BD's Mongolian Grill is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 chain

Chain store

Chain stores are retail outlets that share a brand and central management, and usually have standardized business methods and practices. These characteristics also apply to chain restaurants and some service-oriented chain businesses. In retail, dining and many service categories, chain businesses...

 specializing in patron-prepared stir-fry meals in a style known as "Mongolian barbecue

Mongolian barbecue

Mongolian barbecue is a stir fried dish that was developed in Taiwanese restaurants in the 1970s. Meat and vegetables are cooked in large, round, solid iron griddles at temperatures of up to 300 °C...

". Grillers use 3-foot (0.9 m) metal "swords" and cook on an 8-foot (2.4 m) diameter gas flat top grill reaching temperatures of 600 degrees Fahrenheit (300°C).

BD's was founded in 1992 by Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

 alumnus and entrepreneur Billy "BD" Downs and his wife after a visit to a similar restaurant in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. The restaurant is headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan

Royal Oak, Michigan

Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 57,236. It should not be confused with Royal Oak Charter Township, a separate community located nearby....

 and currently has 37 locations, mostly concentrated in the northern Midwest

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

. In May 2005, BD's opened a franchise in Ulan Bator, as the first American-franchised restaurant in Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

.

Charitable activities

Part of the profits made by the Ulan Bator franchise are used for charitable purposes. Mongo Charities was established in 2005 to help raise funds for the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation. The foundation is a non-governmental, non profit making organization with major emphasis on providing youth development programs in Mongolia and working to assist Mongolian youth in their development into active members of society, by providing social, educational, cultural and physical activities. In honour of those activities, Billy Downs was named "Cornerstone Humanitarian of the Year" by the National Restaurant Association

National Restaurant Association

thumb|National Restaurant Association logoThe National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations. It also operates the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation...

 in 1996.

Origin of the cooking style

Public relations material of the chain says that the preparation technique was modeled on a practice of the Mongol Empire

Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...

, when soldiers would gather large quantities of meats and prepare them with their swords on their overturned shields over a large fire.

There is no historical evidence for this claim, and most of the ingredients used as well as the preparation method are entirely unknown to the actual cuisine of Mongolia. In reality, "Mongolian barbecue

Mongolian barbecue

Mongolian barbecue is a stir fried dish that was developed in Taiwanese restaurants in the 1970s. Meat and vegetables are cooked in large, round, solid iron griddles at temperatures of up to 300 °C...

s" first appeared in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 in the middle of the 20th century, inspired by the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese-style teppanyaki

Teppanyaki

is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word teppanyaki is derived from teppan , which means iron plate, and yaki , which means grilled, broiled or pan-fried...

which was popular there at the time.

External links

• BD's Mongolian Grill official site
• Mongolian Youth Development Foundation