One of the latest fracas in the multi-billion dollar fast food war started late at night on Karan Suri's TikTok.
A&W's menu development director was scrolling through his phone when he came across the “pickle girl” trend that was making waves last year. The women (and one very vocal and adorable 3-year-old) showed their love for preserved cucumbers.
By the next morning, he was mixing various pickle-based sauces in the burger chain's test kitchen in North Vancouver. After five weeks, he perfected the recipe that became the basis for last summer's A&W Spicy Dill Burger.
“Our supplier… was an instant success,” Suri said in the test kitchen in mid-March, noting that the five weeks it took from idea to finished product was a record for him.
the pressure that shakes it up
While much of the industry's appeal is due to its familiarity, fast food brands also face pressure to revamp their menus in response to increased competition and changing consumer tastes.
This process often begins by rolling out a new limited-time offer, with brands hoping it will create buzz and, if they're lucky, spark a McRib- or Pumpkin Spice Latte-level frenzy.
For the $42.6 billion fast food industry, this is a high-stakes game.
Although fast-food restaurants have fared well despite inflation, industry growth has begun to slow as the number of competitors continues to grow, and staying relevant is critical to staying competitive, according to retail analytics firm Circana. That is the key.
art and science
Walking into A&W's test kitchen is like stepping into a supersized version of a fast food kitchen with about 10 times the equipment. Because each restaurant uses different grills and fryers, making sure recipes work the same no matter where they are deployed requires an unusual amount of equipment in the space.
On a recent visit, the space was meticulously clean and not particularly aromatic.
This is where Suri, who previously worked in luxury hotels in India, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, and his team are trying to figure out what customers want to eat next. It's a process that is both science and art.
WATCH | A look inside the A&W test kitchen: 
How fast food trends go from idea to table
CBC Business reporter Paula Duhachek spoke with A&W Menu Development Director Karan Suri to get the inside scoop on how the fast food chain creates popular menu items like Spicy Piri Piri Potato Buddy .
Suri perfected her pickle sauce in five weeks, but recipes can take years to develop. After going through 57 variations of his Nashville chicken glaze, the team came up with a version that could be mass-produced and stored in a restaurant's hot kitchen.
“You have to work in a very demanding kitchen environment,” said food scientist David Ioi, Suri's co-pilot at the test kitchen.
A&W receives tons of data from forecasters and suppliers about which flavors are popular now and which are expected to become popular in the future.
Menu hack to menu item
It also looks to the consumer.
For the first time this year, the company introduced new menu items based on menu hacks. A franchise owner in Mississauga noticed that customers from the South Asian community were purchasing burgers but using beef patties instead of hash browns.
“I'm from India, and there are a lot of vegetarians in India,” Suri said. “They don't eat meat or poultry, but they do have hash browns.”
A&W hash brown burgers rolled out in response to customer menu hacks. Photographed in North Vancouver on March 14 (CBC)
Changing demographics are a key part of why restaurants mix up their menus in the first place.
Many burger and fry chains have roots in the mid-20th century, but Canadian consumers and their tastes have changed since then.
“Many of these new immigrants are now your guests. They come with their own tastes, their own culture, their own cuisine,” Suri said.
Small global chains compete for dollars
Vince Sugabellone, food service industry analyst at Circana Canada, says traditional burger chains are finding themselves competing with more fast-food players with globally influenced cuisine, such as , Osmou's Shawarma, Thai Express and Roti Butter Chicken.
And it's not just fast food that's undergoing this shift, according to flavor expert Cecilia Pereira.
Hamburger restaurants are no longer competing only with hamburger restaurants, but also with other fast food restaurants such as shawarma restaurants. (Rachel Elsioufi/CBC)
From snack foods to drinks to desserts, some of North America's most popular flavors today have roots in other parts of the world.
“Ginger, spicy honey, jerk flavors, miso, tahini, sesame seed flavors, these are all becoming increasingly popular,” says U.S.-based International Flavors, which develops flavors for everything from multivitamins to potato. Pereira, global product marketer at & Fragrances. Chips.
Competition intensifies
For traditional brands, the trick is to blend new flavors with familiar products for which the brand is well-known.
Adding new seasonings and sauces to core products like potato chips and burgers is a common practice, a concept known in the industry as “familiar discoveries.”
Listen | How fast food companies are fighting to stay competitive:
Cost of living8:18Fast food and “familiar discoveries”
Fast food restaurants aim to serve what we like and know. But as Canada's demographics change, so do our preferences. CBC reporter Paula Duhaczek goes into A&W's Test her kitchen to learn what it takes to come up with new menu items that are tried-and-true, yet offer people fresh flavors.
“'Discovering the Familiar' is the idea that you can give someone something that is somewhat familiar, and just by putting a layer of novelty on top of it, you can make it new and interesting,” University of Guelph said Derek Vella, Director of the Food Innovation Center.
”[Customers] They're more likely to buy it and more likely to enjoy it,” he said, pointing to Tim Hortons' new iced yuzu drink as another example.
anything spicy
A&W has about six spicy sauces in development in its test kitchen. They range from Sichuan-style chili oil-based sauces to Moroccan-style pepper aioli with notes of cinnamon and coriander.
“Spiciness has only become popular in Canada in the last four years, and it's not the spiciness of a traditional hot sauce,” Suri says.
A&W currently has about 70 products in development, but only a few make it from the test kitchen to the test market and only after extensive testing.
“Many decisions we make… [are] Based on the data, we go into our supplier partners' facilities and understand exactly how everything is manufactured down to the millimeter and gram,” Ioi said.
A&W menu development manager David Ioi prepares to enjoy a spoonful of spicy sauce in North Vancouver on March 14.(Maggie McPherson/CBC)
He estimates he cooked the limited-edition Piri Piri burger about 500 times to ensure the cooking instructions were specific enough.
“Everything needs to be very consistent and almost exactly the same.”
This is time-consuming work, but industry analyst Sgabellone said more is happening.
During the pandemic, many restaurants closed test kitchens and reduced menus to simplify and save costs.
But as the world opens up, brands are increasingly rolling out new menu items, whether it's brand new recipes or nostalgic relaunch.
“That wave of innovation is now hitting the market again,” he said.
