Monday was a little less dreary than usual (despite the rain) thanks to spending the morning with KFC. Various media outlets were called together for what was promised to be a big announcement about the brand. We were greeted by president of KFC US, Jason Marker, who announced that the iconic chain will be implementing major changes dubbed “re-colonelization,” with goals to become #1 in taste by the end of 2017.
This re-colonelization is basically a commitment to go back to the hard way of doing things and recommitting to cooking chicken the way the colonel once intended. Over the past six months, the company has invested over 100,000 hours retraining over 20,000 employees in cooking and serving their chicken as it should be. What exactly does this entail? First, all managers and cooks underwent re-certification in KFC’s “Chicken Mastery” program, teaching them the 25-minute process for prepping and cooking Kentucky Fried Chicken with the original recipe. Along with it, the company has implemented the “Colonel Quality Taste Guarantee,” which promises customers will be satisfied with their meal or the restaurant will replace it.
Over the past year, KFC has updated their kitchens with new equipment in 98% of its restaurants, with goal to remodel 3,000 restaurants in the next three years.
After this bold announcement, head chef Bob Das was joined by SNL alum Rachel Dratch to demonstrate the prepping and cooking process, which is hand-breaded and seasoned with 11 secret herbs and spices. After the comedic demo, we sat down to lunch where we enjoyed that old-school taste of KFC that made Americans fall in love with it in the first place, along with all the fixin’s. With KFC’s new pledge to going back to doing things the old, hard way, we have a feeling that Kentucky Fried family nights may no longer be a thing of the past.
Twisted Talk: What’s your favorite fast food restaurant? Will you try the new and improved KFC? Discuss below!
