Fast food restaurant Essay

The footfall of modern life is immediate, and directhere is it degradeder than in the States. We want profligate transportation, debauched communication, sporting computers, dissipated p bakingos, firm music, profligate repairs, and ready overhaul from the straines we patronize. It is from the extreme of these that we got debased intellectual nourishment. At first, it was a matter of unbendable service. green and libertine forage Service was the gentle of a trade magazine, which published statements like this from 1951 The partners strike become honest-to-god hold at speckle the type of conventioneer that bequ downh patronize their fast pabulum service. Gradually service disappe ard, and in 1954 we find fast diet by itself in the human action Fountain and prodigal fodder. Incidentally, the trade magazine renamed itself Fast victuals by 1960. In February of that year, the magazine storied, Delicate scallops ar really fast forage beca mapping they co me name to cook. And in July it remarked, Fast solid fodder type eating houses do the lions share of business for eat and noon meals eaten out. The fast viands revolution was a quick triumph by means of with(predicate)out the land, and deuce decades by and by it was conquering the world.The U. S.outcry against infiltration from the south is matched in hysteria by our neighbors outcry against fast- regimen imperialism and the gradual Americanization of their own societies. noted the Christian Science Monitor in 1982. thank to fast solid fodder, families that formerly ate home grooming now eat out or stupefy back take-home fast viands in record numbers. Its virtue is speed, not quality. Its less(prenominal) than warning nutritional value may welcome influenced the coining of an opposite(prenominal) limit twenty years upstartr, one that to a fault puts a four-letter epithet in front of fodder junk provender (1973). Gale Encyclopedia of US account Fast fodderTo p. abode Library History, Politics & partnership US History Encyclopedia Fast nutrition is what one eats in the vast absolute majority of Americas eating places. The term denotes speed in both nourishment preparation and guest service, as well as speed in customer eating habits. The eating house attention, however, has traditionally preferred the style quick service. For hourly wage earnerswhether factory hands or store clerkstake-out lunch wagons and sit-down lunch counters appeared at factory gates, streetcar stops, and passim downtown districts in the late nineteenth century.For travelers, lunch counters too appeared in railroad stations nationwide. heat up food prevailed for its speed of preparation, as did machinate menu and other fixings that could be held in the hand and speedily eaten, quite literally, on the run. Novelty foods, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as hot dogs, burgers, cut fries, came to dominate, first best- exchange(predicate)ized at mixed worlds fairs and at the nations resorts. Soft drinks and ice cream desserts in any case became a mainstay. Thus, fast food also came to imply diets towering in fat and caloric intake.By the termination of the twentieth century, the typical American consumed some one-third beefburgers and four orders of french fries a week. well-nigh a quarter of all Americans bought fast food e actually day. The rise of automobile ownership in the coupled States brought profound change to the eating place perseverance, with fast food universe offered in a conformation of drive-in eating house formats. Mom-and-pop enterprise was harnessed, immensely through franchising, in the fortifying of regional and national restaurant strings Howard Johnsons, Dairy Queen, Burger King, Kentucky Fried moaner, Pizza Hut, and wetback Tico.Place-product- advancement was brought forcefully to the fore each restaurant in a drawing string variously shares the same logo, comment scheme, architec tural design motif, and battery-acid-of-purchase advertising, all configured in attention-getting, signlike buildings. Typically, fast food restaurants were located at the roadside, effect with driveways, parking lots, and, later, drive-through windows for those who preferred to eat elsewhere, including those who ate in their cars as dashboard diners. Critical to industry success was the development of cover and plastic containers that kept food hot and facilitated carry-out. Such packaging, because of the volume of largely nonbiodegradable unfounded it creates, has become a whole environmental problem. In 2000, Mcdonaldsthe largest quick-service chainoperated at some 13,755 locations in the fall in States and Canada. The companys distinctive golden arches bring in open up worldwide, well beyond North America. Abroad, fast food came to stand as an important symbol of American cultural, if not economical, prowess. And, just as it did at home, fast food became, as well, a recognize icon of modernity.Historically, fast food merchandising contri yeted good to the quickening pace of American life through standardization. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, it fully embraced citizenry production and mass marketing techniques, reduced to the master of a restaurant. Chains of restaurants, in turn, became fully rationalized at bottom standardized purchasing, marketing, and management agreements. Such a system depends on a pool of cheap, largely bungled beat back, the quick service restaurant industry being notorious for its low wages and, accordingly, its rapid overthrow of personnel. Bibliography Jakle, John A. , and Keith A. Sculle.Fast Food wayside restaurants in the Automobile Age. Balti much(prenominal) Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Pillsbury, Richard. No Foreign Food The American Diet and Place. Boulder, Colo. Westview Press, 1998. Sch hurter, Eric. Fast Food Nation The blue-blooded Side of the All-American Meal. sma rt York HarperCollins, 2002. John A. Jakle Gale Encyclopedia of Food & Culture Fast FoodTop Home Library Food & Cooking Food & Culture Encyclopedia What is termed fast food in the join States today or so(prenominal) commonly consists of hot, fliply 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 interchange and delivered in an amount of time ranging from a few backs to some(prenominal) minutes they now quit widely in food type, encompassing or so all kinds of meats, preparation methods, and cultural cuisines. Inexpensive burgers and french fried potatoes are still the products close to promptly place as fast food, merely the constitute of items exchange 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 att achment to these staples, legion(predicate) quick-service restaurants sell a broad poster of Americanized Mexican, Greek, and Chinese foods. Some fast-food outlets offer specialty items, such as sushi, clams, or ribs, and others veritable(a) sell realized home-cooked meals over their counters. Though menus and delivery formats vary greatly, fast foods chief common denominators include immediate customer service, packaging to go, and inexpensive pricing.The finespun origins of fast food are vague, probably predating scripted history. Hungry deal are as old as civilization itself, as are entrepreneurs earnest 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 glossiness, but they generally comprised childlike, inexpensive furthere sold to people of modest means. Immigrants brought a material body of food styles to America, a good deal preserving these for decades as a comfort connection with their ethnic past.Though umteen immigrant foodways were work up and ritualistic, to the highest degree groups had one or two primary 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 shuck from Europe. a great deal 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, on with a variety of fatty sausages (which later mutated into the hot dog).Asian immigrants act to eat rice as the basis of their diet. In the early twentieth century fast food remained primarily the fare of the masses. Vendors revolve their pushcarts daily to factory gates, merchandising their wares to hungry workers. Often catering to the tastes of the particular factorys paramount 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 amidst the vendors pushcart and modern fast food. or so early diners were belittled restaurants, with bound seating, sometimes constructed out of converted railway carriages or streetcars. They served simple foods to works-class customers on a short order basis, commonly 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 diachronic disagreement. People have eaten chopped beef passim the ages, and it was long a fixture in more world cultures. The lineage of the American hamburger designms to point frightfulctly, as its name indicates, back to the German metropolis of Hamburg. First appearing on American restaurant menus in the mid-nineteenth century, ground beef patties bore the title hamburg steak. By the centurys close, vendors on a regular basis sold meatballs wrapped in slices of bread at county fairs and pass festivals. Regional legends attribute the invention of this snack to several different individuals, but its true originator form 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 quick became popular, attracting long lines of hungry debaseers.By 1921, Anderson had joined local insurance broker Edgar Billy Ingram to form the ovalbumin fort System. After opening several kindred restaurants in Wichita during their first year, the partners chop-chop spread their business to neighboring cities, then to nine major urban areas throughout the Midwest and on the East Coast. What scattered the clean-living palace System from earlier short-order restaurants was its very streamlined menu, comprising only hamburgers, coffee, Coca-Cola, and pie a render architectural style and strict standardization of food quality, preparation methods, and employee performance.By the close of the mid-twenties, sporting Castles aggressive marketing and rapid spread had made the hamburger one of the most popular foods in America. Other entrepreneurs shortly noticed White Castles success in the hamburger business. Very closely copying White Castles products, architecture, and company name, competing spick-and-span bondage also thrived, carrying the hamburger craze across the nation to smaller cities and towns. The White Tower chain appeared in 1925, finally challenging White Castles autho rity in several northern cities.Krystals, heart-to-heart in 1929 in Chattanooga, soon became the hamburger powerhouse of the southeasterly states. White Castles hamburger sandwich, on with its many imitators, became a daily staple for many working-class Americans. It proven 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 gyves began marketing their products to middle-class buyers, and even more Americans became burger lovers.Despite the approximative economy of the Great Depression, most fast-food chains continued to thrive, and in many cases grew considerably. Most continued selling the White Castlestyle hamburger, but late in the decade the unfit Boy chain spread east from California, introducing its new double-decker 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 solemn setback during human race War II.Shortages of necessary foodstuffs, such as meat, sugar, tomatoes, and coffee, meant limited menu offers 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 soybean patties, chili, and french fried potatoes. redden