KFC History Way back in 1930¶s Colonel Harland Sanders got some distinguished Kentucky folks lickin¶ their fingers. It¶s been in fashion since then! Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken, was born on September 9, 1890.When he was six, his father died and his mother was forced to go to work while young Sanders took care of his three year old sibling. This meant he had to do much of the family cooking. By the time he was seven, Harland Sanders was a master of a range of regional dishes. After a series of jobs, in the mid 1930s at the age of forty, Colonel Sanders bought a service station, motel and cafe at Corbin, a town in Kentucky about 25 miles from the Tennessee border. It is here that Sanders began experimenting with different seasonings to flavor his chicken which travelers loved and for which he soon became famous. During the next nine years he developed his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices and the basic cooking technique which is still used today. Sander's fame grew. He sold his chicken on the highway! But when the highway was removed, he sold up and traveled the United States by car, cooking chicken for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favorable Sanders entered into a handshake agreement on a deal which stipulated a payment to him of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold. By 1964, from that humble beginning, Colonel Harland Sanders had 600 franchise outlets for his chicken across the United States and Canada. Later that year, Colonel Sanders sold his interest in the United States operations for $2 million. The 65-year-old gentleman had started a worldwide empire using his $105 social security cheque. Sadly, Colonel Harland Sanders passed away on December 16th, 1980 aged 90. His legacy lives on with KFC restaurants all over the world. KFC now stretches worldwide with more than 13,000 restaurants in more than 80 countries and territories around the world serving up the Colonel¶s Original Recipe. It is a $13 billion brand based out of Kentucky and is the leading QSR around the world which is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Yum! Brands own 5 brands, out of which KFC is the largest brand within the Yum! Portfolio, founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in the year 1938. KFC Corporation (KFC), founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States. KFC has been a brand and operating segment, termed a concept[2] of Yum! Brands since 1997 when that company was spun off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. KFC primarily sells chicken pieces, wraps, salads and sandwiches. While its primary focus is fried chicken, KFC also offers a line of grilled and roasted chicken products, side dishes and desserts. Outside North America, KFC offers beef based products such as hamburgers or kebabs, pork based products such as ribs and other regional fare.[citation needed] The company was founded as Kentucky Fried Chicken by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952, though the idea of KFC's fried chicken actually goes back to 1930. The company adopted the abbreviated form of its name in 1991.[3] Starting in April 2007, the company began using its original name, Kentucky Fried Chicken, for its signage, packaging and advertisements in the U.S. as part of a new corporate re-branding program;[4][5] newer and remodeled restaurants will have the new logo and name while older stores will continue to use the 1980s signage. Additionally, Yum! continues to use the abbreviated name freely in its advertising History The restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky where Colonel Sanders developed Kentucky Fried Chicken The first KFC restaurant, situated in South Salt Lake, Utah and since replaced by a new KFC on the same site Born and raised in Henryville, Indiana, Sanders passed through several professions in his lifetime.[6] Sanders first served his fried chicken in 1930 in the midst of the Great Depression at a gas station he owned in North Corbin, Kentucky. The dining area was named "Sanders Court & Café" and was so successful that in 1936 Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon granted Sanders the title of honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contribution to the state's cuisine. The following year Sanders expanded his restaurant to 142 seats, and added a motel he bought across the street.[7] When Sanders prepared his chicken in his original restaurant in North Corbin, he prepared the chicken in an iron skillet, which took about 30 minutes to do, too long for a restaurant operation. In 1939, Sanders altered the cooking process for his fried chicken to use a pressure fryer, resulting in a greatly reduced cooking time comparable to that of deep frying.[8] In 1940 Sanders devised what came to be known as his Original Recipe.