Colonel Harland Sanders – the man, the myth, the legend behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food chain, is most famous for his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices. But the fired chicken icon certainly had much darker secrets lurking in his past that you may not be aware of.
Colonel Sanders was not a perfect man by any means. The Colonel was said to be a bit of a hothead and so much so that he got into a feud that really started to sizzle. The feud involved a rival gas station owner named Matt Stewart who was trying paint over one of Sanders’s advertising signs posted on a barn. Sanders confronted Stewart bringing some muscle from Shell Oil with him. Stewart shot and killed one man and Sanders shot Stewart in the shoulder. Charges against Sanders were dropped but Stewart was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murder.
Contrary to popular belief, a myth partly perpetuated by chef Jamie Oliver, McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets do not contain pink slime, also known as ammonium hydroxide. While it is true that some of McDonald’s products had contained that filler, the company had begun phasing it out in 2011.
Thus, by the time Jamie Oliver had brought attention to it, McDonald's was already working on removing it. To combat the negative press, McDonald's released this statement on their website in 2021:
No, our Chicken McNuggets® do not contain what some people call "pink slime" or "pink goop." We've seen the photo of "pink goop" or "pink slime" in association with McDonald's.
Let's set the record straight: this image in connection with McDonald's is a myth. In fact, we don't know where it came from, but it's not our food. The photo is not a representation of how we create our Chicken McNuggets®, or for that matter, any item on our menu. Each and every one of our Chicken McNuggets® is made with USDA-inspected boneless white-meat chicken - cut from the chicken breast, tenderloins and rib meat.
Ordering fajitas in a restaurant like Chili’s is always an experience in and of itself. And you always know when someone else has ordered fajitas when you hear that sizzling pan being brought to the table. And for some reason, when you are making fajitas at home, you can never quite capture that same experience, and it begs the question: why?
What you may not know is that sizzling and smoking pan is all smoke and mirrors. Restaurants like Chili’s add a special “sizzle sauce” that makes that crackling and popping noise, and makes it look like your fajitas are smoking off the pan as if they just came off the fire. But it’s just a combination soy sauce and cooking oil.
We’ve heard of finger sandwiches before, but this is ridiculous! Arby’s has been pretty transparent about their menu for the most part but occasionally seems to sneak some mystery meat in their food – although not intentionally – at least on two separate occasions. Sometimes it feels like the end of the world when you get a strand of human hair in your food, but can you imagine getting a whole finger?
That’s what happened in 2012. A 14-year-old boy with his mother discovered “the back of a finger, including the pad and extending beyond the first knuckle” in his sandwich. Apparently, an employee had sliced their finger and left their workstation without telling anyone about the incident. And sadly, this was not the first time. In 2004, a similar incident occurred with a piece of finger found in an Arby’s chicken sandwich.
Bacterial outbreaks can always tarnish a restaurants reputation but Jack in the Box almost went bankrupt over theirs. An E. Coli outbreak back in the early ‘90s due to undercooked Jack in the Box hamburger meat led to over 600 people getting sick. Four children had died because of the outbreak.
Other individuals had suffered from serious complications due to E. Coli exposure such as kidney and brain damage. Some had even suffered from hearing loss. Lawsuits against the owner Foodmaker had to pay millions of dollars which led to the company becoming nearly bankrupt over the incident.
You’d think that the last thing that the rich and famous would need is free food since they can afford to buy almost anything they need. But no, apparently, while all of us are suffering from the effects of inflation, the wealthy are getting free Whoppers, according to inside sources.
Actor Hugh Laurie leaked the existence of the BK Crown Card, which grants people like himself and George Lucas limitless free food at any Burger King restaurant. And you can get one too, but it certainly won’t be the same. If you order a Crown Card on the Burger King website, it’s essentially just a gift card.
Allegedly, Panera Bread sells approximately 150 million loaves of bread and over 250 million bagels every year. While that is a heck of a lot of carbs, what happens to all the leftover bread? After all, the breadmaking giant couldn’t possibly be selling every loaf…and indeed they are not. They are giving it away!
While not all of Panera’s food may be fresh, their bread is made daily. And since they don’t want to be selling day-old bread, instead of just throwing it away, they donate it to the hungry. It’s all part of a program they call Day-End Dough-Nation. Each year, they donate up to $100 million worth of bread.
Chipotle was famously in the news for food poisoning but what got less attention than that was a more serious violation of the law. In 2020, the restaurant chain was fined $1.3 million by the state of Massachusetts for violating child labor laws. And no, it wasn’t just a few incidents and a few restaurants in violation.
The state had discovered 13,253 child labor violations in over 50 restaurants. Minors between the ages of 16 and 17 were working past midnight and some up to 48 hours per week. Chipotle was also found to have been hiring minors without work permits. Chipotle was forced to pay up to $2 million in a settlement and as a show of good faith, they donated $500,000 to a state youth worker fund.
Taco Bell is a little particular when it comes to the weight of its food. The goal is to make everything fairly uniform, so the sizes of burritos and tacos don’t quite vary as much as they do at an establishment like Chipotle. To do this, Taco Bell weighs every food item in your order.
Everything you order from Taco Bell is placed on a food scale before it is passed onto the customer. If you look closely, you can see them doing this in the back. If the item is even slightly off weight, the item must be thrown away and remade. Turns out, it actually takes a lot of practice to make a taco at Taco Bell.
Looking for evidence of a cheating spouse? You might want to check their receipts. According to the infidelity dating website Ashley Madison, pricey chain restaurants are among the most popular locations for guys looking to impress their mistresses with food. The website compiled a list of the most popular restaurants for cheaters.
Among the most popular restaurants for adulterers were P.F. Chang’s, the Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse and Red Lobster. So, if your spouse is getting the lobster dinner, it probably wasn’t for himself. At least there’s comfort in knowing they aren’t taking their mistresses anywhere truly special.
