From calorie count to portion sizes, we wanted to find all the differences between KFC in the US and Italy. This is "Food Wars."
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00:00 From exclusive items to portion sizes,
00:02 we wanted to find all the differences
00:04 between KFC in the US and Italy.
00:06 This is "Food Wars."
00:08 New season, Italy, new host.
00:12 Want to introduce you to a familiar
00:13 Food Insider face, Claudia.
00:15 - Let's start with the original recipe chicken.
00:20 If you're buying just the original chicken,
00:22 you can get a two-piece.
00:23 One is huge.
00:25 We also have lots of bucket options,
00:27 but most of them combine the original recipe,
00:30 wings, and tenders.
00:31 If you only want the original chicken,
00:33 the largest size we have is a six-piece bucket.
00:36 Looks a bit scary.
00:38 The other bucket options include a variety of chicken,
00:40 such as tenders and hot wings.
00:43 For example, if you want to feed two people,
00:45 you can get the 10-piece bucket.
00:47 This contains four tenders and six crispy tenders.
00:51 And if you want to feed four people,
00:53 you can get this big boy here.
00:54 This one is a 16-piece bucket
00:56 and contains four original recipe,
00:59 four tenders, four crispy tenders, and four wings.
01:03 This is actually the biggest thing on the menu.
01:05 - Now in the US,
01:06 KFC's chicken comes in four portion sizes.
01:08 You can start off by getting a one-piece a la carte,
01:11 then a two-piece with a combo,
01:13 a three-piece with a combo,
01:15 and a four-piece with a combo,
01:17 all of which come with the side of your choice,
01:19 a biscuit, and a drink.
01:21 Then for the buckets, we have an eight-piece,
01:25 the 12-piece.
01:27 (laughs)
01:29 And last but not least, this luscious bucket,
01:33 16 pieces of chicken.
01:35 Dinner is served in America.
01:38 You can get those in either original or crispy.
01:41 That makes our biggest bucket 166% bigger than Italy's.
01:46 - I've actually never really had KFC before.
01:49 Chicken is not so popular in Italy,
01:50 like especially fried chicken served like that.
01:53 So I'm really curious to try it and see.
01:56 Yeah, nice.
01:59 Not a lot of spices.
02:01 It's just like fried chicken,
02:02 which is what we're promised.
02:06 - Let's see how one chicken drumstick weighs
02:08 compared to Italy.
02:09 - 64 grams.
02:11 - 97 grams.
02:12 Is anyone surprised that the chicken in the United States
02:16 is bigger than every other country
02:18 we've done this Food Wars with?
02:20 - In Italy, we also have hot wings
02:22 and they come in a five-piece and in a 18-piece bucket.
02:27 This one is designed for three people.
02:30 - 18 wings in the US is definitely for one person,
02:33 not three.
02:34 I could have six wings and then have a full meal.
02:37 - So they're advertised as hot wings.
02:39 I think to an Italian palate,
02:44 yeah, you could say these are spicy.
02:46 - We also got wings here in the US.
02:48 Now, currently, at least the KFC I went to here in Burbank
02:51 has one size of wings, the eight-piece.
02:55 I'm gonna go ahead and take the bones out.
02:57 Crispy.
02:59 Heat I can notice that isn't overwhelming.
03:01 Perfectly fine.
03:02 - Next are the fries.
03:03 In Italy, you can get three sizes,
03:05 small, medium, and large.
03:08 - In the US, we got two sizes of fries,
03:11 the individual and the large.
03:13 - Let's weigh our biggest size.
03:15 [laughing]
03:17 - I never grow tired of that.
03:18 Is this the lowest we've gotten?
03:20 - I've gone to the same KFC every time.
03:21 Apparently, they have fired that scooper
03:23 because he or she was being too generous.
03:26 - In Italy, KFC offers drinks in two sizes,
03:29 a medium and a large.
03:30 - Drinks in the US, you get two fountain drink sizes,
03:34 the regular and the large.
