The most interesting part about this, to me, is this:
"After lengthy discussions with produce suppliers around the country, Coudreaut managed to add one new ingredient to the McDonald’s arsenal: the English cucumber. That might not seem like a big change, but when the chain added sliced apples to its menu, it immediately became one of the largest buyers of apples in the country. The company had to build up reserves of edamame before it introduced its Asian salad. Coudreaut would like to add guacamole one day. Who knows what that would do to the avocado supply?"
It's mind-blowing that McDonald's works on a large enough scale that introducing a vegetable to their menu means that they needed to be concerned about exhausting the supply of that vegetable.
I got to that part and felt like the article had become an allegory about our field; I was simultaneously saddened at the idea of being a professional cook in a kitchen where goat cheese was too "niche" and enthralled at the idea of problem-solving food in an setting where the decision to use guacamole might exhaust the global supply of avocados. It made me think about the choice between working at, say, Google and a startup.
I don't eat too often @ MacDonald's and I'm not in the US, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't cucumber already present inside i.e. a BigMac? I don't like cucumbers (and neither my wife) and I remember every time taking a small slice out from the burger
Technically yes, but we're talking about pickles[1] in a big mac. And a property of pickled cucumber is that they can be conserved for much and much longer, therefore easier in the 'hit' on global supply and also way cheaper.
"After lengthy discussions with produce suppliers around the country, Coudreaut managed to add one new ingredient to the McDonald’s arsenal: the English cucumber. That might not seem like a big change, but when the chain added sliced apples to its menu, it immediately became one of the largest buyers of apples in the country. The company had to build up reserves of edamame before it introduced its Asian salad. Coudreaut would like to add guacamole one day. Who knows what that would do to the avocado supply?"
It's mind-blowing that McDonald's works on a large enough scale that introducing a vegetable to their menu means that they needed to be concerned about exhausting the supply of that vegetable.