CurderBurger inventor: Culver's chef turns viral joke into reality

PRAIRIE DU SAC, Wis. - Its ingredients include a burger topped with a giant breaded Wisconsin cheddar cheese curd. Its introduction had fans of the fast food chain Culver's lining up hours before restaurants opened.  

It may be hard to believe a menu item that induced traffic jams, sell-outs and a few cases of indigestion was never supposed to be a real thing. But for the first time, we are hearing the story of how a viral internet joke was turned into reality by a chef who kept his secret project hidden until he knew it could be created.

The joke

When it comes to online tomfoolery, even the folks at Culver's admit -- they are no Wendy's. There is no dunking on customers on their social media pages or jabs at competitors.  

In 2019, however, Culver's management decided to dip their toes into some April Fool's fun. In an effort to spark engagement, the marketing team came up with a fake flavor of the day for their signature custard and released a picture on April 1 on Twitter of "Cheese Curd Crunch." 

The post was a hit. The marketing team was sly enough to develop a fake concept that if customers really wanted a frozen custard flavor that included fried cheese curds, they could mix together vanilla frozen custard with a side order of curds on their own. 

Two years later, when the company began brainstorming April Fool's joke ideas again, they wanted to follow the same concept – post a picture of something too ridiculous to actually make, but leave the possibility of customers creating it themselves.     

"We thought of, ya know, the Curderburger," recalled Liz Haferkorn, a senior marketing manager for Culver's.

Haferkorn does not recall who from the team specifically came up with the idea, but she does remember how quickly the joke went viral.

"Thousands of comments. Thousands of shares," said Haferkorn. 

Online comments turned into real-life phone calls and handwritten letters.

"Everyone was just demanding that it was going to be a real thing. A petition came out that was just demanding it be brought to the restaurants," chuckled Haferkorn.

Despite the joke's online success, the company still had no intentions for Culver's to turn the Curderburger into a reality – that is, until Quinn Adkins got involved.

A secret project

Somewhere on the first floor of Culver's world headquarters in Prarie du Sac is where Quinn Adkins' creativity comes alive.

"This is where the magic happens," said Adkins as he gave FOX6 News a tour of the special kitchen.

Adkins is the director of menu development for Culver's. Before all new creations make it onto the menu, Adkins and his team first use this test kitchen to develop them.

"Inspiration can happen anytime, anywhere," said Adkins.

In 2021, that inspiration came from a marketing meeting where Adkins first saw the joke that was creating a huge buzz online.

"And we were just talking about it in a marketing meeting and the number of impressions, and how excited guests were. Just a record-setting engagement. Honestly, I was just like, ‘Huh, I bet you we could do that,’" Adkins said.

Adkins told no one of his plan.

"The funny thing is, I didn’t say a word. Just kind of came in and went to work, and thought about how we would make that work, what would it look like, how could we get it made," recalled Adkins.

After tinkering with flavor, color, and texture, the Curderburger was born.

"I had some prototypes built. I showed it to a couple of members of our senior leadership. And they were like, ‘We have to do this. We’ve got to get this done,’" said Adkins.

It is a decision Adkins would soon likely regret, when his bosses said they wanted the Curderburger to hit restaurants in just a few months.

An insane deadline

Ask anyone with industry knowledge how long it takes to create a new menu item for a national chain and the timeline may vary. However, they all say new items typically are not made in under a year, if they ever make it out of the test kitchen at all.

"Lots of things don’t make it. And many of these things might come from marketing too – and the marketing people say, ‘I want this, this, this, and this.’ And it goes to the food scientists, and they go, oh my God. That can’t work," said Dr. John Lucey.

Lucey is a professor at UW-Madison and the director of the Center for Dairy Research. As a food scientist, he has worked with national brands before. Lucey said making something in a kitchen is only the first step in what can be a very long process to see if new products are even possible. 

"You have to figure out what you want to make. Then you have to work back to your supplier and figure out if they make this profile, this type of cheese, and then you have to decide if you want to bread that," Lucey said. "So you need to find that supplier or figure out if they are going to be part of that process."

In Culver's case, they gave Adkins a very tight deadline to make the Curderburger a reality in restaurants.

Adkins recalled what senior Culver's staff requested.

"We want it done for National Cheese Curd Day which is October 15th. And I was like ‘Woah,'" said Adkins.

The deadline gave him less than three months to make it happen.

"Getting that much product made in that short period of time, it’s definitely a challenge," said Adkins. "It takes a village. We got everyone in the organization to kind of lean in, and make it happen,,"

Using social media once again, the Culver's marketing team announced the Curderburger was back -- this time for real. The company announced it would be back for one day only.

"It was nuts," Adkins said.

The rush

Spring forward to Oct. 15, 2021. Culver's prepared for a storm fueled by the internet and created by Adkins.

"The people were lining up at 7 a.m., before our restaurants even open at 10, to be one of the first ones to experience this," recalled Adkins.

Outside Culver's restaurants, traffic jams formed as team members furiously dished out the Curderburger. Some locations ran out of product within the first couple of hours. The team at Culver's watched as the new item sold out quickly.

"The challenge for our team was, ‘How do we make this happen in a short period of time that delivers the authentic cheese curd experience, but also tastes great, and will leave people wanting more?’ And I think it’s safe to say we accomplished that goal," said Adkins.

In 2022, the Curberburger returned for a second, limited run. This time, it graced the menus for two weeks. In 2023, the Curderburger returned for a third time – this time for a month. Adkins said there is no immediate news on if or when the Curderburger will return.

"You have certain items at certain other restaurant brands that they bring back occasionally and kind of tease.  I kind of like to think that the Curderburger would kind of fit Culver's perfectly in that," said Adkins.

The Curderburger goes down as one of the most successful limited items ever created by the burger chain. For a concept that was never meant to be more than a joke, no one in the industry is laughing now. When asked what is next, Adkins smiled.

"There are two types of people in the world. There are people that ask the magician, ‘How do you make that happen?’ They want the peek behind the curtain. And then there are the people who just want to enjoy the spectacle, enjoy the magic, and experience it the way it was meant to be," Adkins said. "Which is a kind way of saying stay tuned and you will not be disappointed."

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