03:36 I'll point out to you, Claudia, and the rest of Italy
03:38 that our regular, the smallest drink you can get at a KFC,
03:42 is 591 milliliters, which is much bigger than your large.
03:48 But if you really want your thirst quenched,
03:51 you can get yourself the big boy.
03:54 That is a half gallon, 64 fluid ounces,
03:58 or 1,892.7 milliliters of beverage.
04:03 - Let's measure the large one to see if that's true.
04:07 - Supposed to be 887.
04:09 Let me just even get it up to 800.
04:10 Whoa, this is just 800.
04:12 The messes that this show forces me to make.
04:16 - If you are incredible at balancing
04:19 and you don't want a cap, I guess this is okay
04:22 if you're just gonna sit at your table like.
04:24 - Here's everything that you can get at KFC in Italy
04:30 that you won't find in the US.
04:32 - Here's everything you'll find at a KFC in the US
04:34 you won't find in Italy.
04:36 We have one exclusive chicken option
04:38 you can't get in Italy.
04:40 That is the extra crispy.
04:42 This is probably close to what you get in your original recipe
04:44 - And then you got the extra crispy.
04:46 - Obviously it's night and day.
04:48 Volume up on this one.
04:49 This is regular.
04:50 And of course the extra crispy.
04:54 If you're wondering, yes, way better, way more flavorful.
05:02 - We don't have extra crispy chicken here in Italy,
05:05 but if you order tenders,
05:07 you're gonna get original and crispy.
05:10 - It does look much crispier.
05:12 It also looks much sadder as well
05:16 'cause it's like literally flopping.
05:18 At least I can see the chicken.
05:20 I can see some meat in there.
05:22 This one is like completely hidden in the batter.
05:25 Like it could be anything.
05:26 - Another exclusive are the KFC nuggets.
05:31 You can get these in varieties of five, eight, 12 and 36.
05:35 I went with the five piece.
05:36 Now, Claudia, take a good look at this.
05:39 You in Italy have popcorn chicken.
05:41 Besides potential size differences,
05:44 I really don't know what else is different about these.
05:46 - In Italy, we don't have nuggets,
05:48 but we have popcorn chicken.
05:50 We got the large, but it comes also in small and medium.
05:54 - Quietly sometime last year,
05:56 KFC just took popcorn chicken off the menu.
05:58 And I'm pretty bummed about that.
06:00 I mean, I like the nuggets, but the popcorn chicken, man,
06:02 it's just something 'cause they're a lot smaller
06:04 and then the chicken to skin ratio
06:06 is more in favor of the skin.
06:07 So you get a lot of that savory skin in there.
06:09 RIP popcorn chicken.
06:10 You're very lucky, Claudia.
06:11 You are very lucky.
06:13 - Were you guys like the guinea pigs for this
06:15 or are we the guinea pigs for like a new recipe
06:17 or something?
06:18 I think I prefer a whole piece.
06:22 Like I think binging on like little bits of chicken,
06:25 it's like so un-Italian that I'm not sure
06:29 that I'd be getting used to that.
06:31 - Snacking on little bits of fried chicken
06:34 while in a convenient to-go box,
06:36 while driving or walking around is so American
06:39 and I love it.
06:39 I gotta try this.
06:40 Wow, this is what America's all about.
06:43 - Let's move on to the chicken sandwiches.
06:45 In Italy, we have the zinger.
06:48 This is supposed to be Italy's version
06:50 of the spicy chicken that you guys have in the US.
06:54 I don't know, Joe, how does that look like?
06:55 Similar?
06:57 - Yes, Claudia, your zinger sandwich looks a little bit
07:00 like our spicy chicken sandwich.
07:02 Here's ours.
07:03 And we only have pickles on ours,
07:05 so no lettuce and tomato.
07:06 - But after I took a bite,
07:09 you can see there's like some red here.
07:11 So that's supposed to be the spice.
