McDonald's customers compete to make a Big Mac meal look fancy

Sauce becomes garnish, buns become croutons

(MarkHayes)

On a slow day in Toronto, Canada, amateur chefs Mark Hayes and Jordan Plener held a competition to make a McDonald's look like a fancy meal, serving up cheeseburger sliders, potato towers and sesame-seed-bun croutons.

The pair gave themselves an hour to transform a miserable standard issues Big Mac into something you could legitimately serve on a wooden board, using only the ingredients that come with a regular McDonald's meal.

"The fame and tastiness of a Big Mac cannot be disputed, but we felt it’s always been lacking a bit of sophistication," Hayes told BuzzFeed. "We both felt that we could improve its taste and presentation."

Fries were cut evenly, Coke was poured into wine glasses, burgers were deconstructed, and eventually they finished their dishes:

Hayes: 'Five times cheeseburger with a potato tower, salad, sesame-seed-bun croutons, and Mac sauce garnish'

Plener: 'Big Mac mini-pies with sesame-seed crisps and a salad'

Plener was deemed to have won based on Reddit and Imgur votes with his mini-pies, though Hayes was quick to point out who really benefited from the competition.

"Some say the only winner here is McDonald’s, because you know, free advertising and everything," he said.

"But I’d like to think we may have inspired some young culinary students to rethink fast food and perhaps find inspiration in the everyday food we eat.

"I’d love nothing more than to one day go to a restaurant and find a $30 Taco Bell remix served on a real plate with a table cloth, maybe even some wine!"