boon's log 3708.03: Fast (food) news

Here are some fast food news from the web that you may not see in the normal news headlines. Perhaps it is something to talk over your next fast food lunch hour with your colleagues...

KFC Relocated Colonel Sander's Secret Recipe (link to WLKY website)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- It's one of the closest-guarded secrets in America, and its safety is on the line.

On Tuesday, KFC President Roger Eaton announced the company is moving founder Colonel Harland Sanders' handwritten original recipe.

"I am personally terrified, because I am the first president who is going to be accountable for moving the secret recipe out of this vault," Eaton said. "It's the first time it's been moved in 68 years."

Eaton said the reason for risking the recipe's security is to make it better.

KFC is launching a new product, so company executives needed to consult the recipe to make sure they got it right, and produced the precise flavor of the original recipe and its 11 herbs and spices.

In opening the vault in which the recipe is kept, however, the executives found a problem.

"Security around the vault wasn't what it should be," Eaton said.

Therefore, Sanders’ recipe blending 11 herbs and spices is going to be moved from its home in a locked file cabinet inside a vault to an undisclosed location.

After KFC headquarters in Louisville modernizes the recipe’s permanent hideaway, it will be returned.

The recipe has been in the file cabinet for more than 20 years.

Former New York City police Detective Bo Deitl has been hired to protect the recipe, which will be tucked away in a briefcase that will be handcuffed to him when it is whisked away by armored car.

"There's no way, shape or form, with the backup, with the Louisville police out there, that anybody is going to get their hands on this recipe," Deitl said. "And if they get their hands on this recipe, they'll have to take me with them."

Deitl said he's dealt with such big security projects as the assessment for the new Yankee Stadium and safeguarding da Vinci artwork. Additionally, Deitl will be upgrading the safe in which the recipe is stored.

KFC, part of the fast-food company Yum Brands Inc., regards the 68-year-old concoction for the colonel’s Original Recipe fried chicken as its crown jewel.

The recipe dates back to 1940, when Sanders tinkered with his formula for fried chicken at his tiny restaurant in southeastern Kentucky. With that Original Recipe, Sanders eventually launched the KFC chain in the early 1950s.

Sanders died in 1980.



Wisconsin man has eaten 23,000 Big Macs since 1972(link to comcast website)

FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Talk about a Big Mac attack! Don Gorske says he has eaten 23,000 of the burgers in 36 years.

The Fond du Lac man said he hit the 23,000 milestone last month, continuing a culinary obsession that began May 17, 1972, and is fed by his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"I enjoy them every day," said Gorske, 54. "I need two to fill me up."

Gorske has kept every burger receipt in a box. He says he was always fascinated with numbers, and watching McDonald's track its number of customers motivated him to track his own consumption.

Despite a diet some would call unhealthy, Gorske says he keeps himself in good shape. He says he's 6-foot-2 and weighs 185 pounds, and walks as many as 10 miles a day.

He used to order fries every day in the 1980s but began to cut back in the '90s, now eating them about once a month. He eats two Big Macs and two parfaits a day. Gorske has written a book about his experience.

"Sometimes people call me a freak but it doesn't bother me. I just say respect people as they are," he told The Associated Press. "I just want to make sure people understand I'm not going to change."

He can instantly recall the eight days in which he failed to satisfy his craving. One was in 1988, the day his mother died, to respect a request she made.

"I made a promise to her and I always keep my promises," he said. "I also promised her I wouldn't cut my hair and in 20 years I haven't."

He twice failed to attack a Big Mac because of his job. A correctional-institution employee, he said a number of work emergencies kept him on the clock past midnight so he recorded those days as missed days.

Three other times he was traveling and couldn't find a McDonald's. He also went Big Mac-less on Thanksgiving Day 2000, and during a 1982 snowstorm that prevented the local McDonald's franchise from opening.

"That's when I started a habit where I kept them in the freezer," he said. He keeps one or two burgers on hand but increases his inventory to four to five during the winter.






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