07:13 There's like the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest spice,
07:15 to be honest.
07:16 Then moving on, we have this tiny little thing,
07:19 the crunchy.
07:20 Crunchy or crunky.
07:22 This one here is on the value menu,
07:24 so it's more cheaper option.
07:27 And then we've got the colonel,
07:29 named after Colonel Sanders.
07:30 We don't really have colonels here.
07:33 Nothing we do, but we keep them for the army.
07:35 I don't think they've ever opened a chicken restaurant.
07:37 Then we've got the double colonel.
07:39 Does that mean that another person joined?
07:42 Then we have the Kentucky chicken and bacon.
07:46 I have to say this is the biggest bacon
07:47 that I've seen in like Italian fast food chains.
07:50 This to me feels quite, quite thick.
07:53 You can also get this one in a double.
07:55 And then we have the chicken grilled,
07:58 so-and-so's sad, sad lettuce hanging off mayo.
08:01 You can also get the double crispy,
08:03 which is two chicken tenders in a bun.
08:07 - Here are sandwiches you can get in the US,
08:08 you can't get in Italy, starting down here.
08:10 The classic chicken little.
08:12 I don't know, it's just a tender in between two buns.
08:15 Here's what I would do.
08:15 I would go to KFC, I'd stand in line,
08:17 I'd order my meal and get one of these,
08:19 and then demand they give me this
08:21 while I wait for the rest of my food.
08:23 There's nothing, there's nothing.
08:24 It's like an appetizer.
08:26 And then of course, just the regular chicken sandwich.
08:29 I have said on record several times
08:31 that I think KFC might have the best
08:34 fast food chicken sandwich in America.
08:36 There's also apparently
08:37 an ultimate barbecue fried chicken sandwich
08:39 that was new, I think, in Cayman Wends.
08:41 - As an Italian, I'm not so big on chicken burgers.
08:45 I think the idea of having chicken in a burger
08:47 doesn't really resonate so well with us.
08:50 It's like, almost hurts my eyes.
08:52 There's just too much brown in it.
08:54 Like, I wanna see more color.
08:57 - Yeah, that's absolutely not the case here.
08:59 As you can see, our chicken is deep fried
09:02 and covered in a mayo-y sauce.
09:04 We're eating chicken all the time in America.
09:07 Yeah, we eat a lot of beef, but we also eat a lot of chicken
09:10 and it is no way diet food here, not at all.
09:13 - We also used to have Twister wraps here at KFC in Italy,
09:17 but sadly, they're not on the menu anymore.
09:19 They're still worth mentioning though
09:21 because of the hilarious advertising campaign.
09:24 When KFC launched them in Italy,
09:26 they actually designed Italian leather handbags
09:29 supposed to hold your Twisters,
09:31 which is a bit of a knockoff to the Fendi baguette bag.
09:35 - All right, we might not have Italian bags for our wraps,
09:37 but we do have KFC Crocs.
09:40 Look how cool those look.
09:41 We do have a couple wrap options.
09:43 You only get them through the KFC application,
09:45 which is not how I ordered.
09:47 Anyway, you get the classic one with the crispy tender.
09:49 There's also a spicy one that I assume is spicier.
09:52 And apparently you can get two of them for $5,
09:54 which is a pretty good deal, but I didn't get them.
09:57 Here's a few hilarious things you can't get in Italy.
10:00 Over here is the famous bowl.
10:02 Yes, Claudia, I know you're dying to know all about this,
10:04 so I will tell you now.
10:05 It is nuggets, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cheese,
10:10 all in one convenient tub.
10:12 So this would be, I guess, what's considered a bite.
10:15 It's really heavy.
10:17 It's gotta be 90% mashed potato.
10:20 It's a lot.
10:21 Another American exclusive is this, a chicken pot pie.
10:25 Look at the size of this thing.
10:27 I think this would just profoundly confuse every Italian.
10:32 Here's the thing about the mashed potatoes and gravy.
