Kentucky sizzling steaks and country ham? Colonel Sanders may be famous for his fried chicken,
but you could get so much more than 11 herbs and spices at the first KFC.
The process of large companies renaming themselves is nothing new. Whatever the reason or rationale,
it's commonplace for companies to begin under one name before rebranding as
something entirely different over time. Kentucky Fried Chicken is no exception in this regard,
as diners at the very first KFC weren't eating at KFC at all — they were eating at Sanders Cafe.
Part of the reason for this simple original name may be that Sanders didn't initially envision his
small, roadside restaurant blossoming into an international juggernaut. Not to say he
wasn't ambitious or driven, because of course he was. After all, it takes a particular type
of determination for a person to reach the level of fame and fortune attained by Colonel Sanders
during his life. But it's hard to imagine anyone, even the man himself, would have predicted that,
by 2022, the company would end up with more than 24,000 locations worldwide.
Sanders Cafe still operates today as a museum and restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. However,
even though the sign remains out front as a historical artifact, modern diners aren't
eating at Sanders Cafe anymore — they now eat at a standard, appropriately-named KFC.
Before he was an internationally beloved superstar — or a caricature who'd be portrayed by countless
actors in commercials through the years — Colonel Sanders was simply a 40-year-old small
business owner with little more than a desire to feed hungry people. After all, according to
Southern Living, before moving into the original location in 1937, which would later burn down,
Sanders actually began his food service by serving patrons at his own dining room table. Given this,
it can't be shocking to learn that if you ate at the first actual KFC restaurant,
which came shortly after, you may have been served by the colonel himself.
"Remember that the next time you see a white suit."
Colonel Sanders had two rules:
"Do all you can and do it the best you can."
It's only logical that the hard-working Sanders was a constant presence at his Corbin,
Kentucky location. This meant the odds of being served by him during your visit,
or at least spotting the man while on site, were fairly high.
Colonel Sanders retained a hands-on approach throughout his life, even after selling the
company in 1964. In fact, according to Roadside America, up until his death in 1980, the colonel
would randomly arrive at KFC locations around the U.S. and personally inspect their products.
Though the KFC menu isn't necessarily overloaded with options, it does contain
a fair variety of chicken choices for those interested in something beyond a
standard eight-piece bucket. Various versions of chicken are offered to customers in 2022,
including, but not limited to, bone-in chicken, boneless tenders,
and pot pies. But this wasn't the case for folks who ate at the first KFC, as the only available
fried chicken option back then was what's now-known as Original Recipe — hence the name.
"There’s only one way to cook Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken and that’s my way."
While the question Original or Extra Crispy is now expected when we order KFC, there was,
perhaps unsurprisingly, no such thing as Original Recipe at the first KFC — it
was simply the recipe. In fact, it wasn't until decades later, in 1972,
that the restaurant first offered the Extra Crispy version to consumers.
Frankly, since no one in their right mind would ever choose Original over Extra Crispy,
it's sort of sad to consider the singular option provided to back-in-the-day diners. Then again,
no one seemed to mind this lack of options as KFC's popularity boomed,
so perhaps we should withhold any sympathy.
Colonel Sanders' initial restaurant didn't have any sort of fancy quarters. It served
guests at his gas station along U.S. Highway 25.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, with the implementation of the Interstate Highway
System by President Eisenhower still nearly two decades away, full service rest stops
and travel centers on major highways — or major highways, at all, for that matter — didn't exist
yet in 1937. At that time, small filling stations, like the one owned by Sanders,
were the only places for travelers to stop for service and fuel during long-distance trips.
So, having learned how to cook for his family as the child of a single mother,
Sanders decided he should offer more than gas and oil at his business. You could
fill up on gas and fill up on food. It's safe to say he made the right decision.
"We had a front room here that's about fifteen foot square and then
on this side over here we had an oil room."
After all, having interacted with countless travelers as the owner of his service station,
he'd heard firsthand how drivers were with the lacking locations for a decent meal. So,
Sanders started offering his home cooking at the station. The digs weren't fancy at first,
and consisted of Sanders' own dining room table that was brought to the station for diners.
Whether Colonel Sanders envisioned this decision leading to his culinary breakthrough is unclear,
but the gambit to increase business — and satisfy hungry customers — was
a monumental success. Traffic at his station increased, and before long,
the first KFC had to expand beyond a single table at a gas station.
Most conspiracy theories exist and endure because they contain some sliver of believability. Whether
that strand of seeming truth actually is true doesn't necessarily matter, because if it
contains the illusion of reality, it's likely to run amok among the public's imagination. Not that
this has anything to do with the undoubtedly accurate rumor that's dogged KFC for decades:
that it changed its name in 1991 because it no longer served actual, authentic chicken.
In other words, if you ate at the first KFC, you were able to eat real,
unadulterated chicken — unlike today.
Just kidding! In fact, the bizarre, over-the-top rumor that KFC's products
can't legally be classified as chicken due to genetic modifications has been thoroughly
debunked through the years. What exactly spurred someone to accuse KFC of serving mutant poultry
is unknown. But if nothing else, no one harbored any of these reservations when eating at the first
KFC — nor did diners need the University of New Hampshire to declare any such rumors to be a hoax.
"We start with real fresh chicken, like we know we should!"
While it may be hard to wrap your head around the idea that fried chicken wasn't always
so ubiquitous, with any number of chains ranging from Popeyes to Wingstop available
in 2022 — many literally at our fingertips — the truth is when Colonel Sanders first
prepared his famed poultry product, fried chicken was a bit of a rarity.
