PITTSBURGH, PA (July 26, 2023)…International Big Mac Day is Wednesday, August 2. The annual celebration is held on the birthdate of Jim Delligatii, the world-famous sandwich’s inventor.
Delligatti began test-marketing the seven-ingredient sandwich at his restaurant in Uniontown on April 22, 1967. Customer response was so good, he soon introduced the sandwich at three more of his restaurants in Pittsburgh. It debuted nationally in 1968.
Approximately 550 million Big Mac sandwiches are now sold each year in America alone. The sandwich is currently sold in more than 100 countries around the world.
Perhaps Delligatti’s most tasteful addition to the Big Mac was the famous secret sauce. Having worked in the restaurant business for many years, he was familiar with the typical Russian dressing used for many sandwiches. However, he knew the sauce for the Big Mac had to be something special.
“I would make the sauce in the restaurant by hand, mixing all the ingredients together myself. It was hard work, but the customers loved it,” Delligatti once explained.
Many Americans today can still recite (in under four seconds) the seven-ingredient, tongue-twisting jingle featured in a 1974 Big Mac television ad campaign:
The sandwich also inspired The Economist Magazine’s “Big Mac Index,” an annual comparison of foreign currency values against the U.S. Dollar.