Egg McMuffin Inventor RIP

March 27, 2008 by John Foster  Send to a Friend

Herb Peterson’s passing reminds me of a time when invention and passion went hand in hand and unencumbered by focus groups and years of scientific analysis. Hearing the news made me oddly sad this morning. Touching me on the level of a neighbor whose driveway I had shoveled snow from as a kid - being gone forever. No longer will we run into each other at the supermarket or say hello at the mailbox when I visit my parents. Luckily with Peterson, he left behind a little circular piece of perfection to fondly remember him by whenever I like (or up until certain hours of the morning depending on the day of the week.)

With that in mind I think we should take a second to celebrate all that is the Egg McMuffin. Peterson started out actually as an ad guy on the other side of the table for McDonald’s but he was so taken with the company that he soon jumped ship and found himself the proud owner of six franchises in Southern California. Back then the rules were not so strict and he pushed his kitchen to come up with a fast food approximation of his beloved eggs benedict. Trial and error would quickly eliminate the messy hollandaise component (can you imagine how many dress shirts you would go through on the way to work trying to finish just one muffin with that action squirting out?) Keeping pace with the Mickey D’s mantra of making each sandwich taste the same they came up with the production method of the teflon ring topped with canadian bacon and cheese but ended up making the only item with any “taste mystery” on the menu as each one differs depending on which direction the yolk has broken in. He served his creation. People loved it. Soon corporate was informed and the world would embrace the little breakfast sandwich that changed this country’s commute and spawned literally hundreds of imitators.

This wouldn’t be possible in today’s McDonalds where innovation often comes from labs determining just the right amount of nauseatingly sweet syrup that they can inject into a pancake sandwich???? This is what we have to consume when the creative aspect is taken out of the hands of people who quite simply love to eat. Yuck.

The Egg McMuffin flies in the face of this mode of operation in so many ways: it’s imperfection inherent in the preparation, it’s damn tastiness, its natural sweetness and saltiness based on the raw ingredients and not injected into the meat and bread like so many other menu items and shockingly - it’s low calorie count and high nutritional content. That’s right - the Egg McMuffin is really the perfect breakfast. If you remove the cheese (McDonald’s having the worst processed cheese for nutrition available - the original sandwich you likely could have left it on for dairy) you could argue that the damn thing is healthy. The egg and canadian bacon and all that yummy protein has the fun capability to last longer in the ol’ digestion chain and abates your hunger for hours as well. It’s the only fast food that still comes in under the calorie counts for most weight watcher style diets so go out and celebrate it’s joys. I don’t normally advocate fast food (usually too bust salivating over fried pork chops and the like from soul food outlets) but just this once it seems like the right thing to do.

Muffin

Egg

Canadian Bacon

Cheese

Muffin

Perfection.

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