‘The biggest misconception is that it was a salt made from chicken’
Chicken salt is one of the most popular seasonings for hot takeaway chips in the world, but its creator has revealed he “never made any real money out of it”.
South Australian wholesaler Peter Brinkworth and his wife owned a retail business in the 70s and wanted to create something new to season their roast chickens with.
“It was designed to put on roast chickens when you were cooking them,” Peter told Today Extra.
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“The biggest misconception is that it was a salt made from chicken.”
And while Colonel Sanders may be holding the recipe for his 11 herbs and spices close to his chest, Peter is happy for others to try and replicate his original iconic recipe.
“There’s no secret recipe – everyone has their own idea of it and a lot of people in the business make up their own chicken salt,” he said.
“Some is good, some is bad, but you can just read what is in it on the label.”
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Peter and his wife distributed frozen food to fish and chip and takeaway chicken shops and when they realised how popular the topping was when sprinkled on their hot chips, it became one of their biggest sellers.
“We sold the business in ’79 to the Matani family, they woke up to the fact that it could be a pretty successful thing and we never made any real money out of it,” Peter revealed.
“It was just something we did on the side.”
Peter and his wife’s story has been turned into a new film titled Salt of the Earth, by director Jacob Richardson which will debut at the Adelaide Film Festival.
For more information click here.
Watch the full interview with Peter and Jacob above
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