KFC

Harland Sanders was born in 1890 and raised on a farm outside Henryville, Indiana (near Louisville, Kentucky).[6] When Sanders was 5 years old, his father died, forcing his mother to work at a canning plant.[7] This left Sanders, as the eldest son, to care for his two younger siblings.[7] After he reached 7 years of age, his mother taught him how to cook.[6] After leaving the family home at the age of 13, Sanders passed through several professions with mixed success.[8]

In 1930, Sanders took over a Shell filling station on US Route 25 just outside North Corbin, Kentucky, a small town on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains.[9] It was here that he first served to travelers the recipes that he had learned as a child: fried chicken and other dishes such as steaks and country ham.[9] After four years of serving from his own dining room table, Sanders purchased the larger filling station on the other side of the road and expanded to six tables.[10] By 1936, this had proven successful enough for Sanders to be given the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon.[11] In 1937 he expanded his restaurant to 142 seats and added a motel he purchased across the street, naming it Sanders Court & Café.[12]

Sanders was unhappy with the 35 minutes it took to prepare his chicken in an iron frying pan, but he refused to deep fry the chicken, which he believed lowered the quality of the product.[13] If he pre-cooked the chicken in advance of orders, there was sometimes wastage at day's end.[6] In 1939, the first commercial pressure cookers were released onto the market, mostly designed for steaming vegetables.[14] Sanders bought one and modified it into a pressure fryer, which he then used to fry chicken.[15] The new method reduced production time to be comparable with deep frying while, in the opinion of Sanders, retaining the quality of pan-fried chicken.[13]

Harland Sanders in character as "the Colonel"

In July 1940, Sanders finalised what came to be known as his "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices.[16] Although he never publicly revealed the recipe, he said the ingredients included salt and pepper and that the rest "stand on everybody's shelf".[17] After being recommissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee, wearing a black frock coat (later switched to a white suit) and a string tie and referring to himself as "the Colonel".[17] His associates went along with the title change, "jokingly at first and then in earnest", according to biographer Josh Ozersky.[18]

In 1952, Sanders franchised his recipe to his friend Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of the city's largest restaurants.[19] The Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, so when the route planned in 1955 for Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, Sanders sold his properties and traveled the US to franchise his recipe to restaurant owners.[20] Independent restaurants would pay four (later five) cents on each chicken as a franchise fee in exchange for Sanders' recipe and the right to feature it on their menus and use his name and likeness for promotional purposes.[21]

Don Anderson, a sign painter hired by Harman, coined the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken".[22] For Harman, the addition of KFC was a way of differentiating his restaurant from competitors; a product from Kentucky was exotic and evoked imagery of Southern hospitality.[22] Harman trademarked the phrase "It's finger lickin' good", which eventually became the company slogan.[21] He also introduced the "bucket meal" in 1957 (14 pieces of chicken, five bread rolls and a pint of gravy in a cardboard bucket).[23] Serving their signature meal in a paper bucket was to become an iconic feature of the company.[23]

By 1963, there were 600 KFC restaurants, making the company the largest fast food operation in the United States.[20] KFC popularized chicken in the fast food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the dominance of the hamburger.[24]

Pat Grace met with Saunders at his holiday home in near Toronto and agreed to franchise the brand in Ireland. In 1970 Grace returned to Ireland after a number of years in Canada to open his first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Phibsboro shopping centre in Dublin. Eventually he opened another six restaurants located in Dublin, Limerick and Cork. After disagreements over cost cutting with KFC management in the early 1980s, the Irish restaurants were renamed to Pat Grace's Famous Fried Chicken reportedly retaining the original recipe. These stores were closed in the late 1980s. Pat Grace went on to wholesale the chicken spice blend under the brand Grace’s Perfect Blend.[25][26]

