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No Fowl Play: KFC Recipe In Safe Hands

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By BRUCE SCHREINER

The Associated Press

Published: February 11, 2009

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Colonel Sanders' handwritten recipe for fried chicken was back in its Kentucky home Tuesday after five months in hiding while KFC upgraded security around its top corporate secret.

Nothing went afoul when the recipe was returned from an undisclosed location to KFC's headquarters late Monday in a lockbox handcuffed to the wrist of a security consultant.

The recipe lays out a mix of 11 herbs and spices that coat the chain's Original Recipe chicken, including exact amounts for each ingredient. It is written in pencil and signed by Harland Sanders.

The iconic recipe is protected by an array of high-tech security gadgets, including motion detectors and cameras that allow guards to monitor the vault around the clock.

The recipe is such a tightly held secret that not even KFC President Roger Eaton knows its full contents. Only two company executives at any time have access to the recipe.

Just how valuable is the recipe?

"I would say that the heritage value is just as high for this secret recipe as the stories around the Coke formula," said Thomas P. Hustad, professor of marketing at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. "I guess I'd put the two of those at the top of the pyramid."

Sanders developed the formula in 1940 at his restaurant in southeastern Kentucky and used it to launch the KFC chain in the early 1950s. Sanders died in 1980, but his likeness is still central to KFC's marketing.

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