With over 31,000 restaurants serving 58 million people throughout the world every day, McDonald's pretty much wrote the book on how a corporation can conquer the world. But despite its global domination as a cheap and easy burger joint, the fast-food monolith proved no match against the people of Bolivia and its cultural standards of culinary decency. For 14 years, McDonald's attempted to court Bolivians into making a habit out of eating their processed menu items -- only to experience an overwhelming, nation-wide rejection. And as a result, for the first time ever, the cogs of McDonald's international burger-slinging machine have ground to a halt, forcing the company to close its doors in Bolivia in 2002. Bolivians, its seems, are happy enough without the Happy Meal -- but why? 
 
 As the Hispanically Speaking News reports, for well over a decade McDonald's, with eight locations in the South American nation of 10 million people, worked to win over the Bolivian public with its Big Macs and McNuggets, but consistently found itself losing money. So, in light of the loss of revenue, McDonald's Corporation made an unprecedented announcement: that it would close its restaurants in Bolivia -- making it the only country in the Americas without a McDonald's. 
 
 But what makes Bolivia different from nearly every other country in its apparent distaste for McDonald's fare? A group of filmakers have attempted to answer that question in the documentary Why did McDonald’s Bolivia go Bankrupt? According to a review from Hispanically Speaking News, the McDonald's failure in Bolivia lies in the very marketing strategy that made it so popular elsewhere: 
 
 The documentary includes interviews with cooks, sociologists, nutritionists and educators who all seem to agree, Bolivians are not against hamburgers per sé, just against ‘fast food,’ a concept widely unaccepted in the Bolivian community. Fast-food represents the complete opposite of what Bolivians consider a meal should be. To be a good meal, food has to have be prepared with love, dedication, certain hygiene standards and proper cook time. 
 
 One might be hard-pressed to find consumers even outside of Bolivia who wouldn't agree with that definition of 'a good meal', yet none have expressed it so profoundly by simply choosing not to eat at McDonalds. There may be something a bit snarky about celebrating a corporate failure, even if it hardly dents the fast-food giant's bottom line, but it's difficult not to judge Bolivia better off for having rejected a restaurant so often associated with a menu of dubious nutritional value and less-than eco-friendly business practices. 
 
 Perhaps if we all valued our meals as much as Bolivians, McDonald's corporate health would suffer at a rate inverse to improvements in our physical health and the health of our planet, which is already so full of people too removed from the food they put inside them. ||||| Chef Neal Fraser served avocado soup and spicy meatballs at an event for ‘food influencers’ in LA – then revealed that all the ingredients came from McDonald’s 
 
 A well-known Los Angeles chef tricked a group of foodies with an elegant meal prepared entirely out of McDonald’s food. 
 
 Chef Neal Fraser, who hosted the meal last week at the Carondelet House in downtown Los Angeles, told about 40 “food influencers” in attendance he would be “cooking with experimental” and “fresh ingredients”, the Orange County Register reported. 
 
 A day spent eating McDonalds breakfast all day is a day spent in hell Read more 
 
 The twist: every dish served throughout the course of the evening came from the same ingredients used for McDonald’s menu staples like egg McMuffins and quarter pounders. The tasting menu included an avocado soup made with McDonald’s guacamole, a salad topped with bacon bits and buttermilk dressing (the crowd favorite), spicy meatballs, bacon-wrapped chicken and a coffee custard dessert. 
 
 
 
 By the third course of spicy meatballs, diners became a little suspicious, questioning what new thing Fraser, chef and owner of the popular restaurant Redbird and former Top Chef Masters contestant, had included in the food. 
 
 
 
 “It seemed a little off from what he normally serves,” said Danielle Salmon, “Chief Eating Officer” for a restaurant discovery blog called Follow My Gut. “We were thinking it was a weird secret ingredient.” 
 
 
 
 Not everybody was fooled. At the end of the meal, Fraser asked the guests to guess what the meal was made from and some shouted: “Golden arches.” 
 
 
 
 Fraser said he collaborated with McDonald’s because the ingredients he uses at Redbird are not all that different from McDonald’s ingredients. McDonald’s put on the publicity stunt to change public perception of the fast-food chain. 
 
