Who created McDonald’s Big Mac as a franchise menu innovation?

Jim Delligatti created the Big Mac as a franchise menu innovation. Delligatti operated several McDonald’s restaurants in the Pittsburgh area and developed the two-beef-patty sandwich to offer a more substantial menu choice.

He first tested the sandwich in 1967 at a McDonald’s in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The product used two all-beef patties, a sesame-seed bun, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and the sauce now strongly associated with the sandwich.

McDonald’s introduced the Big Mac nationally in 1968. The name became one of the company’s most recognizable product brands, and the sandwich eventually became a common informal indicator of McDonald’s prices through The Economist’s Big Mac Index. Delligatti’s creation is sometimes wrongly credited to corporate headquarters rather than a franchise operator.