10:34 You have to get them together.
10:36 Having them separately seems very strange to me.
10:38 It is a classic US side dish,
10:41 especially with things like fried chicken.
10:43 Apparently when Colonel Sanders sold the business,
10:46 he compared the mashed potatoes in a Manhattan store
10:48 to wallpaper paste topped with sludge,
10:51 but that was back in the '70s,
10:53 so hopefully they've made some improvements.
10:54 I'd say that they have.
10:56 I mean, I know those mashed potatoes look so dry.
10:59 I understand you wanna put some sort of liquid on them.
11:03 I just not have any of it,
11:04 but for once, the potatoes don't look
11:07 like radioactively yellow, so that should be a good sign.
11:10 We happen to have some Italian-style sides here on the menu,
11:14 although I have no idea who called this Italian-style
11:17 because no one is really looking at it, do we?
11:19 We have cheese puff.
11:21 To me, this look like fried Babybel's.
11:24 That's the only cheese that I can think of that has this shape.
11:27 I think it's some kind of mozzarella.
11:32 No, OK.
11:33 Yeah, we have breads, just like funny, funny breads.
11:37 It looks very dry just by looking at it.
11:39 And then we have corn on the cob.
11:42 The US has off the cob.
11:45 This is, like, not Italian.
11:47 I've never seen an Italian person having corn on the cob.
11:50 In Italy, we also have four salads,
11:52 but we were not able to get them today.
11:54 Those are a grilled chicken, crispy chicken,
11:57 an original chicken, which we don't know how that differs
12:00 from the crispy one, and a veggie salad.
12:04 Right, Claudia?
12:05 Look at that.
12:06 Look at that mac and cheese.
12:07 It's American mac and cheese.
12:08 I mean, I don't really have thoughts about mac and cheese
12:12 because, to me, that's just not Italian.
12:15 We just sort of gave up on it and be like,
12:17 "You want it? It's yours."
12:19 Yeah, I get it.
12:19 It's like bright yellow.
12:21 But, Claudia, what you can tell is how good this tastes.
12:26 Other US sides you can get here.
12:32 Coleslaw.
12:33 Claudia was talking about corn on the cob.
12:34 We got corn off the cob, aka sweet corn.
12:38 I'm just thinking in terms of the American experience.
12:41 I don't want to be all, like, doing this at my desk.
12:44 I'm gonna get KFC for lunch.
12:45 You know, I just want to eat it and get going, so.
12:48 Another thing we have here, biscuits.
12:50 And I feel like you get these with these types of meals
12:52 'cause it's good at sopping up things,
12:53 like good at sopping up the gravy.
12:55 On their own, they're just so...
12:58 I want to see if I can eat one, like, without any liquid.
13:00 Like, how long it takes me to eat a dry one.
13:02 Ready?
13:03 This is how dry these are.
13:03 Ready?
13:04 Timing, go.
13:05 I'm only halfway through it.
13:13 [Squeaking]
13:15 [Squeaking]
13:18 Oh, that hurts your claw.
13:20 Time.
13:23 Yeah, not my favorite.
13:24 Another exclusive you can get here in the US
13:26 is a piece of a la carte chicken.
13:28 I feel like if you went into a KFC in Italy,
13:30 it was like, "I just want one drumstick."
13:32 They'd give it to you.
13:33 I don't think they'd really push back on it.
13:34 But our menu specifically has,
13:36 you can get an individual piece of chicken,
13:38 you get a drumstick, a thigh, or a breast.
13:40 You get chicken in this hand, famous bowl in this hand,
13:44 and walk right to the trash can.
13:46 Sauce talk, let's go.
13:47 Discorso delle salse.
13:50 In Italy, we have some exclusive sauces,
13:52 starting from the original.
13:54 I know you guys in the US have the KFC sauce.
13:57 Does this look similar?
14:00 I think if I were making sauces,
14:02 I would have just continued, you know,
14:04 trialing others after this one.
