Amy Alarcon understood the assignment.
The former head chef of Popeyes, who recently took the same position with its sister company Burger King, was tasked with a hefty responsibility: Improve the Whopper without screwing it up.
“If you touch the Whopper too much,” Alarcon said in an interview with Restaurant Business, “you’re going to piss a lot of people off.”
And so the changes to the Whopper that Burger King announced on Thursday, the first in nearly a decade, are mostly subtle upgrades designed to improve the look, taste, feel and packaging, without taking away from what makes the burger special. The improvements will roll out at the chain’s restaurants in the coming weeks.
The mayo used in the burger is different. It is “creamy, well-balanced,” with a higher fat content. “Fat is an amazing thing,” she said. “When you get a higher fat content in your mayo it really sings.”
The bread used for the burger is slightly taller and the company added a glaze to give it an eggwash appearance, which both holds the sesame seeds on the bun better and gives the bun a richer, golden color sheen. “More eye appeal,” Alarcon said.
And then there’s the packaging.
Burger King is changing the packaging, half-wrapping the burger as it sits inside a clamshell box, which both ensures that the burger doesn’t slide around and makes it look like the “crown jewel” of the company’s menu that the Whopper is.
“This is the crown jewel,” Alarcon said. “It’s the most iconic brand Burger King has on the menu. We want to put that crown jewel in the jewelry box.”
People eat with their eyes, something that chefs pounded into Alarcon’s head during her early years. But with a chain like Burger King, particularly in this takeout-oriented environment, the company has to make sure that it not only looks good but can hold together well while the consumer is driving. Because they probably are.
“Convenience is important,” Alarcon said. “How easier it is to eat in this environment. I eat in my car way more than I should.”
Burger King has spent the past few years working to improve operations and marketing and lift sales. The efforts have yielded results—same-store sales have outpaced competitors for nine of the past 12 quarters.
The chain is spending 2026 going on offense. The brand’s president, Tom Curtis, is taking calls and texts from customers to get a better sense of how the chain is doing across the country. Franchisees, perhaps buoyed by the improved performance, overwhelmingly voted to maintain a higher level of marketing contribution through 2027, Burger King parent Restaurant Brands International said on Thursday. That is designed to maintain the brand’s momentum.
Elevating the food, as Curtis told Restaurant Business in December, is another key ingredient in Burger King’s comeback. Alarcon, who has worked across the hall from Burger King’s menu development team for years, will be central to that effort.
Food improvements, particularly when those improvements are backed by marketing, are a proven method for boosting sales.
Domino’s, where Curtis worked for years before jumping to Burger King, proved that when it improved its pizza recipe in 2009, which ignited a decade-long run of sales growth. More recently, the casual-dining brand Chili’s improved the quality of core menu items like burgers and margaritas, which have helped boost sales.
Burger King is promising more product improvements this year besides the Whopper, which was last improved in 2017, when the chain increased the burger’s size.
“Complacency is the death of a brand,” Alarcon said. “Our world evolves so fast right now. Things change at the speed of light. We have to look at every element of every ingredient.
“You need to keep updating these things.”
Alarcon spent most of her career in chicken, working for 18 years with Popeyes or its former sister chain Church’s, with a small interlude with the sandwich chain Arby’s. She jumped at the chance to elevate Burger King’s menu, especially given that all she needed to do was walk across the hall from the Popeyes test kitchen to the Burger King test kitchen.
She also acknowledged a love of beef. She splits an Aberdeen Angus steer with a friend every year and thus has a freezer full of steaks. “At the end of the day,” she said, “I’m a meat-and-potatoes girl.”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.