Photo : Moses Robinson ( Getty Images )

It’s not easy doing what Sam Edelman does. The franchise owner and cook at a KFC in the middle of Australia’s Northern Territory, Edelman and his team bread and cook each daily delivery of fresh chickens, and has to cater to a clientele that typically lives hundreds of miles away from the location. (There are also fewer than 250,000 residents in the entire region.) So tell us: Why shouldn’t Edelman push for a Michelin star?


Metro spoke with Edelman, who was inspired by the Netflix series Street Food to publicly push for Michelin recognition of his KFC franchise. The Alice Springs restaurant has been owned by Edelman for the last seven years; he’s worked there for nine. By Edelman’s measure, the Michelin requirements for a restaurant are met by his establishment, whether it’s “a very good restaurant in its category” for one star, “excellent cooking worth a detour” for two, or “exceptional cuisine worth a special journey” for the coveted three stars:

I’ve had customers who have come from 1300km away. We have done a catering order for a gold mine that was in Western Australia – we’re in the Northern Territory. It was [an] AUS $1000 order. They ordered a private hire car to collect the order and take it straight to the airport. They chucked it on the plane and flew it to the gold mine. The closest town is 600km from us, and they will buy around 6 buckets and buy for the neighbourhood. It’s good food accessible to everyone.


The only hitch in his plan comes in when you remember that Michelin doesn’t currently publish an Australian dining guide. But in the spirit of the guide and its discerning standards, we strongly feel that a remote, hard-hustling KFC is as good a place as any to start. The Colonel awaits his laurels.