McDonald's To Mark Birthday Of Pittsburgher Who Created Big Mac

PITTSBURGH, PA — Fast food junkies worldwide owe an enormous debt to the late Pittsburgh-area man Jim Delligati, the inventor of the Big Mac. So does McDonald's, which annually celebrates the birthday of the man who invented the restaurant chain's signature sandwich.

To commemorate International Big Mac Day on August 2 this year, local McDonald's will offer the sandwich for $2 from July 29-August 11. The offer is available only through the MyMcDonald's Rewards app.

Delligatti invented the Big Mac at a McDonald's in Ross Township and subsequently began test-marketing the seven-ingredient sandwich at his restaurant in Uniontown in 1967. The Big Mac debuted nationally in 1968.

Surely everyone knows the Big Mac's ingredients, right? If you do not, here they are in the order in which they were immortalized in a decades-old McDonald's commercial: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

Delligatti created the special sauce to slap on the sandwiches. 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," Delligatti once explained, according to a McDonald's release. "It was hard work, but the customers loved it."

The Big Mac currently is sold in more than 100 countries around the world, with approximately 550 million of the sandwiches sold annually in America alone.