Unit 2
2A
HOW FAST FOOD BEGAN: The man behind KFC
Do you know this franchise of fast food?
What is the full name of this brand?
(Kentucky Fried Chicken) [Note: Kentucky is a
state in the US.)
What is so special about it? Have a think and watch this commercial. (Ctrl+Click the link)
KFC became popular because of its secret spice mix. The mix is the recipe of Harland Sander, whom we know as Colonel Sanders. Let’s find out about his life.
“The man behind KFC (p.12)
Harland Sanders was born in the USA in 1890, but his
childhood wasn’t a happy one. His father died when he was only six so his
mother needed to find a job. She went to work in a shirt factory and Harland
stayed at home to look after his younger brother and sister. That was when he
first learned to cook.
He left home when he was twelve and worked on a nearby farm.
After that, he had a lot of different jobs and, in 1930, he became a service station manager in Corbin, Kentucky. He started cooking meals for hungry
travelers who stopped at the service station, and soon people came only for the
food. Harland moved to a 142-seat restaurant across the street where he could
serve all his customers. Over the next nine years he developed the secret
chicken recipe that made him famous.
In the early 1950s, he closed the restaurant and decided to
sell his recipe to other business. The first official Kentucky Fried Chicken
restaurant didn’t open until August 1952 – by 1964 there were more than 600
KFCs in North America. That year, Sanders sold the company for $2 million, but
he continued to work as KFC’s public spokesman and visited restaurants all over
the world. He travelled 250,000 miles every year until he died in 1980, aged
90. Six years later PepsiCo bought KFC for $840 million.
There are now KFC
restaurants in more than 80 countries and they sell 2.5 billion chicken dinners
every year – and the recipe is still a secret!”
Excerpt from – Cunningham, G & Redston, C. 2008. Face2face: pre-intermediate student’s book. Cambridge University Press. Singapore: 2008.
Exercise: After reading the article, what can you tell about Colonel Sanders? Write 3 sentences about him. If you don't know what to write, you may use some of the following topics to help you.
His childhood:
His first work:
His restaurant:
His secret recipe:
His company:
Practice makes perfect. Have a good one!
