When I was a kid, I hated Burger King. I hated it because they put sweet pickle relish on their regular hamburgers, and I hated sweet pickle relish. And, they put mayonnaise on The Whopper, and I hated mayonnaise. I know what you’re thinking: “Why didn’t you get the fish sandwich?” Well, they put tartar sauce on that, and you know what tartar sauce is? It’s sweet pickle relish mixed into mayonnaise.

Now some of my younger readers are probably thinking, “Why didn’t you just ask them to make a plain hamburger?” Back then, they wouldn’t do that. I remember my dad asking them to do that once, and they flat-out refused. You have to understand the mentality of the fast-food industry back then. The key word was fast. They worked up a recipe that most people liked and prepared the food exactly that way. If you wanted something different, you could go down the street to the diner where they had short-order cooks, and you could wait.

Then one day in 1973, I heard the most beautiful song on the television: “Have it your way, have it your way. Have it your way at Burger King. Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way!”

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