more modify 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 substitute foods, and despite the shifts in workforce, much of the fast-food industry w as a casualty of the war by 1945, more than half of Americas 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 touch on their prewar prosperity, and new regional chains assay to gain a foothold. Suffering the effects of escalating cost and still under the threat of continued shortages referable to unstable food supplies in war-torn countries, fast-food restaurants often had to double prices to remain in business. As universe shifted from Americas 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 immunityd chains.Burger King and McDonalds outlets became common fixtures at suburban crossroads, selling burgers, fries, and shakes to hu ngry families. Burger Kings Jim McLamore and McDonalds Ray Kroc each sought to build one of his restaurants in every American town, and they opened hundreds of new Burger Kings and McDonalds each year in the 1960s. To accomplish this rapid expansion, they relied heavily on franchise investors, en pressure strict product uniformity throughout their chains, and sharp advertised in every saucily opened territory. With McDonalds and Burger Kings success, Burger Chef outlets soon appeared nearby.Arbys, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Taco Bell were not far behind. By the late 1960s, fast food no longer meant just hamburger restaurants, but had diversify 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 McDonalds completely had more than ten thousand restaurants in the United States, from which it grossed in excess of $13 billion in revenue. condemnation of Fast Food Despite the far-flung popularity of fast food in modern American culture, critics abound.Since the 1930s, articles and books have condemned the industry, exposing allegedly poor sanitary conditions, foaming food products, related environmental problems, and unfair working conditions. Whether it warrants the attention or not, the fast-food industry is still regularly cited for exploiting young workers, polluting, and contributing to obesity and other serious health problems among American consumers. American beef consumption, and more specifically the fast-food hamburger industry, is often blamed for the enthusiastic of the Amazon rain forests to make way for more grazing lands for beef cattle.Early foes of fast food cited the deplorable filth of many hamburger stands, in addition to claiming that the beef ground for their sandwiches was either spoiled, diseased, or simply of low quality. In fact, many critics keep th at much of the meat used in fast-food hamburgers came from one dollar bill carcasses. The high fat content of fast food was also controversial. Despite deceptive industry claims some the high quality and the health benefits of their products, in the 1920s and 1930s concerned nutritionists warned the public about the aesculapian dangers of regular burger consumption.This distrust and criticism of fast food continue today, extending even further to include dire warnings about the industrys use of genetically modified and antibiotic-laden beef products. Most major chains have responded to recent attacks by prominently menu calorie and nutritional charts in their restaurants, advertising fresh ingredients, and offering alternatives to their fried foods. Despite a few more health-conscious items on the menu, fast-food chains now aggressively advertise the concept that bigger is better, offering large super-size or biggie portions of french fries, velvet drinks, and milkshakes.Critic s point to this marketing emphasis as a reason for an undue and greatly increasing per-capita caloric intake among fast-food consumers, resulting in fast- emergence rates of obesity in the United States. Increased herd is another problem that critics have blamed on the fast-food industry. Selling their products in paper wrappings and paper bags, early outlets created a source of litter that had not previously existed. Wrappers strewn about city streets, particularly those close to fast-food restaurants, brought harsh criticism, and often inspired new local ordinances to address the problem.Some municipalities actually forced chains to clean up litter that was imprinted with their logos, but such sanctions were rare. Fast-food wrappers became part of the urban, and later suburban, landscape. Since bags and wrappers were crucial in the delivery of fast food, the industry as a whole continued to use disposable packaging, superficially assuaging public criticism by providing outside crackpot receptacles for the discarded paper. Years later, environmentalists again attacked the industry for exuberant packaging litter, criticizing both the volume and the content of the refuse.By the early 1970s, the harshest criticisms focused more on the semisynthetic materials used in packaging, and less on the heedlessly discarded paper. Critics derided the industrys use of styrofoam sandwich containers and soda cups, claiming that these products were not sufficiently biodegradable and were clog landfills. Facing mounting opposition from a growing environmental movement, most of the major chains returned to packaging food in paper wrappings or small cardboard boxes. Labor activists have criticized fast-food chains aptness to employ inexpensive teenage workers.Usually offering the lowest possible wages, with no health or retirement benefits, these restaurants often find it difficult hiring adults for stressful, fast jobs. Many critics claim that the industry preys on tee nagers, who will work for less pay and are less likely to organize. Though these accusations may have merit, the industrys reliance on teenage labor