Fast food is a name for food that is made and presented to customers in a short time. It is usually made from pre-heated or pre-cooked ingredients, prepared in bulk and sold in take-out packages. DeLuca named his first restaurant after Peter Buck, the family friend who gave him the loan to start his business. In 1968, the couple decided to shorten the name to Subway, as it fit better with their radio ads.
Today, there are more than 40,000 Subway locations around the world. What's in a name? For fast-food chains, apparently many and some of them are desperately trying to get away from the term fast food and its greasy connotations, reports the Associated Press. In 1958, McDonald's sold its 100 millionth hamburger. In 1961, Kroc bought the McDonald brothers and opened a training center called Hamburger University in Illinois. The rest, as they say, is history. What is fast food? Fast food, the favorite food of all of us, from children to adults, the taste that we cannot refuse although, always trying to stay away from it, is one of the most demanding products of our time.
It is usually made from pre-fried or efficiently cooked products. Sold in packs to make it easy to eat on the street or take it home. As a term, Fast Food first appeared in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1951; however, its roots are much older. Value meals in fast-food restaurants are common as a marketing tactic to facilitate packaging, upselling and price discrimination. The fast food industry is popular in the United States, the source of most of its innovation, and many of the major international chains are based there.
Unlike the inhabitants of the richest cities, many often could not afford a self-catering dwelling and therefore depended on fast food. Fast food restaurants established in the United States in the 1950s have grown so much that they have become restaurant chains with thousands of branches earning millions of dollars. Almost since its inception, fast food has been designed to be eaten on the go, often requiring no traditional cutlery and is eaten as a snack food. Schlosser argues that, while fast-food industry innovations offered Americans more and cheaper dining options, they have come at the price of destroying the environment, economy and communities of small towns in rural America, while protecting consumers from the real costs of their convenient food, both in terms of health and the broader impact of large-scale food production and processing on workers, animals and land. Most historians agree that the American company White Castle was the first fast food establishment, starting in Wichita, Kansas in 1916 with food stalls and being founded in 1921 selling hamburgers for five cents each since its inception and generating numerous competitors and emulators. Pizza is a common fast-food category in the United States with national chains such as Papa John's, Domino's Pizza, Sbarro and Pizza Hut. Sonic which is the fourth largest hamburger chain in the United States introduced hamburgers that they call Blended Burgers and have 70 or 75 percent meat and 25 percent mushrooms a similar idea. Usually a fast-food restaurant chain is owned by the parent company of the fast-food chain or by a franchisee an independent party who is granted the right to use the company's trademark and trade name.
A hamburger a side dish of fries and a drink are usually a meal or a value combo depending on the chain. It has also been shown that there is less chance of finding a fast-food restaurant in a suburban neighborhood. The traditional family dinner is increasingly being replaced by the consumption of take-away fast food. While fast food restaurants usually have a seating area where customers can eat food on the premises orders are designed to take away and traditional table service is rare. The London studies of 1598 and articles referring to the history of England in the 1840s and 1850s mention fast food. From White Castle to Sonic: A Brief History Of Fast Food Restaurants traces back centuries ago when people had no choice but to eat quickly prepared meals due to their busy lifestyles. Fast food has come a long way since then with many different types of restaurants popping up all over America offering quick meals for those on-the-go. White Castle was one of America's first fast food restaurants opening up shop back in 1916 selling hamburgers for five cents each.
This sparked an entire industry with other restaurants such as McDonald's following suit shortly after opening up their first location in 1948. McDonald's quickly became one of America's most popular fast food chains selling their 100 millionth hamburger just 10 years later. This was followed by Kroc buying out McDonald's brothers and opening up Hamburger University which trained employees on how to make their burgers quickly yet efficiently. Pizza also became popular during this time with national chains such as Papa John's Domino's Pizza Sbarro and Pizza Hut popping up all over America offering quick pizza meals for those on-the-go. More recently Sonic has become one of America's most popular fast food chains introducing their Blended Burgers which are 70 or 75 percent meat with 25 percent mushrooms making them healthier than traditional burgers. It has also been shown that there is less chance of finding a fast-food restaurant in suburban neighborhoods due to people preferring home cooked meals over take away meals. Fast food has come a long way since its inception centuries ago with many different types of restaurants popping up all over America offering quick meals for those on-the-go. From White Castle to Sonic there are now thousands of different types of restaurants offering quick meals for those who don't have time to cook at home.
