Al Bernardin
Encyclopedia
Al Bernardin was an American
restaurateur
and businessman who invented the McDonald's
Quarter Pounder
in 1971 as a franchise
owner in Fremont, California
. The creation of the Quarter Pounder earned him the nickname "Fremont's hamburger king."
Bernadin later became McDonald's vice president
of product development. His position allowed him to play a key role in the development of some of the company's signature menu items, including frozen french fries
, which allowed for easier storage
and transportation, as well as the McDonald's fish sandwich
, apple pie
and cherry pie
.
. He received his bachelor's degree
from Cornell University
in 1952.
He was first hired to work at McDonald's Illinois
corporate headquarters
in 1960. Bernardin was promoted to dean
of the company's training center, Hamburger University
, within just six months of joining McDonald's.
, and relocated to the city in 1970. He successfully expanded his McDonald's franchise business, eventually owning nine of the restaurants throughout southern Alameda County.
Once in Fremont, Bernardin began experimenting with new menu items for his franchises. In 1971, Bernardin introduced the now famous Quarter Pounder at his McDonald's locations. He explained his idea for the Quarter Pounder in a 1991 interview
marking the 20th anniversary of the burger's development saying, "felt there was a void in our menu vis-à-vis the adult who wanted a higher ratio of meat
to bun
." Bernardin unveiled the Quarter Pounder using the slogan
, "Today Fremont, tomorrow the world." The Quarter Pounder is now one of McDonald's most popular signature items, having been added to the national American menu in 1973.
industry was the development of frozen french fries. Until 1967, all McDonald's french fries had to be cut on-site from stored potatoes and fried. Bernardin's frozen fries allowed for easier transport of the product and cleared storage space which was previously used for storing potatoes. He explained the benefits of frozen fries saying, "Before that, the (restaurants) had to store potatoes in the basement
. It was a real pain."
As Vice President, Bernardin also shepherded the development of the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish
, as well the company's fried
apple
and cherry
pies. Not all of Bernadin's suggestions were included on McDonald's menus. McDonald's turned down his idea for a ground turkey meat burger called the McGobbler. The company also dismissed his The Lite Mac sandwich, which would have consisted of a one fifth-pound burger patty containing 15% less beef fat than a normal Big Mac
.
Bernardin spent approximately two years developing a prototype
for buttered corn-on-the-cob, according to his son, Mark Bernardin, who is also a McDonald's franchise owner.
after his uncle received treatment in a hospice
. Impressed by his uncle's hospice care, Bernardin founded the Tree of Angels, a Christmas tree
lighting festival designed to raise money for the Pathways Hospice, based in Sunnyvale, California
.
The couple moved to the Monterey, California
, area in the mid-1990s, eventually settling in Pebble Beach. He spent time as a volunteer at hospices throughout northern California
. Bernardin became a major benefactor for the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula
, known as CHOMP.
In addition to his home in Pebble Beach, Bernardin also had residences in Pleasanton, California
, Spanish Bay and Cape Cod
.
Bernardin suffered a series of strokes later in his life. He died of stroke on December 22, 2009, at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California
, at the age of 81. He was survived by his wife, Joan Bernardin, two children, Kirsten and Mark, three stepchildren, Dan Ryan, Julie Bullas, Kristie Ryan and ten grandchildren.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
restaurateur
Restaurateur
A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.-Etymology:The word...
and businessman who invented the McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
Quarter Pounder
Quarter Pounder
The Quarter Pounder is a hamburger product sold by international fast food chain McDonald's, originally containing a patty with a precooked weight of a quarter of a pound .-History:...
in 1971 as a franchise
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
owner in Fremont, California
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
. The creation of the Quarter Pounder earned him the nickname "Fremont's hamburger king."
Bernadin later became McDonald's vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
of product development. His position allowed him to play a key role in the development of some of the company's signature menu items, including frozen french fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...
, which allowed for easier storage
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
and transportation, as well as the McDonald's fish sandwich
Filet-O-Fish
The Filet-O-Fish is a fish sandwich sold by the international fast food chain store McDonald's.-Product description:...
, apple pie
Apple pie
An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. It is sometimes served with whipped cream or ice cream on top...
and cherry pie
Cherry pie
Cherry pie is a pie baked with a cherry filling. Traditionally, cherry pie is made with tart rather than sweet cherries as it is easier to control how sweet the pie eventually becomes and also eventually translates to a sharper taste...
