Patton Oswalt’s Time Magazine Connection

Patton Oswalt’s infamous KFC Famous Bowl routine inspired a story on KFC parent company Yum Brands in Time magazine. The article, about Yum opening up an American-style Chinese food chain in China, contains this classic quote:

Why shouldn’t Yum Brands–the Louisville, Ky.-based company that owns KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and more–sell dumplings in a fast-growing market where Chinese food is just called food? Heck, while they’re at it, why not sell tacos in Mexico? Yum is doing both, with the test-marketing of East Dawning in Shanghai and the opening of a Taco Bell in Monterrey last fall. Yum’s iconoclastic CEO, David Novak, likens it to how Ray Kroc of McDonald’s brought hamburgers to America. “I asked, What’s the hamburger in China?” he says. “Obviously, it’s Chinese food.” Except Kroc was an American selling American food to Americans. Is this brilliant, or is Novak half-Kroc-ed?

But the story got started when Time reporter Lisa Takeuchi Cullen interviewed Novak while he was on the promotional trail for his autobiography. Cullen’s interest in the “Famous Bowl” was the deciding factor in her decision to interview him… and then they ended up talking international business.

Aww.

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