Review | Book review: the memoirs of Ray Kroc, who made McDonald’s a global player
Kroc’s story – of how he took a small drive-in restaurant and turned it into one of the biggest brands ever – is about to get the big-screen treatment
By Ray Kroc, with Robert Anderson
St Martin’s Griffin (e-book)
You may make a point of never walking under any Golden Arches, but who hasn’t craved McDonald’s french fries at some point, or succumbed to a Big Mac? Ray Kroc, who at 52 took a small, existing, drive-in fast-food business and turned it into a worldwide behemoth, tells the story of the McDonald’s phenomenon and his role in standardising American taste. Kroc’s real achievement, however, was in the creation of the McDonald’s franchising system, notes Robert Anderson, with whom Kroc wrote Grinding It Out. Kroc completed the book in 1977, seven years before his death at 81, and it’s just been reissued in e-format on the back of a biopic titled The Founder. Michael Keaton, the film’s star, will need to inject nuance into the story to give it a more satisfying flavour.