.
McDonald's
Bernardin was born on February 17, 1928, in Lawrence, MassachusettsLawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States on the Merrimack River. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 76,377. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. It and Salem are...
. He received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1952.
He was first hired to work at McDonald's Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
corporate headquarters
Corporate headquarters
Corporate headquarters is a term used to describe the entity at the top of a corporation to take full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, ensures Corporate Governance...
in 1960. Bernardin was promoted to dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of the company's training center, Hamburger University
Hamburger University
Hamburger University is a training facility of McDonald's Corporation, located in Oak Brook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. This corporate university was designed to instruct personnel employed by McDonald's in the various aspects of restaurant management...
, within just six months of joining McDonald's.
Development of the Quarter Pounder
Bernardin purchased two company-owned McDonald's in Fremont, CaliforniaFremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
, and relocated to the city in 1970. He successfully expanded his McDonald's franchise business, eventually owning nine of the restaurants throughout southern Alameda County.
Once in Fremont, Bernardin began experimenting with new menu items for his franchises. In 1971, Bernardin introduced the now famous Quarter Pounder at his McDonald's locations. He explained his idea for the Quarter Pounder in a 1991 interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
marking the 20th anniversary of the burger's development saying, "felt there was a void in our menu vis-à-vis the adult who wanted a higher ratio of meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
to bun
Bun
A bun is a small, usually sweet, bread. Commonly they are hand-sized or smaller, domed in shape, with a flat bottom. A bun can also be a savory bread roll similar to a bap or barmcake....
." Bernardin unveiled the Quarter Pounder using the slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
, "Today Fremont, tomorrow the world." The Quarter Pounder is now one of McDonald's most popular signature items, having been added to the national American menu in 1973.
Other McDonald's contributions
Additionally, Bernardin worked as McDonald's Vice President of product development during his career with the company. Though he was most famous for introducing the Quarter Pounder, Bernardin felt that his most important contribution to McDonald's and the larger fast foodFast food
Fast food is the term given 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...
industry was the development of frozen french fries. Until 1967, all McDonald's french fries had to be cut on-site from stored potatoes and fried. Bernardin's frozen fries allowed for easier transport of the product and cleared storage space which was previously used for storing potatoes. He explained the benefits of frozen fries saying, "Before that, the (restaurants) had to store potatoes in the basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
. It was a real pain."
As Vice President, Bernardin also shepherded the development of the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish
Filet-O-Fish
The Filet-O-Fish is a fish sandwich sold by the international fast food chain store McDonald's.-Product description:...
, as well the company's fried
Frying
Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat, a technique that originated in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed. In commerce, many fats are called oils by custom, e.g...
apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
and cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
pies. Not all of Bernadin's suggestions were included on McDonald's menus. McDonald's turned down his idea for a ground turkey meat burger called the McGobbler. The company also dismissed his The Lite Mac sandwich, which would have consisted of a one fifth-pound burger patty containing 15% less beef fat than a normal Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
.
Bernardin spent approximately two years developing a prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
for buttered corn-on-the-cob, according to his son, Mark Bernardin, who is also a McDonald's franchise owner.
Later life
Bernardin and his wife, Joan Bernardin, became involved in philanthropyPhilanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
after his uncle received treatment in a hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
. Impressed by his uncle's hospice care, Bernardin founded the Tree of Angels, a Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
lighting festival designed to raise money for the Pathways Hospice, based in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
.
The couple moved to the Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, area in the mid-1990s, eventually settling in Pebble Beach. He spent time as a volunteer at hospices throughout northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
. Bernardin became a major benefactor for the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula was founded in 1934 and is located at 23625 Holman Highway in Monterey, California. The hospital has 205 acute care beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds...
, known as CHOMP.
In addition to his home in Pebble Beach, Bernardin also had residences in Pleasanton, California
Pleasanton, California
Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, incorporated in 1894. It is a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area located about east of Oakland, and west of Livermore. The population was 70,285 at the 2010 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in...
, Spanish Bay and Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
.
Bernardin suffered a series of strokes later in his life. He died of stroke on December 22, 2009, at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, at the age of 81. He was survived by his wife, Joan Bernardin, two children, Kirsten and Mark, three stepchildren, Dan Ryan, Julie Bullas, Kristie Ryan and ten grandchildren.