My Selection is the name of the line including the three new burgers. In this line, the flavours of Italy and the United States meet, the two souls that Joe Bastianich and McDonald's have in common: faithful to his origins, the Italian-American entrepreneur, who followed his family’s steps, has in fact tested and chosen among 15 combinations of high quality ingredients the three new combinations that make the new burgers ‘best of all’, with a strong Made in Italy identity linked to local producers and McDonald's suppliers.
Mario Federico, CEO of McDonald’s Italia, pictured on the left of Bastianich, said: ‘With this new offer we aimed at meeting the tastes of Italian customers; Bastianich's advice, as he has known hamburgers since he was a child in the USA, but he also knows Italians’ tastes very well, was fundamental in refining these recipes. The offer will concern McDonald's restaurants named Eotf, Experience of the Future, which will be about 100 by 2020, provided with digital kiosks. My Selection line will replace the current My Signature one, but it will be next to all the existing offerings’.
The recipes
They will be available since January 4th in over 560 McDonald's across Italy, and the first two are made with 180g beef burger and one with 100% chicken breast. In all three recipes the bread is prepared with Italian wheat:
1.MY SELECTION BBQ; fresh Italian egg, natural cheddar cheese, salad, ranch sauce, cucumber, and crunchy bacon
2.MY SELECTION EGG; seasoned gouda cheese, coleslaw sauce, crispy bacon, and salad
3.MY SELECTION CHICKEN; sauce prepared with yellow pepper from Campania, PDO Provolone Valpadana, crispy onion, salad
The event
The location was that of the prestigious shop in Milan, Piazza del Duomo. There a table was set up where three people among the public were called for a blind test to recognise the ingredients of the three sandwiches, with comment by both McDonald’s chef and Joe Bastianich.
The evident purpose, by the way in line with McDonald's continuous path for several years consisting in enhancing Italian products, is the realization of these recipes, which has been possible thanks to the collaboration with the Consortia of the typical products present in the three sandwiches, too. In particular, for My Selection McDonald's purchased 6,150 kg of PGI Tropea red Onion, 2,050 kg of PGI balsamic vinegar of Modena, and about 55 tonnes of PDO Provolone Valpadano.
The aim is absolute quality
Dario Baroni, Marketing Manager at McDonald's Italia, commented: ‘Today, we are not just introducing some new products, but a real partnership that will last three years and will be an important part in our search for increasingly better taste and quality, able to proceed side by side. In fact, thanks to Joe Bastianich we can collect a double challenge: on the one hand to create a new mix of flavours that enhances the taste, made from the combination of more traditional ingredients and more unusual ones, on the other hand to continue to enhance the excellence of our territory thanks to the use of quality ingredients and Italian provenance. Joe Bastianich commented: ‘This collaboration has a special meaning for me. When I was a kid, I saw McDonald's sign from the window of my home in Queens, and many of my memories are linked just to that place. That's where I tasted my first hamburger, accompanied by my grandmother Erminia, because I had behaved well. As I had grown up in a family of Istrian exiles, thanks to the hamburgers I felt a bit more American. Today, my collaboration with McDonald's and My Selection project make me revive my double soul: typical American taste and quality Italian ingredients. Italy and the United States together, as in my story’.