 Before the reveal, Fraser worried his guests, which included food bloggers, food photographers and chefs, would be upset. 
 
 
 
 “I just hope no one hits me,” he said. 
 
 
 
 No one was angry, although some seemed somewhat shocked. Dinner guests, who were encouraged to share pictures of the meal online with the hashtag #atasteofsocal, indicated that they had been fooled on Instagram. Cameras and microphones hidden throughout the dining room captured guests eating, and a video of the event will be posted online later this month. 
 
 
 
 On Follow My Gut’s Instagram account, Salmon posted a picture of the spicy meatballs and wrote: “At the ‘Not @nealfraser Dinner cuz it’s Really McDonalds’ dinner and this came my way. Not sure if these were meatballs or just rounded quarter pounders with cheese but without buns and veggies, and the cheese.” 
 
 
 
 Los Angeles-based cooking instructor and chef Eric Crowley said he enjoyed the meal, although the food lacked a lot of bold flavors. When he learned the ingredients came from McDonald’s, “it all made sense”, he said. 
 
 
 
 Lifestyle blogger Roshonda Payne, who runs the blog The Savvy Sistah, said she had no idea she was eating food from McDonald’s. 
 
 
 
 “It just goes to show you that McDonald’s is [real] food,” she said. ||||| When the third course of spicy meatballs -- prepared by chef Neal Fraser -- was sent out to the communal dining room, food blogger Danielle Salmon knew something was off. 
 
 She and 40 other “food influencers” from Southern California were promised a free five-course meal prepared by the well-regarded Los Angeles chef and former "Top Chef Masters" contestant. As they arrived Wednesday night at the historic Carondelet House in downtown Los Angeles, the culinary writers and photographers were told the evening would end with a slight twist. 
 
 Fraser told them he would be “cooking with experimental” and “fresh” ingredients. 
 
 “Nothing sneaky,” said the chef-owner of Redbird, a seasonally influenced Los Angeles restaurant focusing on modern American cuisine. 
 
 Unbeknownst to the foodie fanatics gathered in the 1928 Italian villa, Fraser would be serving them an upscale meal made with McDonald's ingredients. Using foods that make up hero McDonald's products such as Quarter Pounders and Egg McMuffins, Fraser’s tasting menu included a chilled avocado soup, a buttermilk dressed romaine salad with bacon bits and bacon-wrapped chicken. 
 
 Midway through the meal, food blogger Salmon said her table began to wonder what was going on. 
 
 “It seemed a little off from what he normally serves,” said Salmon, “Chief Eating Officer” for a restaurant discovery blog called “Follow My Gut.” "We were thinking it was a weird secret ingredient." 
 
 Throughout the room, others began to nitpick and speculate. 
 
 Some asked: Is it tofu? Is it synthetic food? Is he testing new dishes for a new restaurant? 
 
 “I'm trying to think what the heck is this experiment,” one male diner said. 
 
 Behind the scenes, a handful of McDonald’s operators could hear the chatter as they watched the dining event from a live feed in another room. With blessings from McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., marketing officials for 600 local Southern California restaurant operators thought the secret dinner would shed new light on McDonald’s food. 
 
 Hidden cameras and microphones captured the foodies eating with gold flatware in an elegant farm table setting. A video of the event will be posted online later this month. 
 
 The goal: change the way people think about McDonald’s food. 
 
 “Unfortunately the perception is that it (our food) comes through the back door processed,” said Clay Paschen III, president of the McDonald’s Operators’ Association of Southern California. “But we cook. We have a kitchen. Starbucks doesn’t.” 
 
 As the publicity stunt formulated, Fraser was approached to pull it off. 
 
 At first, he declined. 
 
 “How do you change people's perception?” he said before the five course dinner is served. 
 
 But, after taking a close look at the McDonald’s ingredients, he said he realized much of it was no different than what he kept in his own kitchen at Redbird. 
 
 With the exception of a dollop of sour cream used in the chilled avocado soup, every dish was created with ingredients used for a bevy of McDonald’s menu items: salads, McWraps, grilled chicken sandwiches, Egg McMuffins, Quarter Pounders and french fries. 
 
 “I made a concentrated effort to stay true to the challenge,” said Fraser, who was paid an undisclosed fee for his services. 
 