In 1964, Sanders sold KFC to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey for US$2 million (around US$17 million in 2020).[11] The contract included a lifetime salary for Sanders and the agreement that he would be the company's quality controller and trademark.[27] The chain had reached 3,000 outlets in 48 countries by 1970.[28] In July 1971, Brown sold the company to the Connecticut-based Heublein, a packaged food and drinks corporation, for US$285 million (around US$1.8 billion in 2020).[29] Sanders died in 1980, his promotional work making him a prominent figure in American cultural history.[24] By the time of his death, there were an estimated 6,000 KFC outlets in 48 countries worldwide, with $2 billion worth of sales annually.[30]

In 1982, Heublein was acquired by R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco giant.[23] In July 1986, Reynolds announced the sale of KFC to PepsiCo for $850 million (around US$2.0 billion in 2020).[31] The actual sale took place in early October for $840 million.[32][33] PepsiCo made the chain a part of its restaurants division alongside Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.[34] KFC entered the Chinese market in November 1987, with an outlet in Beijing.[23]

In 1991, the KFC name was officially adopted, although it had already been widely known by that initialism.[35] Kyle Craig, president of KFC U.S., admitted the change was an attempt to distance the chain from the unhealthy connotations of "fried".[36] The early 1990s saw a number of successful major product launches, including spicy "Hot Wings" (launched in 1990), popcorn chicken (1992) and, internationally, the "Zinger", a spicy chicken fillet sandwich (1993).[37] By 1994 KFC had 5,149 outlets in the US and 9,407 overall, with over 100,000 employees.[38] In August 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as a public company valued at US$4.5 billion (around US$7.3 billion in 2020).[39] The new company was named Tricon Global Restaurants and, at the time, had 30,000 outlets and annual sales of US$10 billion (around US$16 billion in 2020), making it second in the world only to McDonald's.[40] Tricon was renamed Yum! Brands in May 2002.[41]

By 2015, KFC was struggling, having lost business to other retailers and being surpassed by Chick-fil-A as the leading chicken retailer in the US three years previously. The company launched a new initiative with a plan to revamp its packaging, decor and uniforms and expand its menu. Additionally, beginning in May 2015, a new series of US advertisements was launched featuring Darrell Hammond as Colonel Sanders.[42] In a planned rotation of actors,[43] Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan, George Hamilton and Rob Riggle portrayed Sanders in similar ads through the fall of 2016.[44][45][46][47] In January 2018, country music icon Reba McEntire played the first female Colonel Sanders.[48]

Before leaving as CEO in 2021, Andrea Zahumensky told Ad Age the "brand assets that we're so lucky to have" were the bucket, the three stripes and the full name Kentucky Fried Chicken. All of these were being used more by the chain.[49]

Original Recipe chicken sold in the iconic bucket

Sanders' Original Recipe of "11 herbs and spices" is one of the best known trade secrets in the catering industry.[83][84] The recipe is not patented, because patent law requires public disclosure of an invention and provides protection only for a strictly limited term, whereas trade secrets can remain the intellectual property of their holders in perpetuity.[85]

A copy of the recipe, signed by Sanders, is held inside a safe inside a vault in KFC's Louisville headquarters, along with 11 vials containing the herbs and spices.[86][87] To maintain the secrecy of the recipe, half of it is produced by Griffith Laboratories before it is given to McCormick, who add the second half.[88]

In 1999, a couple who bought the house formerly occupied by Colonel Sanders found scribbled notes purported to be the secret recipe. Initially, KFC wanted to file a lawsuit against the couple to stop an auction of the notes but, by early 2001, it dropped the lawsuit, claiming the scribbled notes are "nowhere close" to the original recipe.[89]

Joe Ledington of Kentucky, a nephew by marriage of Colonel Sanders, claimed to have found a copy of the original KFC fried chicken recipe on a handwritten piece of paper in an envelope in a scrapbook. In August 2016, Chicago Tribune staffers conducted a cooking test of this recipe and claimed after a few attempts that, with the addition of the MSG flavor-enhancer Ac'cent, they produced fried chicken which tasted "indistinguishable" from the chicken they purchased at KFC.[90]

