The Popular KFC Side Colonel Sanders Actually Hated

Most fast food companies' spokespeople profess unwavering appreciation for their brand's fare as part of their duties. It is unlikely that you'd ever catch Raising Cane's CEO Todd Graves grumbling about his company's chicken fingers, or (the wearisome) Jack concurring with customers that onion rings are the worst thing on the Jack in the Box menu. But Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder and longtime face of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), spared no quarter in criticizing his restaurant chain's food if he felt it didn't live up to his exacting standards. One menu item in particular earned his finger-licking ire: KFC's gravy.

Sanders — who was not a military colonel (the honorific is given to individuals by Kentucky's governor for philanthropic efforts and other contributions) — first sold KFC to a group of investors, including future Kentucky governor John Y. Brown, in 1964. After expanding the company's outreach to more than 3,000 franchises, Brown sold it to food and beverage distributor Heublein in 1971. Sanders remained on board as KFC's spokesperson, but may have interpreted the "speaking" part of that role as free rein to pop off about a perceived drop in quality in his former company's food. In a 1978 interview with the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, Sanders didn't hold back.

"My God, that gravy is horrible," he said (via Justia). "They buy tap water for 15 to 20 cents [per] 1,000 gallons and then they mix it with flour and starch and end up with pure wallpaper paste. And I know wallpaper paste, by God, because I've seen my mother make it." Not satisfied with simply knocking the gravy, Sanders then kicked it while it was down: "There's no nutrition in it and they ought not to be allowed to sell it." Unamused, the KFC outlet in Bowling Green, Kentucky, promptly sued the Colonel and the Courier-Journal for libel and defamation.

It's worth noting that Colonel Sanders' hot take on KFC's gravy does echo some customers' sentiments about the side. As a poster on the r/kfc subreddit noted, "I just don't understand what people see in it." (Redditors also picked KFC as the worst chicken chain restaurant, but that's a subject for another time.) However, others are extremely fond of the gravy; when combined with mashed potatoes, it landed at No. 2 on our ranked list of KFC sides, and the gravy itself is apparently a staple of Christmas dinners in the United Kingdom.

The Colonel's opinion was also taken with a grain of salt by the company itself. Two years before the lawsuit, Hueblin responded to a New York Times article that featured more of Sanders' disparaging comments about KFC. "We're very grateful to have the colonel around to keep us on our toes, but he is a purist and his standards were all right when he was operating just a few stores," said Heublein's then-public affairs director, Anthony Tortorici, later adding, "We need wider parameters to adapt to the real‐life world." 

As for the '78 lawsuit, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously decided against it, noting that nothing in the Colonel's statements to the Courier-Journal was specifically focused on the Bowling Green KFC. The Colonel continued as the face of KFC until his death in 1980, and remains in that role today via animated versions and celebrity portrayals — none of whom, to date, have compared the company's gravy to wallpaper paste.