How Jack in the Box’s Culinary Team Comes Up With Ridiculous ‘Munchie Meals’
Who thinks up those crazy Munchie Meals at Jack in the Box?
All too often is the joke made that a stoner must have thought up their idea of the Stacked Grilled Cheeseburger – it’s a grilled cheese riding a cheeseburger!
Serious question: What Internet food porn video did Jack in the Box watch that inspired a cheeseburger with sourdough grilled cheese buns?
Stacked Grilled Cheese Burger
What’s a “Munchie Meal?”
The Chick-n-Tater Melt
Back in September 2013, Jack in the Box unveiled a line of items called “Jack’s Munchie Meals.” Packaged in late-night only purple boxes, the meals were filled with a smorgasbord of tacos, curly fries, French fries, a drink and an entree. The entree always consisted of some crazy mashups that we assumed was the work of food bloggers like DudeFoods or Tym Bussanich.
The Process Of Making A “Munchie Meal”
On a recent visit to Jack in the Box’s headquarters in San Diego, CA, I sat down with Jeff Zwally, their VP of Research & Development to discuss their process in creating these munchie-friendly meals.
We laughed a bit in their test kitchen, but I was dead serious on wondering what kind of psychotics they had to be on when it came time to ideate for new menu items. What are their limitations? Where did their inspiration come from?
Jeff Zwally, VP Research & Development, Jack in the Box
Jeff mentioned that, minus the smoke and college dorm room setting, their process is actually quite fun — albeit meticulous. They’ll bat around ideas in a room and discuss recent inspirations (Internet creations, places around the world, their current addictions, etc.).
The day we came in, their culinary team had just finished a session on breakfast sandwiches. In the morning, they had come up with more than 100 breakfast ideas. Of those 100, about 20 of them make the “concept board,” where the culinary and marketing teams end up sketching them out and rating how easy their concepts are to make with current ingredients (or if new ones are needed).
Once those 20 “concepts” are on the board, Jeff and his team end up creating ten of them for testing. Consumers and other employees then become the guineas, trying and rating these in a controlled environment, and finally, 2-3 of those items usually make it to a restaurant.
Here Is The Next Item Making The Menu: Onion Rings, Nachos Cheese, Fried Chicken, Jalapeños on Toasted Sourdough
While we were visiting, Jeff had his team bring out their newest Munchie Meal item to be released — Sourdough bread, Crispy Chicken, topped with nacho cheese, jalapeños and onion rings. It was like a chicken sandwich drowning in nacho cheese and it worked really well together.
Following the tasting, me, Geoff and Rudy went to town taking some of the new Jack in the Box knowledge we acquired and created our own items in their test kitchen. Watch the madness:
This post was created in a partnership with Jack in the Box.