The official KFC Twitter account follows just 11 accounts which are the social media accounts of the five Spice Girls and six profiles with the first name of Herb to reflect the KFC recipe of 11 herbs and spices. [91]

KFC adapts its menu internationally to suit regional tastes and there are over 300 KFC menu items worldwide.[92] Some locations, such as the UK and the US, sell grilled chicken.[93][94] In predominantly Islamic countries, the chicken served is halal.[59] In Asia, there is a preference for spicy foods, such as the Zinger chicken sandwich.[95] In many international markets, the seasoning used for the core chicken pieces product is available as a hot and spicy version as an alternative to the classic KFC recipe. The hot and spicy coating, as well as having a spicier flavour, also has a crispy consistency. In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, a grilled chicken known as "Smoky Red" is available. KFC locations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Vietnam offer a roasted option known as Flava Crava. Some locations in the US sell fried chicken livers and gizzards.[96] A small number of US outlets offer an all-you-can-eat buffet option with a limited menu.[97]

Value menu items are sold under the "Streetwise" name in locations such as Canada, Nigeria, South Africa and Mauritius.[98] Side dishes often include French fries, coleslaw, barbecue baked beans, corn on the cob, mashed potato, bread rolls and American biscuits.[99][100] Salads include the bean salad, the Caesar salad and the garden salad.[101] In a number of territories, KFC sells onion rings.[102] In most of Asia, several Sub-Saharan Africa and Pacific markets, rice based side dishes are often sold.[103] In the US and Greece, potato wedges are sold instead of French fries.[104]

In a number of Eastern European locations and Portugal, beer is offered in addition to soft drinks.[105][106][107]

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  Hot wings and fries served in paper buckets
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  Hot wings menu set sold in Berlin
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  Hot & spicy chicken, colonel rice, coleslaw and nuggets in Malaysia
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  Spaghetti and gravy as sold in the Philippines
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  KFC century eggs and pork congee sold in China in breakfast hours only

KFC initially used stove-top covered cooking pots to fry its chicken.[108] In the 1960s, the officially recommended model was the L S Hartzog developed "KFC 20-Head Cooker", a large device that cost $16,000.[109] The Hartzog model had no oil filtration system, meaning that filtering had to be done manually, and the pressure fryers occasionally exploded often harming employees.[108] In 1969, inventor and engineer Winston L. Shelton developed the "Collectramatic" pressurized fryer to overcome the problems KFC faced in quickly frying chicken to meet growing customer demand. The Collectramatic used precision time and temperature controls and self-filtered the cooking oil – all while meeting Colonel Sanders' high standards.[108] Fred Jeffries, then vice president of purchasing at KFC, claimed that the invention helped fuel the company's rapid expansion and success:

There's no way it (KFC) could have grown as it did without the Collectramatic. Stores were doing about $200,000 a year in sales on average with the pots...but they could never have done the $900,000 a year it became without Win's fryer. He (Shelton) helped set the stage for that with true engineering thinking.[108]

Although a number of franchisees bought the Collectramatic, which had the support of Colonel Sanders from 1970 onwards, John Y. Brown Jr. had given tacit approval to franchisees to exclusively use the older L S Hartzog fryer, saying "Though those old pots were damn dangerous, at least we knew they worked! I was mostly afraid these new fryers would break down in the middle of business."[108] Brown warned franchisees that they were in violation of their contract if they used the Collectramatic.[108] Brown held his ground on the issue until he learned that his father, John Y. Brown Sr., who owned multiple KFC franchises, was successfully using the Collectramatic in every franchise he owned.[108] The issue was eventually resolved after Heublein purchased KFC, acquired Hartzog and nullified the contract.[109] The Collectramatic has been an approved pressure fryer for KFC from 1972 onwards.[109]

From 2013 onwards, KFC has been transitioning from using Collectramatic cookers to pressure fryers produced by Henny Penny, which supplies KFC with various equipment.[110] The 'Velocity' series of pressure fryers includes increased load capacity, automatic oil filtration and increased oil longevity.