14:08 Yeah, it's like a mayo-y barbecue ketchup.
14:11 And then we have the smoky barbecue sauce.
14:14 And then we have the sweet imperial sauce.
14:17 That's a sweet and sour sauce.
14:20 Very lemony, but fresh.
14:23 Yeah, it's a nice one. I like this.
14:24 Then move on to the too hot for you, jelly-like.
14:30 It's not too hot for you, it's just too bad for me.
14:33 Moving on, we also have garlic sauce.
14:35 I know you guys associate Italy and Italian cuisine
14:38 with garlic.
14:39 Please stop doing that.
14:41 We don't really like it.
14:43 Then we have a fresh pepper one.
14:45 This one apparently contains cheese.
14:48 Tastes like not much, to be honest.
14:50 We also have creamy curry.
14:52 Finally, we couldn't get the only olive oil,
14:55 but we do have olive oil and white vinegar
14:57 and olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
15:01 I don't know, if you want to consider olive oil a sauce,
15:04 I have, like, mixed feeling about it
15:06 because that's definitely more a dressing.
15:08 Are you curious to see how chicken olive oil tastes like?
15:11 Let's try it.
15:12 Olive oil and balsamic vinegar, let's see.
15:17 Kind of brought it back to life a little bit
15:19 'cause it had cooled down.
15:21 I should do this more often, actually.
15:22 It tastes less fried for some reason
15:25 'cause I always associate olive oil with, like, grilled chicken.
15:28 So if you want to, you know, trick your mind
15:31 into thinking that you're eating grilled chicken
15:33 and not fried, maybe all you have to do
15:35 is pour some olive oil on it.
15:37 Honey mustard, honey barbecue.
15:42 Yeah, it's good.
15:42 Buffalo ranch.
15:43 If you are unaware, we have a sauce here
15:46 that usually is on wings called the buffalo sauce.
15:48 It's like a vinegary hot sauce
15:50 that is a little north of mild.
15:53 And the reason that buffalo ranch is a thing
15:56 is because when you eat buffalo wings and they're spicy,
15:59 you dip the wings in ranch, a second sauce to cool it down
16:04 so we as Americans are used to pairing buffalo sauce
16:07 on the wings with ranch dressing.
16:09 So they're like, "Let's just put it in one
16:11 'cause God forbid you have two sauces
16:13 but you wanna have just regular ranch."
16:15 Everyone on the internet, come at me, all right?
16:16 Ranch is just okay.
16:18 It all tastes the same.
16:19 Also, we have a hot sauce, a honey sauce.
16:21 - We have a lot of dessert options here in Italy.
16:24 Most of them are just ice cream.
16:26 We start from a plain ice cream cone.
16:29 Then you can get sandwiches.
16:31 They come plain, caramel flavor, Nutella, strawberry,
16:34 and chocolate.
16:35 And then we have these, the cream balls.
16:37 They come with Nutella flavor,
16:39 caramel, strawberry, and chocolate.
16:42 They're kind of similar to a sundae
16:44 but they have this crunchy bottom.
16:47 And apparently the caramel one
16:48 is supposed to have lots of layers.
16:50 This is the caramel one,
16:51 but I'm not sure we can judge the number of layers
16:54 'cause it has absolutely melted.
16:56 So we got a Nutella cream ball and a caramel one.
17:01 You know those like backpacks for cats?
17:03 I think it's like the same thing here.
17:06 Curious about the crunchy bottom.
17:08 Oh yeah, that is crunchy.
17:10 Actually reminds me a little bit of, you know,
17:15 the Algida, the Cornetto.
17:17 It may have another name in the US
17:20 and they have that crunchy bit at the bottom.
17:23 I mean, for us Italian, Nutella is like D-O-G chocolate.
17:26 Before chocolate always comes Nutella.
17:29 Just no questions asked.
17:31 It's always been like this.
17:32 And before cream as well.
