, at the St. Louis World Fair Louisiana Purchase Exhibition that year. (Incidentally, Old Dave is also credited as the inventor of French Fries*. He sold fried potato strips along with his hamburgers at the world fair, an idea given to him by a friend in Paris, Texas. However, the reporter covering the story mistook Old Dave’s friend’s homeland for Paris, France – and so these potato strips were henceforth known as “French Fries”)

However, the evidence for most of these claims is shaky, and although Old Dave is most likely by all accounts to be the inventor of the modern hamburger, the truth is that we will probably never really know for sure.

White Castle and the commercialization of hamburgers

At the turn of the century, despite Old Dave’s success in St. Louis, the hamburger was looked down upon by the majority of Americans as low-grade meat likely to be richer with E. coli than nutrients. Pork was the number one household meat; hamburger patties were struggling on the bottom rung with two-day-old shrimp.

The tables turned in 1921 with the birth of the first White Castle Hamburger joint in Wichita, Kansas. It was a business venture between Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram and hamburger bun inventor J. Walter Anderson*, confidently promoting the idea that hamburger meat was both clean and safe by moving the kitchen from its hiding place at the back of the shop to the front, in full view of the patrons so that they could see how fresh the raw beef was. The shop boasted fresh raw hamburger delivered twice a day and an experiment that showed that hamburger had nutritional value*.

Ingram pushed White Castle’s potential to the limit, reaching out to families through coupons in daily newspapers, and selling the tiny hamburgers at five cents apiece. Later, it was discovered that adding holes to the patties helped cook the beef more evenly, and that was how White Castle hamburger patties came to have five holes*.

“I’ll pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”: Hamburger gains popularity

The 1930s ushered in the Wimpy Burger, named after a character in the cartoon Popeye* who had a curious penchant for hamburgers, and an even more curious way of settling his hamburger debts. This was also the era of the drive-in, which changed American dining by allowing diners to eat in the comfort of their car instead of a harshly-lit booth. Hamburgers, readily flipped onto a grill and easily cooked, were a must on the menu. By the end of the decade, White Castle imitators had sprung up all over the place, introducing variations to the hamburger, including Bob’s Big Boy double patty burger. The cheeseburger was invented by Rite Spot steakhouse proprietor Lionel Clark Sternberger in 1924 when he experimentally layered a slice of cheese on a hamburger at his father’s short-order shop in Pasadena, California; the word “cheeseburger” was patented two decades later by Louis Ballast of Colorado.

White Castle suffered greatly when World War II erupted. Part of this was due to the rationing of sugar and beef; Ingram did nothing to help his business by adamantly refusing to hire women or black workers. Although he later* relented to both, his obstinacy where TV advertising, suburban expansion, franchising and French fries were concerned had cost Ingram his hamburger business the lead. This was because two fast food competitors had aggressively pushed their way up to the top, where they remain today.

McDonald’s and Colonel Sanders

Ironically, the competitor that would eventually knock White Castle off the top spot started out as a hot dog stand. The McDonald’s revolution began in San Bernardino in 1948 when brothers Richard and (no, not Ronald) Maurice McDonald turned their barbecue restaurant into a drive-in specializing in hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries and shakes. Six years into the hamburger business, they formed a partnership with Roy Kroc, who wasted no time in franchising and creating the McDonald’s empire of today.

The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955, the same year the McDonald’s Corporation was formed; by 1959, there were 100 McDonald’s restaurants in America. But its success did not stop there. Two years later Kroc bought over the McDonald’s concept from the McDonald brothers for a total of US$2.7 million; another two years after that, McDonald’s had sold its first billion hamburgers and had opened its 500th restaurant. This was the year Ronald McDonald first made his appearance. McDonald’s started its spread around the globe in 1967 with restaurants opening in Canada and Puerto Rico; the first McDonald’s at sea would be opened in 1993 on board the Silja Europa, the world’s largest ferry sailing between Stockholm and Helsinki.

Elsewhere in America, a new fast food was emerging. Colonel Harland Sanders, born in Indiana in 1890, was the eldest of three children in a fatherless family. As the eldest, he was pressured to earn over $2.00 a month. This was made possible when he discovered his penchant for cooking when he was nine years of age, and started a business by placing some tables and chairs in a service station in Kentucky.

Around the time of the second World War, the first pressure cooker was invented. Colonel Sanders invested in eight of them, having embarked on a culinary exploration to produce a special chicken recipe*. Through much experimentation, Sanders hit upon the perfect blend of 11 special herbs and spices and the perfect cooking method – frying – for what would eventually be known all over the world as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Little by little, Colonel Sanders gained a reputation for the best fried chicken between Cincinnati and Atlanta. Realizing the potential of his fried chicken recipe, he franchised his famous secret recipe to the rest of America, personally training cooks in the art of producing Kentucky Fried Chicken, and eventually attaining celebrity status. Today, there are over 10,000 Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurants all over the globe, half of which are located outside the United States.

