Rene Arend (born December 30, 1928) served as Executive Chef for McDonald's, a position from which he directed McDonald's corporate product development efforts from 1976 to 2004. Chef Arend, who was responsible for the creation of two popular McDonald's menu items, the Chicken McNuggets in 1979 and the McRib sandwich in 1981, also developed the mechinization process thru which the preparation of the recipe for both items were successfully created. In 2004, Chef Arend, who is still remains with McDonald's in a limited capacity as a executive consultant chef, was stepped down from his position as Executive Chef, before being replaced in that post by Dan Coudreaut in 2004.