Burger Chef
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain that started in 1954, and lasted until 1996.
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[edit] History
In 1954, Frank and Donald Thomas patented the Flame Broiler and started one of their own restaurants in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was under another name, but in 1956, they changed the name to Burger Chef. In the late-1950s, they created the first "value combos" as a burger, fries, and soft drink for 45¢ (50¢ with a milkshake). Burger Chef was enormously popular and spread across both West Coast and East Coast, eventually becoming second only to McDonald's in terms of number of locations. They offered a signature double burger called the Big Shef (the company quirkily spelled their burgers with an "S"), and later pioneered the "works bar", where customers could dress their burgers exactly as they wanted.
In 1968, the chain was purchased by the General Foods Corporation, who continued its rapid expansion. By 1970, they had nearly 2,400 locations and re-designed the buildings and logos. However, the corporation soon proved unable (or unwilling) to support the company's growth.
In 1982, General Foods sold Burger Chef to the Canadian company Imasco. Many locations were converted into Hardee's restaurants, except for ones that were located near existing Hardee's. The franchisees of those locations were allowed extra time to convert to other brands; one Burger Chef in Cookeville, Tennessee, through the courts, was able to keep its original name until 1996, when it finally changed its name to Pleasers. Several Burger Chefs in southern Indiana had converted to the Pleasers name after the initial buyout, but the Pleasers in Cookeville remained open only until 2002. Many locations located in Louisiana and Mississippi became the fast-food restaurant chain called Mr. Cook, but this chain died off by the late-1990s. Financial troubles caused the chain to close many of the restaurants from 1993 to 1997. In 1996 and 1997, CKE Restaurants bought out the remaining Burger Chef stores in the United States and converted them into Carl's Jr. or Hardee's.
[edit] Menu
Burger Chef, in the mid-1970s, toasted the buns for its Super Shef, Big Shef, cheeseburger and hamburger on a hot-plate conveyor mechanism that used coconut oil. This was accomplished in less than 60 seconds using a temperature of about 400° Fahrenheit. The open flame broiler was used to cook frozen meat patties from frozen to fully cooked in less than a minute. The broiler ran at a temperature of about 700° Fahrenheit.
Other offerings included: the Skipper's Treat (fish) and apple & cherry turnovers (which were deep fried). In the mid-1970s, Super Shefs sold for 89¢, Big Shefs for 79¢, cheeseburgers for 25¢, hamburgers for 20¢, and large & small soft drinks for 25¢ and 20¢, respectively. Burger Chef switched from animal-based shortening to vegetable-based shortening during this period.
Tuesdays at Burger Chef were called "Family Fun Nites" where Funmeals were offered for a special price. Usually, one employee costumed as a pirate or clown, would wave at passing traffic to attract business.
Regular fries were to weigh approximately 2.25 ounces and were packed in a small white paper sack. Large fries weighed approximately 3.5 ounces, and were packed in a red collapsible paperboard carton.
Beverages on the menu included coffee, non-carbonated orange and lemonade, Coca-Cola, Sprite and root beer. Milkshake flavors were vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Strawberry shakes were made by adding flavoring syrup to the vanilla shake.
Some Burger Chefs offered hot ham & cheese and hot roast beef sandwiches in a styrofoam container. They came pre-assembled and were kept refrigerated. They were heated in a microwave oven before being served. These were not big sellers.
The sandwich used for the Funmeal was the standard hamburger with ketchup & mustard. A good number of parents found that their children would only eat the hamburger if it had ketchup only. Thus, hamburgers with ketchup only, were frequently asked for when the Funmeal was ordered.
[edit] Other innovations
In the mid 1970's Burger Chef fryers were fitted with temperature compensated french fry timers. If one basket of frozen fries was dropped into a fryer, a lesser time was required to complete the cooking than if two baskets were dropped at the same time. By measuring oil temperature, the timing cycle was altered so that the alarm would always signal perfectly cooked french fries.
