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KFC Menu Hack Event

KFC Menu Hack Event

KFC Menu Hack Event

I went to KFC to make the ultimate menu hack.

Long time readers of BURGER LAD® should hopefully recognise that for a while now, we’ve been pioneering innovators of menu hacks.

Well, on Wednesday 12th October 2016, I had the pleasure of visiting KFC Bishopgate (opposite Liverpool Street Station in London) for a special Menu Hack Event.

Outside KFC…

Back in August, I received an email from a very pleasant PR person asking if I would be willing to travel to London to meet with some of the KFC innovation team to discuss menu development. As you can imagine, I politely declined… did I f**k.

So fast forward a few months and just before the meeting I got further details that KFC were holding a special menu hack event and there would be chance to preview a new product. I can’t divulge any information about that at this time but stay tuned, we’ll have some news for you soon…

If you can picture just how excited I was then triple it and you may be close to the level of excitement I was feeling when I boarded the 6:30am train from Cheltenham.

It was an intimate affair, with only a select food influencer types there. It was really good to meet everyone including Sophie aka @the_fabfoodie and the guys and gals at KFC were extremely friendly and made us all feel welcome.

We started off with a tour of the kitchen which was a bonus addition to the morning and I was surprised we were allowed to take photos or film. KFC have nothing to hide here!

I saw the fresh chicken they use being dredged in the Colonel’s secret Original Recipe and the exact process behind turning raw chicken into the chicken fillets you all know and love. It was a fantastic experience and I’m pleased to report the kitchen was very, very clean.

I can’t remember the exact figures quoted regarding how much chicken KFC get through but it is a hell of a lot… and if you want to read more about the exact process, The Mirror have got a good piece on it which you can read here. I knew I recognised the girl in the video too, she’s also been to McDonald’s Head Office when we were there.

As we returned upstairs, (the restaurant here is split over three or four floors) I had a quick glimpse of the build station. You place your order for say a burger and everything is made up afterwards so nothing is sat around waiting. A process other fast food chains are adopting.

Very clean behind the scenes…

Anyway, returning back we found our tables had been decked out with a multitude of ingredients with various cheeses, sauces and other burger toppings. The chicken we had just seen being prepared and cooked was brought up along with some piping-hot hash browns and we were given a free licence to build our own menu hack. The only ingredient missing was bacon but hey, was anyone going to complain!?

A winner was also going to be announced and we were asked to name our burgers if we wanted to. I went to work on my build. Jalapeños were excruciatingly tempting to include but in the end I had to leave them off.

OK so my KFC menu hack burger was called the Deluxe Charged Stacker and featured from the brioche heel to crown bun; Supercharger sauce, Original Recipe chicken fillet, Applewood Smoked Cheddar, pickle spears, hash brown, lettuce, crispy onions and Deluxe BBQ sauce.

Here’s my creation…

I would probably re-jig the ordering of the hash brown so that would be against the cheese but apart from that I was happy with my creation. And so were the judges as I was named the winner!

After the event I got to meet more of the team from KFC and we went off to have a meeting about product development where I presented some ideas we have that could possibly one day feature on the menu. Maybe…

And I got to ask the question virtually every single UK KFC fan would ask in my situation. Will the UK ever get the Double Down!? Let’s just say that based on the response I received I would not be surprised to see it at some point, but when I couldn’t comment…

As days in the life of Burger Lad® go, they don’t come much better than this – a KFC kitchen tour, creating my own menu hack and then informally discussing burgers with the KFC innovation team. Incredible.

This is also the perfect opportunity to say thank you to all those involved at the menu hack event.

I went to KFC to make the ultimate menu hack.

KFC Deluxe Charged Stacker…

Burger Lad®

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