French Fry Diary 583: The Mystery of Burger Chef

I've been doing this French Fry Diary in one form or another for over a decade. And even before then I considered myself something of a connoisseur of not only French fries but also fast food. I have always known the ins and outs and even the arcane knowledge of the fast food joints in the area. Imagine my surprise when I found out about a local chain that I not only never heard of, but I had also been inside of, and dined at. This is the mystery of Burger Chef.

AMC's "Mad Men" has brought this specter back to life recently in their final season, as Burger Chef is actually one of their potential clients. The weirdest part for me is that the local Burger Chef was a stone's throw from where I live now. Burger Chef in Marlton NJ was right behind where Kohl's is now. The big store was formerly a Bradlee's, a Jefferson Ward, and at the time of Burger Chef - a Two Guys. Man, the nostalgia is killing me.

Burger Chef started in 1954 in Indiana, and from there expanded throughout the United States until 1982 when General Foods, who owned the chain, sold off all the restaurants to Hardees. They had a very distinctive sign, stylized like McDonald's or In-N-Out Burger, instantly recognizable. They created the first fast food combo meal, and before Roy Rogers did it, they offered a bar where you could dress your own burger. They had their own animated mascot called, what else but the Burger Chef, and his sidekick Jeff. They had a ball at Halloween, and engineered some great promotions with properties like Family Circus, King Kong, and Star Wars, among others.

Apparently blocked out of my memory is the fact that I had actually been to the Marlton location, and perhaps the Hammonton one on the White Horse Pike as well, as a little boy. My big sister and her husband/then-boyfriend used to take me. Even then I was a catastrophically picky eater, and Burger Chef offered a burger called a 'Plain Jane.' It was as you may have expected, a plain hamburger that you could (if you wanted) dress at The Works Bar. I don't remember it at all, but I wish they were still around.

You're waiting to hear about the favorite fried food though, aren't you? Well, it's hard to say, as I don't remember. From fuzzy images online and even fuzzier ones on video, they look to be either shoestrings or regular cuts, and while they look good, who knows? This was several decades ago. Below is a YouTube montage of some of the Burger Chef television commercials, and if you're interested in the Marlton NJ location of Burger Chef, click here for an entire website about it, cool stuff.

French Fry Diary 13: Hesburger

In the summer of 2007 I visited Helsinki, Finland. For someone like me who is not only a catastrophically fussy eater but also a fast food fanatic, new experiences and foreign lands can be a bit of a problem sometimes. So when I found Hesburger in the mall near our hotel in Helsinki, I knew I had to try it.

In appearance, it looks very much like a Burger King (especially in the logo and font) or Hardees, but it’s not. Hesburger is indeed its own entity. It was set up like your typical Burger King restaurant, only without outside walls and dropped right in the middle of the mall, with foot traffic on all sides. Its location was so logical I had to wonder why we didn’t have fast food places done like this here in America.

Now, surprisingly (to me at least), most folks in Finland speak English. And this is opposed to London (our stop before Helsinki) where many of the people I met mysteriously did not speak English. But this lack of a language barrier made life in Helsinki pretty easy in the communication department – until I got to Hesburger that is. The folks behind the counter were among the only non-English-speaking Finns I encountered.

Now I knew that "pomme frites" was French fries. That was easy – a trick I picked up from the Malcolm McDowell movie "Time After Time" where a time-displaced H.G. Wells ordered French fries for his first time at a McDonald’s. The hard part was ordering a hamburger plain, with nothing on it. After a lot of primitive sign language and hand signals and much repeating of “just bun and meat” together we pulled it off.

The food itself, burger and fries-wise, were more applicable to Hardees than Burger King. The burger was fried not chargrilled, but not untasty, and the fries were slightly greasy shoestrings, but a definite oasis for this fast food junkie. If you ever go to Scandinavia, definitely drop by Hesburger to feed your junk food monkey.


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Free Fry Day 8-24-2007

Hardee's(R) Launches New Natural Cut French Fries

New Thicker Fries with Potato Skin Left On Are Better Complement to Hardee's Thickburger(TM) MenuGuests Can Sample New Natural Cut Fries During "Free Fry-Day" Promotion Friday, Aug. 24

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- After a three-year search -- and an extensive amount of testing and consumer research -- the perfect French fries to complement Hardee's Angus-beef Thickburgers have been found. Beginning today, guests who order a combo meal or a side of fries will be treated to Hardee's new Natural Cut French Fries -- thicker fries with the potato skin left on them to mirror the kind of premium-quality fries found at sit-down restaurants.

To help celebrate the launch of its new Natural Cut Fries, Hardee's has declared this Friday "Free Fry-Day" at all U.S.-based Hardee's restaurants. Guests who stop by any Hardee's restaurant this Friday, Aug. 24, will be treated to a small fry on the house.

"When we first introduced our line of premium quality, Angus beef Thickburgers at Hardee's four years ago, we also began working on the rest of our menu with the goal of matching the quality of food found in sit-down restaurants," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing, Hardee's. "That work led to the subsequent introduction of such popular menu items as our Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Shakes and Malts, but our search for French fries good enough to be served next to our charbroiled 1/3-, 1/2- and 2/3-lb. Thickburgers proved to be a bigger challenge than we thought. After many tries, we're pleased to be able to offer our guests a great fry that is the perfect complement to our great Thickburgers. And, now we can say with confidence that we believe we have the best burgers, shakes and fries in the business."

The new Natural Cut Fries will be sold at all Hardee's restaurants in small, medium and large sizes for $1.29, $1.49 or $1.69, respectively. Prices may vary. As previously announced, the chain will begin cooking the new Natural Cut Fries, and all other fried items, in zero trans fat, 100 percent canola oil starting in January.

Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. of Carpinteria, Calif. As of the first fiscal quarter ended May 21, 2007, CKE Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,022 franchised or company-operated restaurants in 43 states and in 13 countries, including 1,101 Carl's Jr.(R) restaurants, 1,905 Hardee's restaurants. For more information, or to find a Hardee's near you, go to http://www.ckr.com or http://www.hardees.com.