also has inherent liabilities, such as a high employee turnover rate, which result in substantial recruiting and training costs.Companies have countered criticism about their use of teenage workers with the rationale that they offer young people entry-level work experience, teaching them both skills and responsibility. Despite the inflexible attacks, hundreds of millions of hungry customers eat fast food daily. The media everlastingly remind American consumers about its supposed evils. Most are conscious of the health risks from fatty, greasy meals most realize that they are being served by a poorly paid young worker and if they tell apart to ponder it, most are aware that the extravagant packaging causes millions of tons of trash each year. tho they continue to purchase and eat fast food on a regular basis. Fast food remains centra l to the American diet because it is inexpensive, quick, convenient, and predictable, and because it tastes good. Even more important, Americans eat fast food because it is now a cultural norm. As American culture homogenized and became distinctively American in the second half of the twentieth century, fast food, and especially the hamburger, emerged as the primary American ethnic food. Just as the Chinese eat rice and Mexicans eat tamales, Americans eat burgers. And fast food has grown even beyond being just a distinctive ethnic food.Since the 1960s, the concept has extended far beyond the food itself, with the term becoming a common descriptor for other quick-service operations, even a metaphor for many of the negative aspects of mainstream American life. Theorists and pundits sometimes use the term fast food to denigrate American habits, institutions, and values, referring to them as elements of a fast-food society. In fact, fast-food has become a oft used adjective, implying not only ready accessibility but also superficiality, mass-produced standardization, lack of authenticity, or just poor quality.In the last two decades of the twentieth century, fast food gained additional economic and cultural significance, becoming a popular American export to nations around the world. Some detractors claim that it is even deliberately used by the United States, as a tool of cultural imperialism. The appearance of a McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on the streets of a foreign city signals to many the demise of indigenous culture, replacing another rural areas traditional practices and values with American materialism.In fact, the rapid spread of American fast food is probably not an organized conspiracy, rather more the result of aggressive corporate marketing strategies. Consumers in other countries are willing and able to buy fast-food products, so chains are quick to apply demand. Thought of around the world as American food, fast food continue s its rapid international growth.Bibliography Boas, Max, and Steve Chain. Big Mac The Unauthorized Story of McDonalds. radical York Dutton, 1976. Emerson, Robert, L. Fast Food The Endless Shakeout. New York Lebhar-Friedman, 1979. Halberstam, David. The Fifties.New York Villard Books, 1993. Chapter 11 discusses the origins of the McDonalds empire. Hogan, David Gerard. Selling em by the take White Castle and the Creation of American Food. New York New York University Press, 1997. Jakle, John A. , and Keith A. Sculle. Fast Food Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age. Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Langdon, Philip. Orange Roofs, Golden Arches The architecture of American Chain Restaurants. New York Knopf, 1986. McLamore, James, W. The Burger King Jim McLamore and the create of an Empire. New York McGraw-Hill, 1998.Mariani, John. America Eats Out. New York William Morrow, 1991. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. capital of M assachusetts and New York Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Tennyson, Jeffrey. Hamburger Heaven The Illustrated History of the Hamburger. New York Hyperion, 1993. Witzel, Michael Karl. The American Drive-In History and Folklore of the Drive-In Restaurant in the Car Culture. Osceola, Wisc. Motorbooks International, 1994. David Gerard Hogan AMG AllGame Guide Fast FoodTop Home Library Entertainment & Arts Games Guide kick Date 1989 Genre Action.Style Maze ergodic abode Word Menu categories related to fast foodTop Home Library literary works & Language Word Menu Categories Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier For a list of words related to fast food, see Cuisines, Meals, and Restaurants fast food cheap, mass-produced dishes served quickly at walk-in or drive-in outlets convenience food Wikipedia on Answers. com Fast foodTop Home Library multilateral Wikipedia For other uses, see Fast food (disambiguation). A typical fast food meal in the United States includes a hamburger, fr ench fries, and a soft drink.Pictured here are burgers from In-N-Out Burger McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut fast food restaurants in the United Arab Emirates Fast food is the term attached to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a encase form for take-out/take-away. The term fast food was acknowledge in a dictionary by MerriamWebster in 1951.Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may put up no shelter or seating,1 or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchise operations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations. 2 Contents 1 History 1. 1 Pre-modern Europe 1. 2 United Kingdom 1. 3 United States 2 On the go 2. 1 Filling stations 2. 2 Street vendors and concessions 3 Cuisine 3. 1 Variants 4 Business 5 Employment 6 Globalization 7 Criticism 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links History.