I’m Loving it and it’s Kosher?!
March 12, 2020
McDonald’s Kosher McChicken sandwich could pass for any regular McChicken sandwich.
Embraced by a soft sesame bun, a breaded chicken patty rests between a delicately thin layer of McDonald’s sandwich sauce and iceberg lettuce. The tang from the sauce coats the tender patty and distinguishes itself from the somewhat limp lettuce. Coupled with thinly cut fries this harmonious relationship, between burger and fry, makes for what customers consider a true classic.
What sets this McChicken apart from other McDonald’s chicken sandwiches is how it is prepared - overseen by a mashgiach, a religious supervisor, and prepared in accordance with the Jewish Dietary Laws.
Found within Buenos Aires’ Abasto shopping mall in Barrio Once, a community built on a strong Jewish presence, is a typical food court scene. There are not one but three McDonalds’, one Wendy’s and one Burger King inches away from one another.
Tucked away in the back is one of the McDonald’s; not lit up with its traditional red and yellow banner but rather a slate gray background with the words advertising ‘McDonalds’ and ‘Kosher’ in capital white letters. What isn’t advertised is that this is the only kosher McDonald’s in the world besides the ones found in Israel.
Immigrating here in the 1880s, Argentina, today, is home to about 250,000 Jews, making it the country with the largest Jewish population in Latin America. In Buenos Aires alone, the number of Jewish inhabitants is equivalent to the combined Jewish populations of Uruguay, Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
With Argentina being the country with the sixth highest Jewish population in the world and a big beef production industry it is perplexing as to why McDonald’s has chosen here to be its home.
First opened in 1997 by Rabbi Daniel Oppenheimer, McDonalds Kosher became a popular and safe place for Jewish community members to come together and enjoy a meal. Not only has Oppenheimer created a space for an underrepresented group in the food industry, but he has also challenged people’s preconceived notions about what it means to be kosher. “For me, the greatest value of our relationship with McDonald’s is that people who have prejudices about kosher food will try it with the weight of the McDonald’s name attached,” Oppenheimer claims.
In general, it is a difficult and demanding feat to keep kosher outside of Israel. While other religions may also maintain dietary limitations - Hindus following a vegetarian diet or Muslims only eating halal foods and nothing with pork or lard - being kosher requires extra and more expensive measures.
In a ‘Times of Israel’ interview, Oppenheimer states how ‘it’s impossible to import kosher food [to Argentina] due to the fluctuating currency, and local companies not willing to pay to get a kosher certification,” making it difficult for Orthodox Jews to carry out their basic Jewish beliefs.
Many Orthodox Jews believe that they must adhere to the strict dietary guidelines laid out by the Torah, or the Jewish Bible, dictating high standards of preparation to maintain cleanliness, purity and a strong relationship with God. “You are only allowed to eat animals that have a split hoof and eat their cud, like cow, sheep or goats, and you mustn’t eat meat and dairy together, so that means no cheeseburgers, to uphold the symbolism of life and death, never blurring the two,” states mashgiach and overseer of the McDonald's Kosher, Meyer Modlin.
In places like New York and Israel which have a bigger Jewish population, there are more options and better quality kosher “fast food” available for the Jewish community. In Israel alone, there’s an abundance of competing chain kosher burger places such as Burger Ranch, Burger Bar, or Burger Market to name a few. With this attention to detail in food preparation and costly endeavor to retain two sets of utensils, equipment, and serving platters along with a proper certification it makes the abundance of kosher restaurants hard to come by in smaller Jewish communities, such as barrio Once.
“Sure, I've had significantly better kosher burgers all over the world - much bigger and plentiful, and that have roasted turkey or fried fake bacon on top, it's delicious, but I can't go to just any place and have a burger like my friends,” claims Arik Rosenstein, a Jewish community member, and McDonald’s Kosher goer. “Unlike them, I have to go to a specific spot in the city that's usually really far from where I am or in places difficult to get to. Being able to come to a mall and sit down to have a burger with no issue is something other people may take for granted.”
While the normal McDonalds is visited yearly by more than one million people, only 400,000 people go to McDonald's Kosher with 90 percent of them belonging to that of a Jewish community. The menu is smaller; lacking well-known items such as the Egg McMuffin, the Big Mac and the Double Cheeseburger and doesn’t appear to be actively producing food to serve at a constant rate. With factors such as these the McDonald’s Kosher is more likely to experience economic losses, but it still stands as a service to the religious community.
Inexpensive, convenient, and crucially consistent is at the heart of any fast-food place. McDonald’s Kosher proves to be a place where Argentine Jews can go to “feel Argentine, and comfortable wearing their kippahs or payots, not necessarily worrying about observing God in a way that makes them feel unethical or self-conscious,” explains Rosenstein. To be deprived of that simple privilege makes a great opening in the fast-food business for more kosher joints because maybe we just don’t have enough fast-food in the world. After all, the kosher McChicken sandwich tastes and looks just like any ordinary McChicken sandwich.