René Arend posing with his invention in 1984 / © Star Tribune
Did you know that McDonald's Chicken McNuggets were invented by a classically trained chef from Luxembourg?
René Arend was born in 1928 in Wiltz and trained at the Collège Technique Hôtelier in Strasbourg, where he graduated top of his class in 1952. though he launched his professional career at Hotel Continental in Luxembourg City, Arend emigrated to the United States in 1956. He soon found work at Chicago's luxurious Drake Hotel, where he spent six years as a chef and even won a prestigious culinary competition in 1959 with a dish titled Suprême de Poularde Amphitryon, a refined chicken creation.
Arend then spent 14 years as head chef at the elite Whitehall Club, where his regular guests included royalty, Hollywood stars such as Sophia Loren and Cary Grant, but also business titans like Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's and Fred Turner, then-president of the fast food chain.Renowned for his exceptional poultry dishes, Arend was courted by McDonald's to help develop new items on their menu. Initially scpetical, claiming to be a chef and therefore not believing in hamburgers, Arend would join McDonald's in 1976 as executive chef.
He later explained his decison, saying he wanted to serve people who couldn't afford to dine at the Whitehalld. Arend told the Toledo Blade in 1985 that "it is more satisfying to serve millions good food and satisfying them."
One of his first product development tasks at McDonald's was to create a new kind of snack: he initially proposed so-called Onion Nuggets, but Turner advised him to try chicken instead. As the story goes, after a full day of experiments in 1979, Arend presented his new invention by placing the bite-sized chicken bits directly on Turner's desk.
It took 18 months to streamline production, including creating a variety of dipping sauces. Arend developed around 100 sauces, but only three were approved: a sweet and sour sauce made with apricot concentrate (his personal favourite), a smoky barbecue sauce, and a mustard blend using two types of hot mustard with a salad dressing base.
McNuggets hit US menus in 1983 and were an instant sensation – so much so that chicken shortages delayed their international rollout until the following year.
That shortage led to another fast-food legend: the McRib. Inspired by pulled pork sandwiches he had tasted in South Carolina, Arend devised a boneless pork patty shaped to look like ribs. "Some people said, 'Why not make it round?' That would've been easier," he recalled. "But I wanted it to look like a piece of ribs." Though not a hit initially, the McRib eventually became one of McDonald's most beloved limited-time offerings, famously cycling on and off menus for decades.
Arend remained deeply committed to food safety and public health, telling The Buffalo News in 1988: "Food safety is essential. Not making people sick is at the top of my list." Asked about why healthier items hadn't taken off, he replied: "People say they want to eat healthy, but we're still a business. And we have to serve all our customers."
Following a heart attack in the late 1980s, Arend gradually stepped back from his development role. He officially retired in 2004 but continued to serve as a senior adviser to McDonald’s. René Arend passed away in 2016 at the age of 88 in Naperville, Illinois – the city where he had begun his American adventure 60 years earlier.
