When Colonel Harland Sanders, by that time estranged from KFC, visited a Manhattan KFC in 1976, he described the food as ‘the worst fried chicken [he’d] ever tasted’ and compared the gravy to ‘wallpaper paste’
Here’s a gem from the archive of the NY Times. One day in September 1976, NY Times food critic Mimi Sheraton and Colonel Harland Sanders stopped into a Manhattan Kentucky Fried Chicken. The Colonel, then estranged from the company he founded, strolled into the kitchen after glad-handing some patrons and proceeded to tear into the quality of the food:
Once in the kitchen, the colonel walked over to a vat full of frying chicken pieces and announced, ‘That’s much too black. It should be golden brown. You’re frying for 12 minutes — that’s six minutes too long. What’s more, your frying fat should have been changed a week ago. That’s the worst fried chicken I’ve ever seen. Let me see your mashed potatoes with gravy, and how do you make them?”… Continue Reading (2 minute read)
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13 thoughts on “When Colonel Harland Sanders, by that time estranged from KFC, visited a Manhattan KFC in 1976, he described the food as ‘the worst fried chicken [he’d] ever tasted’ and compared the gravy to ‘wallpaper paste’”
pythondogbrain
I wonder what his original recipe actually tasted like?
The Colonel could have been right. The KFC near me doesn’t taste like the way KFC should taste. I’m talking about the chicken, it’s not even close. The KFC that’s in a different city 30 miles away taste like it should though, why is that ? I thought I was losing my mind or my taste buds, but through the years I’ve had other people tell me the same thing.
I wonder what his original recipe actually tasted like?
Before he started KFC, he tried being a lawyer. He got disbarred for starting a fistfight in court with his own client.
I say you he dead.
The Colonel could have been right. The KFC near me doesn’t taste like the way KFC should taste. I’m talking about the chicken, it’s not even close. The KFC that’s in a different city 30 miles away taste like it should though, why is that ? I thought I was losing my mind or my taste buds, but through the years I’ve had other people tell me the same thing.
Not a big KFC fan but I don’t think he would be giving an unbiased review at that point
It’s gotten so bad in some places that their ten piece bucket is nine feet and a beak
He spent most of his later years living in Mississauga.
Wallpaper paste is just flour and water, shouldn’t be too hard to screw up gravy to taste like it…
KFC is gross. Mushy skin. Or extra cut the roof of your mouth crispy. Popeyes all day baby.
Apparently in Jamaica it tastes way better as well.
He must not have been high.
And somehow, it’s gotten worse.
Jolibees has bomb gravy. Go there instead.
Didn’t he kill someone? Or was that ronald Mcdonald?