Now, while fried chicken traces its history back to the 18th century, it wasn't considered
a common everyday meal or food item before KFC began mass-marketing the product. To be sure,
it was widely beloved prior to Colonel Sanders' decision to open his restaurant at the tail end
of the Great Depression. But the monumental amount of work involved in preparing and cooking fried
chicken, particularly with the antiquated culinary techniques and tools historically available,
made it something to enjoy during celebrations and gatherings, and not an everyday option.
Given its popular-yet-elusive availability, it's no wonder people began flocking to the
Sanders Cafe to try the perfectly-seasoned and succulent item — both before the
restaurant burned down in 1939, and after it was rebuilt in 1940.
In 2022, long-distance road trips aren't terribly daunting endeavors. But back when
Colonel Sanders first decided to prepare and serve food for hungry passersby,
the dining and lodging options in rural Kentucky were slim to none. So when tragedy struck and his
first restaurant burned down in 1939, Colonel Sanders chose to up the appeal for travelers,
adding a motel room when rebuilding the property.
Somewhat similar to a bed and breakfast in its intimate setup, the motel room at the first KFC
was literally just a motel room — not any sort of sprawling enterprise. There were no modern-day
amenities or accommodations as we'd expect from a hotel stay in our current world, but
that didn't matter. As a tool to drum up further business, it did the trick exactly as intended.
Actually, in some ways, the notion of being served family-style — as in having a table
share large servings of food, rather than each person ordering individual meals — hasn't
changed from the first KFC. With at least eight different family bucket combo meals
available for purchase on its menu in 2022, you can still order and enjoy a dinner from KFC while
theoretically being served family-style. But while the modern KFC menu also has countless
individualized offerings, diners of the first KFC ate family-style meals almost exclusively.
When you think about it, this may have been the only logical way
Colonel Sanders could have gone about it, at least initially. For one thing,
the food preparation and cooking methods of the day presented a barrier to taking orders,
as well as preparing specific meals for each person. Additionally,
since food preservation was less evolved than in the 21st century — and there was no guarantee how
many guests would stop to eat at the first KFC — Sanders was beholden to what was available.
Clearly, though, no one was complaining, and the Colonel's finger-lickin' offerings,
whether eaten family-style or solo, remained a hit with everyone who stopped there.
Colonel Sanders didn't invent fried chicken — which, believe it or not, according to the BBC,
wasn't even originally created in the United States at all. But the man in a white suit
doesn't need more credit than he's due, because while he may not have been the
first person to conceive of fried chicken as a food, he was responsible for dramatically
simplifying the cooking process through the use of a pressure fryer, according to Sanders Cafe.
If you've ever made fried chicken at home, particularly if you've cooked it on the stove
with nothing more than a pot of hot oil, you're likely aware of how painstaking and time-consuming
it can be. The laborious process almost certainly contributed to the lack of consistent, widely
available fried chicken restaurants before KFC's arrival. But once Colonel Sanders patented the
cooking technique involving a pressure cooker, it both simplified and quickened the cooking process,
laying the path for mass production of perfectly produced fried chicken throughout the world.
"Look at this sparkling clean cooker keeping everything clean and neat. It’s
part of our recipe for real goodness." Frankly, Colonel Sanders' relationship
to fried chicken is akin to that of Taco Bell founder Glen Bell's relationship to the crunchy
taco. Neither man invented the trademark food, but without each one's innovation,
who knows what the world of fried chicken or tacos would look like.
Did you ever wonder why it's called Kentucky fried chicken rather than just, say, fried chicken? Some
may have presumed it was one of the many brilliant marketing ideas spearheaded by Colonel Sanders,
but the state-specific name didn't develop at the first KFC. It was actually the
brainchild of Utah-based restaurateur Pete Harman and his sign-painter Don Anderson.
Actually, the now-internationally famous name was conceived on somewhat of a whim.
After Colonel Sanders prepared his secret fried chicken recipe for his
friend and fellow restaurant owner, Harman decided to add the pressure cooked product,
with its famous 11 herbs and spices, to his menu. Yet unsure how to advertise the item,
Anderson suggested the simplest path. "How about Kentucky Fried Chicken?" Anderson
asked Harman as an idea, since Sanders was "from Kentucky and it is fried chicken."
"If you want Kentucky Fried Chicken, you have to visit me."
Soon, according to Smithsonian magazine, Harman became the first KFC franchise-owner,
partnering with Sanders to bring the simplified, simply delicious product to the masses. The two
remained friends throughout the remainder of their lives, and in 2012, Harman, at the age of 90,
still owned and operated more than 300 KFC restaurants throughout the southwestern U.S.
It's no surprise that uber-successful companies often develop an itch to stretch their wings
and expand their market share beyond those signature products. KFC is no different,
which at one point went so far as to introduce Colonel Sanders' Country
Style BBQ Ribs in 1975, a product that clearly didn't stand the test of time.
"Get your hands on KFC’s chicken and ribs deal this summer."
But while Kentucky Fried Chicken eventually chose to solely embrace what it does best in
fried chicken, the first KFC actually offered other proteins to famished customers as well.
Not that they had much of a choice, necessarily. After all,
Colonel Sanders' menu in the early days likely consisted of whatever
meal he was able to prepare that day, whether it was chicken, beef, or ham.
Though none of the non-fried chicken options were responsible for Sanders Cafe evolving into KFC,
it's not surprising that, given the cook, everything besides chicken was still delectable.
As Duncan Hines — yes, the same one from the famous cake mix brand — wrote in his book
Adventures in Good Cooking, the first KFC was, quote, "a very good place to stop," noting its
"sizzling steaks" [...] (and) country ham" were worthy orders alongside its famed fried chicken.
"One more thing folks. It's the only way that you're going to get chicken that's
finger lickin' good. And I'll be mighty proud if you'd try Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken."