There’s a kitchen shakeup at an American fast-food chain.
Steak ‘n Shake has announced a major change to its beloved shoestring fries, and they say the inspiration partially came straight from the new Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Starting in March, all Steak ‘n Shake locations will cook their fries in beef tallow instead of vegetable oil. The company broke the news on X with a post declaring; “By March 1 ALL locations. Fries will be RFK’d!”
Steak ‘n Shake’s Chief Operations Officer, Daniel Edwards, joined “Fox & Friends” Thursday to talk about the change, saying the company had been considering the switch for some time.
“We’ve actually been thinking about this for a while. Our owner, my boss, is a man named Sardar Biglari,” Edwards said. “He called me one time and said you know, ‘Why should Europeans have better fries than Americans?’”
Edwards explained that Biglari’s love for beef tallow fries started when he visited Belgium as a child, where he had what he called the best fries of his life.
That memory stuck with him, and for years, he wanted Steak ‘n Shake to capture that same taste.
Now, thanks to a new supplier capable of meeting their beef tallow needs, the chain is making the leap.
“We found a supplier that could finally do that for us, and he said ‘We got to do it, we got to do it everywhere.’ And so, we did,” Edwards said. “We RFK’d our fries.”
Secretary Kennedy has been a vocal advocate for using beef tallow in cooking, often arguing that seed oils, commonly used in fast food, may contribute to rising obesity rates.
While the science of that claim is still up for debate, with the American Heart Association stating there’s “no reason” to avoid seed oils, Steak ‘n Shake believes the switch is about more than just health.
“They’re so much better,” Edwards said, arguing customers will notice a major difference in the new fries.
“These fries are cooked in beef tallow – it’s crispier, it’s golden brown, it’s absolutely delicious,” he said. “You’re going to love them when you try them. You’re not going to want to ever go back to the old way of doing fries. And it’s the authentic way, the original way.”
The company is betting that its back-to-basics approach will win over customers looking for that rich, old-school flavor.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
