KFC was founded as a restaurant by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1930.
Sanders began serving meals in the dining area of his service station in North Corbin, Kentucky. His early menu included fried chicken and other home-style dishes. The business developed before the modern KFC chain existed and was originally tied to Sanders’s roadside operation.
Sanders later refined a secret seasoning mixture and pressure-frying method, allowing chicken to be prepared more quickly while retaining moisture. In the 1950s, he began franchising the chicken recipe and operating model, which transformed the local restaurant into a national brand.
The year 1952 is often mentioned in KFC histories because Pete Harman opened the first franchised KFC restaurant that year in Salt Lake City. That date marks major franchising, not the beginning of Sanders’s original restaurant business.