My letter to Kentucky Fried Chicken president Ms. Cheryl Bachelder, December 15, 2002: Dear Ms. Bachelder: When I was little, my mother used to joke that the Colonel must have snuck into her (or my grandmother’s) kitchen to get his recipe, so similar was your fried chicken to what she cooked. I see that your same-store sales have been dropping, despite your desperate attempts to diversify, and I guess that consumers across the country have all realized something that you are oblivious to: your fried chicken is not as good as it used to be. You can yell all you want to about using the same herbs and spices, but your chicken these days is disgustingly greasy. For the last few years, I’ve had to resort to squeezing each piece with one or two of the napkins that you provide. What’s amazing is that, after storing the product in my refrigerator, I’ll see a new thick layer of grease on the bottom of the bowl the next day. For a number of years, even though it didn’t taste as good anymore, I would still go back to the KFC, hoping each time that it would taste good again. But I was informed a few months ago that you have been using partly hydrogenated oil, which is more “heart unhealthy” than lard or butter. I am positive that “partly hydrogenated” was not in the Colonel’s original recipe. I stopped eating fast food french fries a long time ago for that reason, but now I have stopped eating what used to be one of my favorite foods: your fried chicken. And obviously I’m not the only one....My parents retired to Arkansas about 17 years ago, and they stopped eating your fried chicken then because of the change in its taste, but they thought that the change was due to local conditions....the people I talk to tell me the same thing: your fried chicken is not as good as it used to be. I suspect that one problem is that you are losing out on sales to the older people. The fact is that your product is disgustingly high in sodium, and older people almost all have to cut their sodium intakes. One thigh of original recipe has about a gram of sodium in it, more than what is appropriate for an entire meal. When you have become used to lower levels of sodium, eating some KFC fried chicken must have a grossly distorted flavor compared to what it was in memory. I have been aware of your ridiculous sodium levels for some time, and what I used to do was take the skin off and mix it into a microwaved potato to help “even out” the salt content. While I am discussing your products I’d like to mention another problem you have always had: your so-called gravy. What an insult to the palate it is, that product of yours that never had even the slightest resemblance to what a southerner would make in a skillet from chicken drippings. If a southern woman dared to serve the crap you call gravy to her family, it would result in divorce or even worse. If you want your sales to rebound, you need to recognize the changing times. Start cooking your chicken in decent oil, and, even if you insist on continuing to try and cause heart disease in Americans, why don’t you offer some original recipe with lower sodium–and least 50% lower. And for God’s sake, learn to make gravy.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 06:35:14 +0000
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