Well, we don’t exactly have the secret White Spot Triple-O sauce recipe – but there are many theories about what makes that absolutely legendary taste. We’ve scoured the Internet, talked with theorists, and got information from informants and believe we have some good theories of what it is made of.
In case you don’t know what we’re talking about, White Spot is a line of restaurants on the west coast of Canada and makes some of the best burgers in in the region. Their signature “Triple-O” sauce and toasted buns is what distinguishes itself from the run-of-the-mill burger you get elsewhere.
It’s been speculated (not confirmed) that the sauce was actually developed at the University of British Columbia’s Food Sciences lab and was commissioned by White Spot.
These days, if you ask for extra Triple-O sauce (yes! you can!) at White Spot, you’ll notice that you get little cup that has a white sauce and a red sauce on top. Let’s get right down to the theories. Let’s talk about the white sauce first and then the red sauce.
Theories for the white sauce:
- Mayo (Homemade, traditional style)
- Mayo with Honey and some paprika
- Sweet Mayo with cayenne pepper
- Mayo with some onion powder and cayenne pepper
- Mayo with melted butter
- Mayo with Orange Juice -hence Triple O? (probably not since Triple O meant triple the sauce)
Theories for the red sauce:
It seems like most people are in agreement that the red sauce is nothing other than:
Red Relish (also known as Hamburger relish) – eg. Bicks brand
So there you have it – the maybe-secret-recipe to the White Spot Triple-O Sauce. We’ll be trying some of these theories out ourselves at the next BBQ and will be reporting back to you soon. Please leave us a comment if you have other theories or insights!
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I know someone who’s mom’s old boss developed this secret triple-o sauce…
I love the triple-O sauce. When I am feeling especially indulgent, I order extra triple-O on the side to dip my fries in.
Whoa that burger looks so good. Just reading it makes me hungry haha…. No wonder it’s your favorite place for burgers
It’s still on my list of things to try out!
There’s a Triple-O (fast-food version of White Spot) in Hong Kong!
http://www.tripleo.com.hk/location.php
Weird! There are 3 locations in Hong Kong. All the other Triple-O restaurants are in Western Canada:
Vancouver
Victoria
Hope
Courtenay
Merritt
Kelowna
Kamloops
Cranbook
Calgary
I’ve experimented with trying to create triple-o sauce at home with a number of the above theories. IMO, closest I have gotten to the real thing is 5 parts mayo, 1 part honey and a dash of paprika for color. Red Relish does the red part bang on.
Hi Derek,
Thanks for the recipe…I will definitely need to give this a try the next time I am having burgers at home. Yum…I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
After being in the White Spot Drive Inn in the 70`s I have tried to copy this legendary taste.
It was pure luck when i met a girl at Peter`s Ice Cream Parlour right beside the Drive Inn and she told me the secret.
You all are close to it.
Triple “O” means triple “Original”.
Mayonaise is part of the burger but not of the sauce.
Cheeseburgers in Paradies,Ohau,Hawaii is very close to it.
Hi Petersburger,
Thanks for your hints! I guess we will have to keep on trying to figure out what’s in the sauce.
Hello, I worked at the Granville &67th whitespot from 1964 to 66 in the kitchen turning out those legendary burgers, I asked many times but was never able to even come close to finding out what’s in it, I heard that Nat and his wife developed it in thier Kitchen…
A friend who worked at White Spot told me that 2 of the ingredients are mayonnaise and chili sauce. If you put these 2 on your hamburger tastes very close to me.
Wow, thanks for everyone’s comments on the triple-O sauce so far! I’m embarrassed to say I still haven’t tried any of your secret sauce speculations but will need to the next time I make a burger at home.
Keep them coming!
There must be one person out there that worked in the White Spot commissary and made their famous mayonnaise. It’s time for the recipe to be given to all of us who love the White Spot mayonnaise but don’t live in Vancouver.
“Triple O” originally meant extra onions (three rings, or “O’s”)
The sauce was invented by Nat Bailley himself, and is a highly regarded secret.
The closest I have come is homemade mayo (or aeoli?) with garlic, salt, lemon juice, and a touch of dill or tarrogon and paprika.
Still trying………..
Guess what? It is not a sauce. It is two, separate applications of basic condiments: mayonnaise and red relish. That’s all nothing more, except some hot pepper in the relish.
And guess what else? It’s hardly ever the same, from outlet to outlet, or even in the same outlet on different days. I investigated, at three outlets, on a trip to Vancouver, last week.
Most of it is mayonnaise. The “Triple-O” thing is just marketing tripe.
I first ate at the White Spot in about 1950. I knew Mr. and Mrs. Bailey, meeting them often at the 67th and Granville original location.
The food was better, the wait staff was INFINITELY better, and the sauce was CONSISTENT.
