SheeFood

What Kind of Chicken Joint is This?

I think KFC is going through mid-life crisis. Should I feel sorry for it and give it some space to work it through? I’m going to say no. It’s been flailing long enough. Several years ago it decided to divorce itself from the word fried and change the name to KFC. But not really. The signs say Kentucky Fried Chicken. Other things say KFC. Whatever.

Its identity used to be entirely wrapped up in its founder Colonel Sanders and the phrase “Finger Lickin’ Good.” It moved away from that and has even become a little edgy with the recent promotion of its new Double Down sandwich, in which it is paying select female college students on select campuses to wear tight sweatpants with “Double Down” in large letters across their rear ends, in order to advertise to the target audience, young guys. (Sounds like something from Hardees’ playbook to me.)

Oh, but wait, maybe they should get back to Colonel Sanders. Turns out that no one below baby-boomer age has any idea the man really lived and founded the chain. So, for his 120^th posthumous birthday, there are a few contests going on. One is a national search for an artist to paint a new portrait of Colonel Sanders. And today—five days before Halloween—the chain announced a Colonel Sanders Halloween look-alike contest. Hmmm. Could we not have thought of this a few weeks before the holiday? Look-alikes are encouraged to e-mail photos to a website. And to get a little more publicity, there’s a separate component to this promotion. They are challenging national news anchors and talk show hosts to dress like Colonel Sanders, and if they have the guts to do it, the chain will make a $250,000 donation in the host’s name to the Colonel’s Scholars (scholarship) Program.

It’s all in the name of the chain’s new Doublicious sandwiches combining sweet and savory flavors. Savory comes from the chicken filet, and the sweet is from the sweet Hawaiian bread bun.

I’m thinking that this chain, that used to have a distinct identity, lost it and can’t figure out how to get it back. I’ll offer my advice. “Dear KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken, whoever you are: The trend these days is for people to attach a source to their food. You used to have it long before it was trendy in Colonel Sanders. You’re partially on the right track by getting back to him. Tell his story. Talk about his 11 herbs and spices recipe. Make us feel like we know him and how he thought. Some of us do remember he was a real person. Coordinate your efforts to bring him back. And then, use some common sense. He’d probably roll over in his grave if he knew you were plastering your sandwich names all over the bottoms of young women for guys to oogle over. Stop that! Get with your plan to bring back Colonel Sanders, and don’t be afraid of your fried chicken. Obesity aside, we love it, or you wouldn’t still be in business. And besides, your new 540-calorie Double Down bunless sandwich is no nutritional prize.”

What do you think?

Jody

Dessert Developments

Who can guess what more Americans usually turn to when they crave something sweet? (I know the answer, and I turn to it most too.) I’ll give a hint. Restaurants have discovered the answer, and so it’s also the most common dessert item/ingredient offered on menus.

Ice cream. And even more interesting is what’s happening on restaurant dessert menus in the No. 2 and 3 slots. They’ve switched places in the past three years, according to Mintel Menu Insights. Cake has overtaken pie for second standing in number of dessert items on the menu.

I think there are several reasons: There’s more innovation happening with cake and more that can be done combining chocolate and cake than chocolate and pie. I also think pie is more generational. Remember the old phrase, “As American as apple pie and baseball?” Well, who would choose apple pie over molten chocolate lava cake? Maybe your grandmother.

The trendy things happening with cake are gooey chocolate, cupcakes, and more up-and- coming, cake balls. That is mini cake bites covered in syrup or rolled in pecans, etc., that fit with the mini-dessert trend—everyone’s answer to price/value and portion control.

Here are a few recent menu additions along these lines:

• Popeyes is testing molten chocolate lava cake that serves up to six people. The customer is supposed to take it home and heat it. It would be interesting to know if customers will eat that up – or not. I bet they will for a cost of $3.99.
• Friendly’s did the right thing. It recently added hot fudge-filled warm chocolate cake served with three (count ‘em) scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream with more hot fudge poured over the top and then chocolate chips. That’s a sugar coma I wouldn’t mind experiencing. It costs as much as a meal ($6.49), but I can see a group of women making a date to Friendly’s for that!
• A few weeks ago Cold Stone Creamery came out with eight-layer ice cream cakes. (Why stop at eight, I ask?!) They have three layers each of cake and ice cream plus two layers of whatever mix-ins desired. Let’s all pause and imagine that. If I described the cake and ice cream flavor combinations, we’d be here all day. But my heart palpitated when I read the list. They are designed to feed a small army for a price of $12.99 and are available for a limited time.