17:34 The only exclusive dessert option we have in America
17:36 is this, a chocolate cake.
17:39 And it just occurred to me.
17:40 I've actually never had this cake.
17:42 Let's see how we did.
17:43 Oh, it's cooked beautifully.
17:49 It's got the right amount of bounce.
17:51 Isn't dried out.
17:52 And now we taste it.
17:53 Exquisite.
17:58 You keep baking like that,
17:59 you're gonna win this competition.
18:01 I wish it started off as Gordon Ramsay.
18:03 Every impression I do of anyone is just kind of that.
18:05 This is actually pretty good.
18:06 Yeah, they had those balls, those cream balls,
18:10 which is kind of a weird thing to call it.
18:12 No, I don't want any of those.
18:14 I get it, I like dessert just as much as the next guy,
18:16 but KFC, I wanna load up on fried chicken.
18:19 I wanna load up on mac and cheese.
18:21 I wanna load up on mashed potatoes.
18:23 I wanna load up on corn.
18:24 If only someone could put it all in one bowl for me.
18:27 Dessert, no.
18:27 I wanna eat fried chicken and tell them about the burst
18:29 and then I'm out, so.
18:31 The exclusive drinks in Italy are 7UP,
18:34 Lipton iced tea, and beer.
18:36 Found drinks you can get in the US.
18:38 We do have a bunch of exclusives.
18:39 I didn't get every single one.
18:40 Relax.
18:41 All right, starting down here.
18:43 Sweet tea.
18:44 Oh yeah, their lemonade.
18:46 It's really good, it's addictive.
18:47 And our lemonade is not carbonated.
18:49 It's still Mountain Dew.
18:51 It's fantastic.
18:52 And the reason I saved this one for last
18:54 is something you can get exclusively at the KFC in the US.
18:58 It is Mountain Dew Sweet Lightning.
19:01 It's so good.
19:02 You just know it's super sweet and super chemically,
19:04 but I love it.
19:05 Other drinks you can get at a US KFC that we did not get
19:08 was Starry and Blackberry lemonade,
19:11 which is currently unavailable.
19:12 Which country is getting a better deal on its KFC?
19:16 Let's compare a few menu items to find out.
19:19 Looking at the chicken sandwich combo meal,
19:21 which comes with a side and a medium drink,
19:23 this whole thing in Los Angeles would cost you $10.99.
19:27 Note, if you got each item individually added up,
19:30 it would be $12.77.
19:33 In Italy, you can also get a similar meal
19:36 that is called a zinger meal,
19:37 and that includes a sandwich, a side of choice,
19:40 and a drink.
19:41 This will cost you 10.40 euros
19:43 at the time of recording, that is equal to $11.52.
19:48 So that is 5% more expensive than the US meal.
19:52 If you order these items individually,
19:54 that will cost you 13.60 euros,
19:56 and that's about $15.06.
19:59 We also took a look at KFC's most expensive items.
20:02 In Italy, the most expensive item on the menu
20:05 is the 16-piece bucket.
20:07 This one costs 42.90 euros,
20:10 which is about $47.51.
20:14 This is supposed to feed four people
20:15 for $11.87 per person.
20:19 Most expensive item on the US menu
20:21 is the 16-piece chicken meal,
20:23 which includes 16 pieces of chicken,
20:25 original or crispy, four large size,
20:28 eight biscuits, and it costs you $52.99.
20:32 Now, this is meant to feed seven to eight people, sure,
20:35 and it costs roughly $6.62 per person,
20:39 which is 44% cheaper than Italy's per person cost.
20:43 - Italy KFC puts a lot of efforts
20:45 in these meals and special offers
20:48 so they can be better value for money.
20:50 Personally, in Italy, we're not really used to having meals.
20:54 We're very accustomed to just having a big main course.
20:58 That, to me, still feels a bit of an American thing,
21:01 but this is American food,
21:03 so I guess we're using their customs as well.
