Inside the A&W test kitchen, a battlefield in the fast food wars

One of the latest volleys in the multibillion-dollar fast food wars started with a late night on Karan Suri's TikTok.

A&W's director of menu development was scrolling his phone when he came across the "pickle girl" trend that was making the rounds last year, with women (and one very loud and adorable three-year-old) showing their love for preserved cucumbers.

By the next morning, he was mixing up different pickle-based sauces in the burger chain's test kitchen in North Vancouver. Five weeks later, he'd nailed down a recipe that formed the bedrock of last summer's A&W spicy dill burger. 

"Our supplier … nailed it in the first go," said Suri, standing in the test kitchen in mid-March, noting that the five weeks from idea to product was a record for him.

While much of the industry's appeal comes from its familiarity, fast food brands also face pressure to shake up their menus in response to growing competition and changing consumer tastes. 

Often, this process begins with rolling out a new limited-time offer, which brands hope will generate buzz and, if they're lucky, inspire McRib or pumpkin spice latte levels of devotion. 

It's a high stakes game for the $42.6-billion fast food industry.

While fast food joints have fared well amid inflation, the industry's growth is starting to slow while the number of competitors continues to rise, according to the retail analytics firm Circana, and staying relevant is key to staying in the game. 

Stepping into the A&W test kitchen is like walking into a supersized version of a fast food kitchen, with about 10 times the equipment. Different restaurants have different grills and fryers, so the space needs an unusual abundance of gear to make sure recipes work the same no matter where they're rolled out. 

On a recent visit, the space was meticulously clean and notably aroma-free. 

It's here that Suri — who previously worked at luxury hotels in India, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates — along with his team, try to figure out what the next thing is that customers will want to eat. It's a process that's both a science and an art. 

Though Suri got his pickle sauce in five weeks, developing recipes can in some cases take years. A Nashville chicken glaze went through 57 different variations before the team hit upon a version that could be mass produced and stay shelf-stable inside a hot restaurant kitchen.

"It needs to be to work in those very, very tough kitchen environments," said David Ioi, Suri's copilot in the test kitchen and a food scientist.

A&W gets reams of data from its forecasters and suppliers about what flavours are popular now and which ones are expected to take off in the years ahead.