 Before the meal began, he said he was apprehensive, excited and nervous. 
 
 “I just hope no one hits me,” said Fraser, who recently appeared as a guest chef on Bravo’s “Top Chef.” 
 
 Halfway through the meal, he left the kitchen to update the group of McDonald’s officials watching the dining event on a television monitor. The officials, along with one reporter, were also eating Fraser’s courses. 
 
 He said nearly every plate came back “clean” to the kitchen. The only dish that many diners didn’t finish was the first course -- a peppery avocado soup made with McDonald’s guacamole. 
 
 The second course, a salad topped with bacon bits and buttermilk dressing, was a surprising crowd pleaser. 
 
 Salmon and her guest, T.J. Valentino, said it was their favorite dish. 
 
 During the evening, and before the reveal, the diners were encouraged to upload photos to their various social media accounts using the hashtag #aTasteofSoCal. 
 
 Los Angeles blogger Vanessa Diaz also loved the buttermilk slathered greens. “This salad is #bacon-tastic! It’s probably the best #salad I’ve ever had,” she wrote on her “BriteAndBubbly” Instagram account. 
 
 Even Fraser, who saw her post while cooking in the kitchen, had to poke fun of her enthusiasm. “It might have been the first salad she’s ever had,” he said. 
 
 As the diners finished Fraser’s coffee custard dessert, he stepped back into the main dining room to announce the big reveal. 
 
 But someone had already guessed it by shouting, “Golden Arches.” 
 
 The reaction was mixed. Some jaws dropped. Some laughed. A few looked disturbed. 
 
 After the reveal, the salad-loving Diaz posted: “Holy What the What!!! #shocked.” 
 
 McDonald’s operator Scott Frisbie of Orange County, among the restaurant owners watching the live feed, approached the group with trepidation at the end of the night. 
 
 “I didn’t know what reaction I’d get,” he said. 
 
 But he said he got an enthusiastic and "warm" response. Many asked a lot of questions about upscale menu changes in Southern California, including the new line of Taste Crafted sandwiches made with premium ingredients such as guacamole, blue cheese spread, spicy buffalo sauce and applewood smoked bacon. 
 
 Later on, he and other McDonald’s operators mingled with curious food writers and photo-centric bloggers like Roshonda Payne. The lifestyle blogger said she had no idea she was eating McDonald’s food. 
 
 “It’s just goes to show you that McDonald’s is (real) food,” said Payne, whose lifestyle blog is called the The Savvy Sistah. 
 
 Chef Eric Crowley, a Los Angeles cooking instructor, said he enjoyed the tasting menu even though it was “homogeneous” and lacked a lot of bold flavors. 
 
 When he learned it was McDonald’s food, “it all made sense,” he said. 
 
 Fraser said he was particularly concerned about serving food to Crowley, who was taking meticulous notes throughout the event. 
 
 “I thought he was going to skewer me,” Fraser said. 
 
 But Crowley said he was not upset by the trickster fast food meal. He said he was excited that McDonald’s was trying to improve its image. 
 
 “If I went to McDonald’s and got food like this, I would go more often,” he said. 
 
 As for Fraser? 
 
 When the three-hour event was over, he said he was relieved. 
 
 Would he do it again? 
 
 Yes. But first thing’s first. 
 
 “I’m going to get a drink,” he said. 
 
 For the record, this story was updated Feb. 9: Representatives for Neal Fraser said the Los Angeles-based chef uses Jidori or Mary's Free Range chickens at his restaurants. Because of incorrect information provided to the Register, the supplier was misstated in an earlier version of this story. 
 
 Contact the writer: nluna@ocregister.com and follow the Fast Food Maven on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
– Those traveling in Bolivia can forget about a Big Mac. McDonald's has closed its eight restaurants there because of weak sales, making Bolivia the only nation in Latin America without the golden arches, reports the Hispanically Speaking News blog. The chain tried without success for 14 years to gain a foothold in the nation. The blog's take: "Fast-food represents the complete opposite of what Bolivians consider a meal should be. To be a good meal, food has to have be prepared with love, dedication, certain hygiene standards and proper cook time." Ouch. Treehugger loves the development and wished the rest of the world valued meals as much as Bolivians apparently do.