21:06 - If you're operating under the assumption
21:07 that this is for seven people, it's a pretty good deal,
21:10 but you and I both know this ain't for seven people.
21:14 We wanna see if there are any similarities
21:17 in the nutrition of KFC for both countries.
21:21 Now, this is our chicken sandwich,
21:22 and it has 650 calories.
21:25 If you'll notice, a lot of salt and fat in this sandwich,
21:28 over half your daily recommended intake.
21:30 - KFC Italy doesn't disclose their calories
21:33 on their website.
21:34 Actually, I think disclosing nutritional information,
21:36 like calories and everything,
21:38 I find that's quite an American thing.
21:40 That doesn't mean it's good or bad.
21:42 It's just like we don't really tend
21:44 to count calories in things.
21:46 - Every "Food Wars" we've done,
21:47 all the nutrition info, all the ingredients info,
21:50 in the US, you can get it, no problem.
21:52 Other countries, they don't provide it.
21:55 - Let's take a look at some ingredients
21:58 that KFC uses here in Italy.
22:00 Here are all the ingredients for the fries.
22:03 Nine is a lot.
22:04 Potatoes and frying oil, how about two?
22:08 Two ingredients, and a bit of salt, and one chemical.
22:11 Let's just use one, you know, if we have to.
22:14 - And here are all the ingredients of the fries in the US.
22:18 33 ingredients, that's 24 more
22:22 than the ingredients in Italy's fries.
22:23 That's nuts.
22:25 - Nine ingredients for this thing,
22:27 and it doesn't even hold its shape.
22:28 I would expect it to be like perfect.
22:31 - There's a lot of flavors and colorings that we use,
22:33 like paprika, turmeric, and annatto extract color,
22:36 which is funny we put that into the fries,
22:38 but when making this, KFC also uses bleached white flour,
22:41 which removes all the color,
22:42 so it seems kind of counterproductive.
22:43 Like, they're taking all the color out
22:45 with the bleached flour, right?
22:46 And then putting all those chemicals back in
22:48 to make them look like fries.
22:50 I don't know why we do that either.
22:51 - So let's have a look at the ingredients
22:53 for a chicken drumstick.
22:55 Italy's chicken uses a lot of flavor enhancers,
22:58 gums, and stabilizers.
23:00 For example, xanthan gum and guar gum.
23:03 They are used in meat products to keep the chicken tender
23:06 during the cooking process.
23:08 These gums are also used for chicken
23:10 that has a butter around it,
23:12 so that when it's fried, it absorbs less oil.
23:15 - As I said before, like, Italians don't really look
23:17 at, like, ingredients, like, nutritional value things,
23:21 and that is why I think there is a lot of work
23:23 done beforehand for us
23:25 in order to make the food as simple as possible,
23:27 so that if you do look at the ingredients,
23:29 you're not so shocked by it.
23:32 - And here are the ingredients of the chicken in the US.
23:35 Surprisingly small than Italy's list.
23:37 Although, the US has not noted what oil they use
23:39 for frying like Italy has,
23:41 so it would probably add a few more ingredients.
23:44 Now, KFC actually uses pressure frying
23:46 instead of deep frying like the other chains,
23:48 as it allows for faster cooking time
23:51 and always keeps the meat moister as less steam evaporates.
23:54 Let's take a closer look at a few ingredients
23:56 that some of us may not recognize.
23:58 Okay, first up, sodium phosphate.
24:01 Now, it helps stabilize the pH of the food
24:03 to keep them together,
24:04 but is also popular over-the-counter medicine
24:07 for bowel movements.
24:09 So don't be surprised if eating KFC
24:11 makes you rush to the bathroom.
24:14 Next up, monosodium glutamate.
24:17 Flavor enhancer commonly added to soups and processed meats.
24:21 Ah, we're putting these names on screen, right?
24:23 This word looks like this
24:26 and is probably pronounced dimethylpolysiloxane.
24:31 - Dimethylpolysiloxane.
