ANYONE who has ever been irritated by food bloggers taking photos and waxing lyrical about seasonal ingredients on Instagram and Facebook will love this one.

Neal Fraser, a highly regarded chef and owner of popular US eatery Redbird invited 40 guests along to the Carondelet House in downtown Los Angeles earlier this week for a special five-course degustation dinner. The group was largely made up of southern Californian “food influencers”.

The OC Register reports that guests were told the chef would be cooking with “experimental” and “fresh” ingredients, but there would be a twist.

Turns out the “experimental” ingredients actually came from McDonald’s.

And before you smell a PR-stunt-rat, there certainly is one. The event came about after the fast food giant approached Fraser and asked him to create a meal with their ingredients (eg the stuff that goes into a Big Mac, McMuffin, salad etc).

The goal was to change the way people think about McDonald’s food. Apparently Fraser initially baulked at the suggestion, but then signed on. The Register reports that after taking a close look at the McDonald’s ingredients, Fraser realised much of it was no different than what he kept in his own kitchen at Redbird.

It’s also important to note that Fraser was paid an undisclosed fee for his services.

The menu he created consisted of chilled avocado soup, a romaine salad with bacon and buttermilk, chicken wrapped in bacon, meatballs and coffee custard.

“I just hope no one hits me,” Fraser said, in the lead up to the meal.

Some of the bloggers, at least, loved it. They took to Instagram to post pics and comments using the #astasteofsocal hashtag.

During the meal, Vanessa Diaz was a fan of the buttermilk salad. “This salad is #bacon-tastic! It’s probably the best #salad I’ve ever had,” she wrote on her “BriteAndBubbly” Instagram account.

Interesting it seems she has since removed her post.

Fraser and the McDonald’s execs, who were watching and listening from another room, got away with it for a while, but eventually guests started to suspect something was up, according to The Tasting Table. “By the time Fraser came into the dining room at the end of the meal, one diner beat him to the punch by shouting ‘golden arches’.”

While some guests were impressed, others apparently looked disturbed.

The diners were being filmed throughout the meal, so presumably we can expect a ‘reaction’ video to come from the experience.