Ketchup and mustard were applied in exact amounts at a station by pumps that were operated by electrically powered solenoids. The bun heel was put under nozzles that were surrounded by a trigger ring. As the bun heel was raised against the ring, two dime size spots each of ketchup and mustard were applied to the regular hamburger. Since the Super Shef required only ketchup, the same station was used, but a button needed to be depressed to dispense ketchup only. The mustard and ketchup had to have exactly the proper consistency for this machine to work. If too thick, the machine would quickly clog; if too thin, the mustard and ketchup would "splat" past the bun when the ring was engaged.
Another innovative device was the electric bun toaster. The two bun pieces were placed on a chain conveyor inside section down. The small entrance conveyor pushed the bun onto a stainless roller that applied a mixture of coconut/palm oil to the bun. After leaving the roller, the bun was dragged over a teflon coated hot plate by an overhead chain conveyor that drooped upon the top of the bun. The process took less than 1 minute, and the bun followed along with the corresponding meat patty that was cooked in the broiler from frozen to final in about the same length of time.
For awhile, Burger Chef experimented with a plastic sandwich bag. The problem with the plastic bag was that it captured too much condensation given off by the hot sandwiches. It thus made part of the bun soggy, and customers did not like the moisture droplets that collected in the bag. After this experiment, Burger Chef switched back to sandwich paper.
Many of the earlier designed Burger Chefs had the feature of glass windows on both sides of the area where the sandwiches were assembled. Thus individuals dining inside the Burger Chef could watch sandwiches being made. This encouraged the employees keep the assembly area neat and clean, and convinced the customer that the premises were sanitary. When an employee dropped a bun on the floor, several pairs of customer's eyes insured that the bun made it quickly into the nearest trash receptacle.
Burger Chef frequently ran promotions for special products during holidays like Halloween and Christmas. Burger Chef also ran one of the earliest television tie-ins when during the early 1970s it periodically offered a "Batburger" based on the original Batman television show. The "Batburger" was a regular small hamburger that came in a paper wrapper with Batman's "bat shadow" logo printed on it.
Burger Chef was also notable for pioneering the children's meal with toy premium (called the "Fun Meal"), later adopted by McDonald's as the Happy Meal, and was among the first companies to offer Star Wars related premiums when the original Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1977. The Burger Chef Fun Meal consisted of a paperboard tray that kept a burger, fries, drink and toy in cut-outs designated for each. A pop-up background with interesting scene completed the tray. Also offered as a kids meal in the 80's was a thin plastic two piece boat that separated in the middle, food was placed inside this plastic boat when kids meals were ordered.
[edit] Sandwich specifications
Super Shef - (assembled in this order) - Bun heel, ketchup (4 quarter size drops), 3 dill pickle slices, one large slice of American cheese and topped with a salted & peppered large meat patty. Bun top, mayonnaise or miracle whip (cover the entire top with a thin coating) shredded lettuce, two or three tomato slices, 3-5 raw onion rings. Combine halves, and wrap with sandwich paper. Place in heated trays until needed. Make to order whenever practical.
Big Shef - Bun heel, small slice of american cheese, salted & peppered small meat patty, bun center, second meat patty. Bun top, Burger Chef proprietary Big Shef sauce (similar to tartar sauce) shredded lettuce. Combine parts & wrap.
Cheeseburger - Bun heel, dime size portions of mustard & ketchup (2 of each), salted & peppered small meat patty, small slice of American cheese, bun top.
Hamburger - same as cheeseburger but without the cheese.
Skipper's Treat - Bun heel, small slice American cheese, fish patty (deep fried breaded Icelandic Cod in a rectangular shape). Bun top, tartar sauce, shredded lettuce. Preparation: Icelandic Cod arrived frozen. An estimate was made for the number of fish sandwiches expected to be sold that day. That number of frozen fish patties were blanched (partially deep fried for 5 minutes) and placed in refrigerated storage. When an order was placed, the blanched fish was deep fried for an additional 2 minutes before being served.
