Four Toronto chefs embraced the challenge to turn McDonald's most famous dish into high-end haute cuisine. They were given a combo meal: Big Mac, french fries, Coke, and plenty of free condiments, and could add no extra ingredients other than oil and water.
I'm with Good Eats author Kenji on this one - a perfectly cooked and seasoned fresh McDonald's french fry is the epitome of everything a fry should be. Great, right? 'Cept there's a few problems... 1) it's rare that a McDonald's franchise produces perfectly cooked and seasoned fries, or that when you get them they're guaranteed to be fresh; and 2) I don't eat at McDonald's. Ever.
So this is the kind of helpful article that simply makes my toes curl and rush to the grocery store immediately. Hamburgling a few frozen McDonald's batches to dissect them with great scientific inquiry, Kenji came up with four 'perfect fry factors: