When I saw that KFC Canada was opening its doors and let customers behind the counter with the world’s first KFC Cooking School, I signed up right away and paid my “tuition fee” of $5. The downside was that it was all the way in Abbotsford, about a 1 hour drive from Vancouver. Either way, I am a huge fast food fan and I had to see how they create their chicken from start to finish.
Although KFC franchises around the world have allowed customers and fans behind the scenes in the past, letting the public cook their own meals is a KFC world-first. Everything was revealed except their 11 herbs and spices.
Not only is the chicken served at KFC restaurants 100% real, Canadian farm-raised chicken, but every single piece is hand-breaded and cooked with pride by real KFC cooks.
They even have a picture in their dining room with the spices and herbs, but its still a secret and locked up in a vault. Crazy, but it’s their signature flavour.
We started by suiting up in apron and hair nets. Not the most flattering, but food safety is #1 priority to keep customers and staff safe.
We were introduced to their packing area where the put all the meals together. It was cool to be up close to such industrial machines at a fast food restaurant.
In the past six months, every KFC cook went through recommitment training to ensure that they continue to take the care to hand-bread every piece of chicken, just the way KFC founder Colonel Sanders did in 1952.
They first take the pre-portioned chicken from the fridge and begin inspecting them before dunking it into the cold water.
It goes into the cold water to help coat each piece of chicken. They make sure there are no more air bubble in the batch.
Next, they dredge it in their flavour and 11 herb and spice blend, then then place it on the frying rack in a strategic way so each piece cooks perfectly.
The chicken goes into the pressure cooker, which is a fryer. All the computers are preprogrammed to make sure each batch is perfect and golden brown.
Once it is ready, it comes out nice and golden brown, just like what you’re use to.
They let is rest before putting into the another machine to keep until it’s ready to be served.
The holding machine makes sure the chicken is in the optimal environment before serving. They can let it sit for up to 90 minutes before discarding.
The fruits of our labour was a delicious box of KFC chicken, fries and gravy.
Look at that, from start to finish, they weren’t hiding anything in their original recipe chicken, just like how the Colonel would have liked it.
It was a fun hour going into the kitchen, looking around, and getting our hands dirty.
Website: http://www.kfc.ca/