The Great Root Bear

While most fast food restaurants started out as hamburger and hot dog stands, one fast food palace made its mark in history by covering entirely different grounds – root beer.

While Edgar Ingram was busy with his hamburger business ideas, an entrepreneur named Roy Allen was selling frosty mugs of creamy root beer in Lodi, California in the summer of 1919. He had purchased the formula for the root beer (a unique blend of herbs, spices, barks and berries) from a pharmacist in Arizona, which, to this day, remains a proprietary secret*. His chilly refreshment was such a hit with sun-baked refugees that Allen soon opened his second root beer stand near Sacramento. (There is speculation that Sacramento was where the first “drive-in” featuring “tray-boys” for curb side service was born)

In 1922, Allen’s business became a partnership when he was joined by Frank Wright, and the famous beverage became formally named A&W Root Beer. They opened three A&W more units in Sacramento before spreading their business out to northern and central California, and to Texas and Utah.

Whereas White Castle suffered during the World War, most A&W units continued to prosper despite rationing and employee shortages. Roy Allen retired in 1950 and sold his business to Gene Hurtz, who formed the A&W Root Beer Company, which thrived in the post-war era as drive-ins gained popularity. By then, A&W was no longer just a root beer stand, having diversified to the food-and-drink business.

The mid-1950s saw the first non-U.S. A&W restaurants opening in Manitoba, Canada. By 1960, the number of A&W’s had reached 2000, and continued to climb. Three years later, the first overseas A&W had opened in Guam, quickly reaching the shores of the Philippines. Come 1970, the company was bought over by United Fruit Company of Boston, which was in turn acquired by The AMK Corporation to form the United Brands Company. Within this organization, the A&W Root Beer Company changed its name to A&W International, Inc., adopted a new trademark, and began its journey to become a full-fledged restaurant and foodservice organization. The Great Root Bear(!) made its first appearance in 1974, and four years later A&W restaurants finally began offering a consistent menu.

Fast food restaurants today

To this day, McDonald’s holds the top spot as the most famous fast food restaurant chain*. That is not to say, however, that there have not been other determined fast food chains arising over the last few decades to become just about as established in shopping malls. With the advent of drive-ins, Jack in the Box made its first appearance in 1951, serving hamburgers to motorists in San Diego for 18 cents while a large jack-in-the-box clown loomed overhead. Burger King went from a Miami hamburger, milkshake and soda joint in 1954 to a leader in the fast food industry in over 58 countries world wide. Roy Rogers went from being the name of a famous cowboy to the name of a fast food restaurant opened by a famous cowboy in 1967. T. J. Applebee’s Edibles and Elixirs (eventually renamed Applebee’s) jumped on the fast food bandwagon in November 1980. Observing that hamburgers were not everybody’s favourite indulgence, other fast food restaurants like Subway, Great Wraps and Taco Bell covered whatever grounds not dominated by the big hamburger restaurants, offering relief in the form of sandwiches, bagels and tacos.

Some people may blame the fast food franchise for creating a mechanical, homogenized consumer society. There are those who may find it unnerving and tedious that there is a familiar fast food joint wherever they go, be it Canada or Thailand, serving the same hamburger, the same apple pies, the same French fries. And then there are those who find comfort in the reliability of the unchanging menu, and solace in comfortingly familiar food at places far away from home.

Whatever your stand, there is no denying that fast food has irrevocably become a part of modern-day culture, and that excising it would cause mass withdrawal – especially in the case of impoverished college students.

An end note: Toying with your burger

Do kids go to fast food restaurants for the burgers and fries or for the toys? Probably both. And yet it is not an uncommon thing to see an adult purchase a McDonald’s Happy Meal – even when they don’t have a kid in tow. Just to get the toy in the box.

The history of fast food premiums goes back to sometime in the twentieth century to a now defunct fast food outlet; however, nobody had seriously tried to use premiums to attract customers to a fast food restaurant until 1974, when it dawned upon the assistant manager at the St. Louis’s McDonald’s that it would be a good idea to try promoting hamburgers to children. The first national launch of the McDonald’s Happy Meal took place in Kansas in 1978, with the introduction of the “Circus Wagon” toys. Since then action figures from famous movies and cartoons such as E.T. and Atlantis have found their way into the house-shaped Happy Meal boxes – and on the trays of other fast food outlets that jumped onto the circus wagon.