The fries were different, and so were the buns. The fried were like English fish’n chip fries — sort of limp, but of high quality. The buns had grease on the outside, possibly imitating (I believe) American Howard Johnson buns of the same era.
Again, the sauce is no more than this:
- mayonnaise
- red hamburger relish (probably Bicks), with a little cayenne pepper (or something similar) to give it a bit of zip
There is no need to sweeten the mayonnaise, because the relish, alone, is plenty sweet enough.
There you have it. The Triple-’o’ sauce is not a sauce, and the Baileys never made all this advertising FUSS about it.
It was a better restaurant in the 50’s, before it was sold to General Foods, in the ’60’s, and then to God-knows -who-else ever after.
Still a decent place to eat, but erratic, in my opinion, both in service and food quality. Our wait person in Marpole was quite unfriendly.
Easy to make better burgers at home.
I was told it is one jar of mustard pickles mixed with a jar of chilli sauce and blended, till little bit chunky
I used to live in Hong Kong where there were a couple of Triple O’s restaurants.
But upon moving to Ontario, we were really sad that there weren’t any here….
… they’re all in Vancouver!
Nevertheless, it’ll always be my all-time favourite fast food restaurant.
Perhaps it’s time for someone to move the White Spot franchise out east to Ontario… :p
I worked in the Kitchen of the White Spot at the Gladstone & Kingsway Location in 1952. The sauce for the Hamburgers was made by the commisary and was a well kept secret. I had heard while working there, that one ingredient was pickle juice.
The hambuger buns were also made by White Spot
They had a Taste of their own!
Back in the 50’s, my mother used to be a carhop at a Whitespot restaurant. On the pad of paper that the servers would write the orders on, there were a list three sauces printed on the order slip. Ketchup (or chili sauce), Mayo, and Relish. Of course these three sauces made a great combo and therefore almost everyone ordered all three. The sauces were abreviated on the order slips and were aligned in a row and the servers circled the sauces that were ordered. Like this: O O O
When the cooks called out the order they just said “burger with triple O”. Eventually (to save time I guess) they just simplified things and made the sauce combo standard. Hence, Triple O sauce.
most of what is said above about what the O in triple O stand for are wrong.
Try adding bicks chilli sauce to the red relish.
You will find that is the actual relish recipe.
Regardless of what goes in the triple O, I think we can all agree that Whitespot makes one of the best burgers out there!
Why do so many people think it is mayo and relish. Mayo and relish makes Tarter sauce. Not even close.
I think triple o sauce has cheese in it.
I Lived in Burnaby for 8 years and I too, think that there is cheese in that Triple O sauce.
It’s Miracle Whip – Salad Dressing as they called it back then. With Kerns dried mustard powder and red relish….Bics. The bun must be toasted and buttered. Then on goes the sauce, burger and other if ones so wishes.
No cheese! Unless you ask……HBE OOO
I love whitespot – grew up with it in the Vancvouer area of course. I have been in Ontario for 20+ years now and one of the first stops I make when i head back west – is the Whitespot for one of their famous legendary burgers. So yummy – comfort food. I wish Whitespot would move out east.
I am headed back to Vacouver this evening for a
White Spot Burger fix. The riddle of the triple O sauce loved by so many is quite remakeable. I too have worked the various triple O ingredients and never quite got it. This time I will pack some extra Triple O home to Austin Tx and see if I can get closer to the flavor! Stay tuned! Is there a market for this sauce?
Ean R
I heard the bun was a type of Potato bun. Anyone?
Ean RankinNo,
So if you figure it out you are going to sell it and hide the recipe again.?
Was looking more my white spot fix, after 4 long years. Very dissappointed they’ve changed the recipe for the mayo and triple O, not the White Spot on my youth.
you can never replicate the sauce because the have a special creamy and smooth mayo!!!
the best ever i love it man
Love the sauce but really, really miss “Chicken In The Straw”! which General Foods dropped when they took over.
I’ve been eating the original burger since 1950 ($0.35). If I had a $ for every one I’ve consumed I could retire! Don’t know if there’s anything special in the mayo, but my guess is that the relish has some chopped dill or dill juice in it. I also miss the ‘battered’ Chicken-in-the-Straw.
WAM – wow, $0.35 is such a deal
What is the Chicken-in-the-Straw?
Chicken in the Straw was half a chicken and fries. My recollection is that it was $0.75. This was distinct from Chicken Pickens (1/4 chicken) which I believe was $0.60.
My husband was a White Spot carhop, then manager, in the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s and he told me the OOO was what the carhops and waitresses scribbled on the order slip when a customer asked for “EXTRA sauce please”, which probably evolved from the 50’s per David Leeming above. (You usually ended up with a dry-cleaning bill after that, if you were eating in your car!) The burgers are still good, just not AS good as with the original bun. It was all about the bun and sauce, then they foolishly changed the bun (how much extra could it cost?!)