24:34 - It's an anti-foaming agent derived from silicone,
24:37 usually added to oils, jams, and canned vegetables.
24:40 Disodium, dihydrogen, pyrophosphate?
24:43 This should be a contest.
24:44 Anyway, okay.
24:45 Prevents potatoes in the fries from turning brown
24:47 due to oxidization,
24:49 which is natural for most fruits and vegetables.
24:52 And just to add that all these ingredients
24:53 have been approved by health professionals
24:55 and there are no safety concerns
24:57 as long as they're eaten in lower quantities,
25:00 which in general is good advice for eating fast food.
25:03 Chickens in the US are free of added hormones and steroids.
25:06 However, KFC does not disclose much else
25:09 about how the chicken is prepared
25:11 or how much chicken is used per item.
25:13 As of 2019, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC,
25:17 stopped purchasing chicken raised using antibiotics.
25:20 So I guess they're heading in the right direction.
25:23 - KFC opened their first outlet in the '70s in Naples
25:29 for some reason and that didn't work out and they closed.
25:32 And then they came back to Italy in 2014.
25:35 The objective was to open 100 branches in four years.
25:39 They're not quite there yet.
25:41 As of 2022, the stats say that they've opened 68 branches
25:45 here in Italy.
25:46 Although it's been here since 2014,
25:48 it does still feel pretty new.
25:50 Like Italians are not so big on like chicken,
25:53 especially grilled chicken.
25:54 It does still feel like a very foreign idea.
25:58 - KFC is so popular in the US,
26:01 maybe the most popular chicken chain,
26:03 fried chicken chain at least.
26:04 I think it's like the fried chicken chain to beat in the US.
26:09 There's other chicken places that do chicken sandwiches,
26:12 chicken burgers, but as far as like chicken on the bone,
26:15 I don't know who's even competing with KFC.
26:17 I guess it's Popeyes.
26:19 Oh yeah, Popeyes.
26:20 No, I think KFC is way more popular than Popeyes.
26:23 I'd say it's better.
26:24 - If a KFC opens in a new town,
26:27 for example, in my own town, they opened last year,
26:29 there are huge lines.
26:30 There are a lot of people that want to try it
26:33 because it's really the idea of the American fast food chain
26:36 that's arriving.
26:36 So it's exciting, it's different.
26:38 Again, it's one of those things that I think you do try it
26:41 because of the hype.
26:42 - KFC adaptability is weird.
26:44 A couple of years ago,
26:45 there used to be a lot more stuff on the menu
26:47 and now it's a lot less.
26:48 So their adaptability is less about making stuff
26:51 that kind of caters to people's tastes
26:53 and more like no one's getting the wings,
26:56 let's just do the nuggets.
26:57 Let's take all this stuff off the menu.
26:59 Let's pare it down, go, go, go for efficiency
27:01 and probably 'cause it's cheaper to have less ingredients.
27:04 So they've adapted to, I don't know,
27:08 shifts in the market or people's interest in KFC
27:10 that really don't deviate too far dishwise
27:13 from like a fried chicken or a chicken in a bun.
27:17 - KFC is actually the chain that has made the least effort
27:21 to Italianize the menu.
27:23 I don't know, actually weirdly,
27:24 I think that for this, it works
27:26 because the idea of eating fried chicken is so foreign to us
27:30 that I don't know how you would,
27:31 how would you make that Italian?
27:33 You maybe put some like fried courgette flowers
27:36 with the chicken, I don't know.
27:38 You know, for me to even think about a similar Italian thing
27:42 that weirdly, I think this may be working the way it is.
27:46 So we'll see when they will reach 100 branches,
27:49 maybe sooner than we think.
27:51 - It make note of the fun Colonel Sanders doing a cartwheel.
27:54 Wasn't this guy like 70
27:56 when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken?
27:58 So no way he's doing it.
27:59 If he's doing that, it's against his will.
28:02 That's the moments before the ambulance was called.