Italian Food, KFC Money

Italian Food  Brought to You by the Owners of KFC

 

KFC is proving it can compete with the best of the best in the art of high-end dining. What better place to test out a new food concept than Shanghai. Compared to the usual KFC-next-to-the-subway-exit-and-opposite-McDonalds location, Yum! Brands clearly did their research on this one. In order to attract corporate high-flyers and cashed-up tourists, the fast food chain chose a location on The Bund. The historical heart of Shanghai, this stretch of buildings alongside the Huangpu River is home to some of the world’s best eateries. Atto Primo, Yum! Brands Italian baby, is now one of them.  Shanghainese - and Chinese - are avid supporters of iconic global brands and wouldn’t discriminate against a fast-food company cooking up some high-end Italian. It may be a new concept for the group behind KFC (who are in a 9^th straight year of declining store counts) but they are going down the same path of reinvention as many other fast-food conglomerates. 

Take Popeye Louisiana Kitchen, for example. With sales on the downward spiral for at least a decade and a history of bankruptcy, CEO Cheryl Bachelder turned that statistic around 180 degrees and into history. Selling fried chicken as if it’s a cultural experience and introducing a fast-casual restaurant theme, this chain has seen renewed customer loyalty. Not to mention shareholder confidence. Popeye’s shares are up 950% since 2009. 

How important is it for food companies to change things up and trial new ideas? Fast-food restaurants in particular are renowned for selling the same products around the world. For travellers this can be a Godsend. You are in a very opposing environment to your own one at home, people speak a foreign language, and you are not sure what local food to try. The tour bus leaves in 10 minutes. It’s the perfect time to down a Fillet’O’Fish and coke. It’s a reliant stomach-filler. You know you won’t get sick from it. You know you can trust it. Depending on which country you are in, it usually won’t cost an arm and a leg. 

If these companies demonstrate versatility in their own business model, why can’t they change up their more famous products to be healthier? We hear arguments that McDonalds shouldn’t be situated next to schools, that McDonalds shouldn’t sell toys in Happy Meals, that soft drink cups should be limited to a certain size, that the menu must show the calorie index. Who are we kidding? We love how downright dirty and unhealthy these foods are. The satisfaction factor of savouring over a cheeseburger may not last long after you finish it, but each bite is a bit of heaven ground up with cheese on top. 

If Yum! Brands can find the “culture” to create an upscale Italian restaurant in the emerging global city of Shanghai, there is nothing stopping the global giant from getting super-creative with its KFC menu to meet our desire to cut down on fats and oils. But for the longest time such companies have abstained from doing so. Why? Probably because consumers, deep down in their stomachs, don’t want to take responsibility for what they love to shove down their throat. Instead we raise our index finger and say: “I have sugar addictions because of your burgers. I have a weight issue because of your fries. How dare you offer me a tray of oil I cannot say no to.” This attitude is not just limited to food. 

How many times have we heard people say in their own home: “The Government needs to action on climate change.” Meanwhile, the kitchen is abuzz with the hum of a dishwasher cleaning all those filthy plates. Washing dishes in this day and age is a difficult, dirty job manpower cannot solve. Dishwasher trumps manpower everyday. We must recognize the facts. The Government must help me to stop damaging the environment. They are also accountable for my fats and oils and MSG yearnings. 

Let's put sarcasm aside for now!

It never ceases to amaze me how surprised people are to find out about the goings-on in the food production cycle in the United States, as demonstrated by the documentary Food Inc. This is not just an American model. This formula of producing factory meat is followed in a lot of developed and developing countries. Did urbanites really believe that all that meat they eat came straight out of the Outback, or off the Prairie, as depicted by company marketing? There is a reason most people don’t really know how meatworks facilities operate or how your meat is grown in the feedlot. It’s unpleasant to look at. 

What’s more pleasant is fulfilling those deep-down stomach yearnings. It’s clear when you buy a chicken to cook at home that its shape is not the same as the chicken you might have seen at your cousin’s farm, or while walking through a Chinese village. When you buy milk, do you really think it’s a good idea to buy it with all those extra vitamins? Is that natural? Yes you fulfill your vitamin A and C needs. What are you cutting out of your diet because you choose to consume that special, vitamin-induced milk? What is your body missing out from because you get your vitamin fill from a different product that naturally doesn’t contain any of those specific health benefits? 

Don’t let that rant stop you from supporting the experiments of fast-food companies. In the case of this upscale Italian restaurant, the conglomerate got it right. Go to Atto Primo and see just how good YUM! Brands is at re-modelling itself as a genuine Italian classic.