[9] The Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, often those headed to Florida, so when the route planned in the 1950s for what would become Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, he sold his properties and traveled the U.S. to sell his chicken to restaurant owners. The first to take him up on the offer was Pete Harman in South Salt Lake, Utah; together, they opened the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" outlet in 1952.[10] By the early 1960s, Kentucky Fried Chicken was sold in over 600 franchised outlets in both the United States and Canada. One of the longest-lived franchisees of the older Col. Sanders' chicken concept, as opposed to the KFC chain, was the Kenny Kings chain. The company owned many Northern Ohio diner-style restaurants, the last of which closed in 2004. Sanders sold the entire KFC franchising operation in 1964 for $2 million USD, equal to $14,027,987 today[11] Since that time, the chain has been sold three more times: to Heublein in 1971, to R.J. Reynolds in 1982 and most recently to PepsiCo in 1986, which made it part of its Tricon Global Restaurants division, which in turn was spun off in 1997, and has now been renamed to Yum! Brands. Additionally, Colonel Sanders' nephew, Lee Cummings, took his own Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises (and a chicken recipe of his own) and converted them to his own "spin-off" restaurant chain, Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken. Today, some of the older KFC restaurants have become famous in their own right. One such restaurant is located in Marietta, Georgia. This store is notable for a 56-foot (17 m) tall sign that looks like a chicken. The sign, known locally as the Big Chicken, was built for an earlier fast-food restaurant on the site called Johnny Reb's Chick, Chuck and Shake. It is often used as a travel reference point in the Atlanta area by locals and pilots.[12] The secret recipe The Colonel's secret flavor recipe of 11 herbs and spices that creates the famous "finger lickin' good" chicken remains a trade secret.[13][14] Portions of the secret spice mix are made at different locations in the United States, and the only complete, handwritten copy of the recipe is kept in a vault in corporate headquarters.[15] On September 9, 2008, the one complete copy was temporarily moved to an undisclosed location under extremely tight security while KFC revamped the security at its headquarters. Before the move, KFC disclosed the following details about the recipe and its security arrangements:[16] y The recipe, which includes exact amounts of each component, is written in pencil on a single sheet of notebook paper and signed by Sanders.[17] y The recipe was locked in a filing cabinet with two separate combination locks. The cabinet also included vials of each of the 11 herbs and spices used. y Only two executives had access to the recipe at any one time. KFC refuses to disclose the names and titles of either executive.[18] y One of the two executives said that no one had come close to guessing the contents of the secret recipe, and added that the actual recipe would include some surprises. On February 9, 2009, the secret recipe returned to KFC's Louisville headquarters in a more secure, computerized vault[19] guarded by motion detectors and security cameras. Reportedly, the paper has yellowed and the handwriting is now faint.[17] In 1983, writer William Poundstone examined the recipe in his book Big Secrets. He reviewed Sanders' patent application, and advertised in college newspapers for present or former employees willing to share their knowledge.[20] From the former he deduced that Sanders had diverged from other common fried-chicken recipes by varying the amount of oil used with the amount of chicken being cooked, and starting the cooking at a higher temperature (about 400 °F (200 °C)) for the first minute or so and then lowering it to 250 °F (120 °C) for the remainder of the cooking time. Several of Poundstone's contacts also provided samples of the seasoning mix, and a food lab found that it consisted solely of sugar, flour, salt, black pepper and monosodium glutamate (MSG). He concluded that it was entirely possible that, in the years since Sanders sold the chain, later owners had begun skimping on the recipe to save costs.[21][22][23] Following his buyout in 1964, Colonel Sanders himself expressed anger at such changes, saying: That friggin' ... outfit .... They prostituted every goddamn thing I had. I had the ³ greatest gravy in the world and those sons of bitches-- they dragged it out and extended it and watered it down that I'm so goddamn mad![22][23] ´ Ron Douglas, author of the book America's Most Wanted Recipes, also claims to have figured out KFC's secret recipe.[24] Products Packaging The famous paper bucket that KFC uses for its larger sized orders of chicken and has come to signify the company was originally created by Wendy's restaurants founder Dave Thomas.