The McMuffin: An eggcelent idea from the start

He was hungry for breakfast, but McDonald's restaurants didn't open until 11 a.m.

Last night, Peterson was honored for the frustration that led to the Egg McMuffin as McDonald's Corp. presented him with its highest marketing award, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Peterson is an idea man who, at 87, still makes impromptu phone calls from his California home to McDonald's headquarters to suggest new products. As a newly minted McDonald's restaurant operator in 1971, Peterson believed he wasn't the only McDonald's fan who was hungry before 11 a.m.

"He felt there was a void in the morning hours," said Peterson's son, David, his dad's partner in operating six McDonald's restaurants in Santa Barbara and Goleta, Calif., with annual sales of more than $10 million.

He got the idea for the Egg McMuffin from his own favorite breakfast meal -- eggs Benedict.

He asked a local blacksmith to make an egg ring to keep the fried egg round and tidy for a hand-held sandwich. Peterson concocted the meal in his McDonald's restaurant in Santa Barbara and asked Ray Kroc, McDonald's founder and Peterson's close friend, to give it a look the next time Kroc dropped by.

Peterson set up a display and won over Kroc.

"Ray thought so much of it, he invited me to come back to Chicago," Peterson said. "We prepared it again in a test kitchen. The reaction was very good. They said, 'Go on and make it a national product.' "

The Egg McMuffin debuted four years later, in 1975.

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Source - Chicago Sun-Times


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