What is a cheeseburger?Is it just bread, meat, cheese, and a few condiments? Or, is it greater than the sum of its parts?In an apparent attempt to question some very basic assumptions about cheeseburgers, philosophical Twitter user @coL_Merchant went to McDonald's and ordered a "burger" without onions, ketchup, mustard, pickles, bun, or beef patty from one of the restaurant's unmanned payment terminals.While so many chefs merely deconstruct American classics, @coL_Merchant is blowing one up 'til there is nothing left but its lone cheesy core.
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Merchant admitted on Twitter that he did not know what to expect, suggesting that the order was more performance art than source of nourishment. And, like all great art, it came at a great price for its creator—GBP 0.99, to be exact.
Many were confused by the motivation for the Tweet, Merchant assured his followers to "just accept the cheese" if they want to better understand the sad, orange square that remains when a McDonald's cheeseburger is stripped of all its other basic components.
What Merchant makes us realize is that we all have a sad square of processed cheese at our core.We just have to accept it.