I guess the bottom line is, a restaurant can play around with cobblers, pies and tarts, or it can get serious and bring on the cake and ice cream!

What do you think?

Jody Shee

A Bowl of Soup

I remember as a kid sitting at the kitchen table at lunchtime slurping Campbell’s tomato or beef and barley soup and munching on Cheez-Its. It was always those two soups. None of that cream of mushroom, cream of potato or cream of celery stuff. That would have been akin to eating paste (and I would know; I once ate paste in kindergarten when the teacher left the room for a minute).

I was reading about soup trends, and interestingly, adults eat more soup than kids do. Teenagers are the least likely to eat it, because in their independence, why would they choose soup when they could have pizza, tacos or burgers? Turns out, adults like it for how easy it is to prepare and for its perceived healthfulness.

It’s only easy to prepare if you get it out of the can. Making it from scratch is an art a chef would love. I talked to some chefs about making potato soup who see it as an art – and a science. It becomes a science when trying to balance the thickness with the particular type of potato at hand. Starchy potatoes make a thick soup. Waxy ones break down and don’t provide the same consistency in thickness. It’s especially difficult to know if the potato is starchy or waxy when you get beyond red and russet potatoes and delve into Yukon golds, purple Peruvians and fingerling potatoes. The chef I talked to puts the potato in a brine of 1 part salt to 11 parts water by weight. Waxy potatoes float; starchy ones sink. Ahh. Then he knows.

Pasty potato soup can be avoided with interesting contents (sausage, cheese, bacon). But can also be helped with fun toppings. But that’s the end of the story. To get the whole story, you can read my article Haute Potato Soup, which was published in the October issue of National Culinary Review. It’s to the right.

Jody

Obesity is an Opportunity, Not a Challenge

The obesity issue is suffering growing pains. Some ideas in front of the food industry to fight obesity are sticking, others are hitting the fan. And I’m watching, fascinated. Here’s my big fat idea. Those in suspect segments (fast food, candy, salty snacks, etc.), join the anti-obesity team. Yes sir. Admit that your products aren’t always so “good for you.” Next, limit some of the things you’re doing and channel some of your funds into cause marketing that supports a healthy diet and exercise. Then promote that for all it’s worth, showing that you’re a team player.

 Actually, I didn’t just think that up. It’s a summary of what the candy industry is doing. The National Confectioners Association (NCA) – with its member candy manufacturers – has adopted a set of guidelines for advertising candy to children under the age of 12. The association has posted the stunning summary of guidelines on its website. You can read it at www.candyusa.com. Basically, it discourages companies from advertising to kids, and if they do, they agree to balance their sales pitches with a message of a healthy diet and exercise.

 The question is, how have candy companies responded to the limitations? Are they maligning their association? Are they squawking about their First-Amendment rights? Amazingly, no. Mars Inc., the huge candy manufacturer, has posted its support of those guidelines and has taken them even further. It has agreed to not advertise snack products, including candy, to kids under age 12. Instead it will direct its ads to adults and those over age 12. It won’t use kids in its ads unless they are in an active family setting. It won’t place vending machines with snack foods/candy in primary schools. It won’t use a celebrity or third-party licensed character (like Big Bird) to appeal to kids. And on and on.

 On the flip side, the company has invested more than $1 million in Kids Café, a program of Feeding America, the country’s largest network of more than 200 food banks. Other candy companies are also contributing to great healthy-kid causes.

 Now, let’s change gears and talk about fast food. There’s a proposal in San Francisco to ban toy giveaways in fast-food meals with fatty foods. (Think Happy Meals.) The concern behind it is that toys bribe kids into buying unhealthy meals.

 How is a fast-food company to respond? Malign the person making the proposal? Squawk about First-Amendment rights? I read an interview in QSRmagazine.com (from the September 2010 issue) with the CEO of a kid marketing agency for the restaurant industry. He’s in the squawk and malign camp. (His company supplies restaurants with toys.) He’s organizing a campaign for restaurants in San Francisco to put up table tents explaining the proposed toy ban and asking consumers to be equally outraged. The article quotes him as saying “We’re getting ready to release a television commercial … on this issue and explaining that it’s an elimination of choice and parental rights. Our next step is to probably arrange some sort of protest with signs…”

 So his company supplies the toys. Let’s give him some space. But if I was a restaurant owner sitting across from him, I’d smile, nod and tell him to have a nice day. Then I’d find out what I could do (or what my chain is already doing) to help the anti-obesity/pro-healthy kid cause and get behind it. The issue is not your First Amendment rights. The issue is kid nutrition and health. Channel your efforts there. You’ll make more friends. What do you think?

Jody Shee