How Wendy’s Creates Chef-Driven Fast Causal Food

Finding the balance of concept authenticity while delivering flavors that resonate with a broad audience is a constant challenge our culinary team faces. We’re always trying to find that happy medium of delivering on the authentic origin of a dish that inspires a concept, while creating fresh, craveable food that our customers love and doesn’t cost a fortune. 

The world we live in today is fascinating. It’s teeming with global influence; whether it be music, art or food, we’re all getting exposure to cultural stimuli that have always been out there but might not have been as popular or accessible before. With more and more people traveling and placing high value on experiential indulgences, we’ve seen increased consumer demand for variety on all types of restaurant menus. We can partially thank the arrival of food trucks and food stalls at public markets for providing a low-risk platform for intrepid chefs and entrepreneurs to blow our minds with unique flavors, carriers and techniques – many of which were inspired by food and experiences they’ve had across the globe or from iconic regional dishes they grew up with. 

Even with the arrival of more adventurous diners, we still find them seeking out some level of familiarity to accompany the new ingredient they are about to try. Even then we must understand what their definition of adventurous is. Most chefs make a name for themselves by making food they like to eat, and people usually respond favorably. However, when we’re cooking for thousands or even millions of people, we must rely on a healthy balance of consumer science and artistic savvy to help guide us down the path that will make a dish truly inspired and, importantly, appealing to the masses. The reality is often we must evolve from the authentic roots of a dish’s origin to make it more appealing, exciting or familiar for our guests. Chimichurri is a great example. When it started showing up on menus everywhere in 2014, we started to see chefs folding it into an aioli for a cheeseburger or a dipping sauce for fries. It created a safe adventure for the customer because it was being paired with something familiar. 

Back in 2015, we partnered with one of our supplier chefs to look at what the future of sandwiches could look like for Wendy’s®. One of the sandwiches he prepared that day was a braised short rib sandwich with a crispy smoky mushroom cap, goat cheese, caramelized onions, arugula, tomato and mushroom duxelles sauce. The hot beef short ribs were braised in a rich and flavorful demi-glace, then placed directly on top of the goat cheese herb spread so it melted into the beef. The onions were slow cooked until the sugars caramelized, bringing out the natural sweetness of the onions. The crispy smoked mushroom was brined and marinated so it would hold onto its moisture, then smoked for two hours before being lightly breaded and fried to crispy perfection. The sandwich was topped off with arugula and tomato for a fresh pop of flavor. The final ingredient was the mushroom duxelles sauce which tied everything together for this life-changing sandwich experience. When you think about how all these hand-crafted components come together for the perfect bite, it was a thing of beauty. The crispy smoky mushroom complemented by the hot beefy short ribs, melting into the goat cheese with the sweetness of the caramelized onions, the freshness of the arugula and tomato and all combined with the creaminess of the savory mushroom aioli. 

In order to apply the inspiration from this sandwich experience into something we could consistently execute for the Wendy’s customer, we knew we had to make some tweaks to provide them with the same feeling we got from devouring that original beefy, smoky, crispy, delicious short rib sandwich. Our goal was to deliver on that masterpiece while highlighting some of the key differentiators for our brand, like our fresh, never frozen beef* and our Applewood smoked bacon, in a way that still supports the promise in our culinary vision to serve real, fresh, craveable food that doesn’t cost a fortune. 

That’s how we landed on the Smoky Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger that launched in 2017.  Our favorite way to deliver on the smoky mushroom was by starting with small portabella mushrooms, that we sliced, sautéed, roasted and seasoned with onion, garlic, salt and pepper. We had our supplier recreate that special mushroom sauce and turned it into a smoky mushroom aioli. To recreate the crispy, crunchy texture and the caramelized onions in the original sandwich, we piled on crispy onion tanglers. These ingredients all combined perfectly with our fresh, never frozen beef, Asiago cheese and to boost up the smoky experience even more, we topped it off with our best-in-class Applewood smoked bacon.

It just goes to show, even the most exclusive dishes can and probably should evolve from their origin to satisfy the flavor experiences QSR customers are seeking. Last week while on vacation in Paris, I was pleasantly surprised by a young French chef’s take on the classic French onion soup, using a rich chicken stock with Roussanne wine instead of beef stock and red wine or sherry. It was legit some of the best onion soup I’ve ever had, and it was a good reminder that it’s okay to evolve even the most iconic dishes for the benefit of our guests. Who wouldn’t love to have a pasta dish inspired by a traditional cochinita pibil taco or a sandwich inspired by Vietnamese fish sauce wings? The key is making sure we don’t get too carried away with our interpretations of the authentic inspiration we’re developing, and that it’s brought to life with enough familiarity so customers will be ready to experience it. 

Ultimately, it all comes back to the customer. Regardless of the concept or its inspiration, we must ensure that we’re delivering on the food vision that makes sense for our respective brands’ identities, and at Wendy’s it’s all about being fast food done right. 

* Fresh beef available in the contiguous U.S., Alaska, and Canada.