KFC’s arrival at Italian ski slopes angers food and mountain purists

Fast-food outlets at two prestigious Dolomites resorts are Italy’s first, with legal action threatened

Skiers on the slopes of two of Italy’s most prestigious resorts will be able to dine from buckets of fried chicken between runs this winter as the US fast-food chain KFC prepares to open outlets, infuriating mountain and food purists while prompting a prominent businessman to threaten legal action.

KFC will open its first high-altitude restaurants on the slopes of Cortina d’Ampezzo and Madonna di Campiglio, in the Dolomites, on 5 December, an initiative the company said was aimed at “surprising people” and “reaching places” where nobody would expect to find it.

The move marks a debut for any fast-food outlet on an Italian ski slope, bringing a menu replete with KFC’s most popular products, from spicy wings and burgers to traditional buckets of fried chicken.

The plans appear to have taken people by surprise, not least Alberico Zardini, a majority shareholder in Faloria Spa, the company that manages the infrastructure on Mount Faloria in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where there is to be a KFC at 2,123 metres.

“The mere idea is disgraceful,” Zardini told Il Messaggero. “It’s absurd and shameful to imagine a fast-food joint in the most beautiful spot in Cortina. Do the people of Cortina not realise what we’re risking here?”

Zardini said he had written to the bosses of Faloria warning that he would pursue legal action unless they put the brakes on KFC’s mountain ambitions.

He said it was “a mad decision”, especially because the outlet would be selling fried chicken inside the Faloria mountain club, where a luxury lodge is due to open on an upper floor. “I am 100% against it and will not just sit back and watch,” he said.

The KFC in Madonna di Campiglio, in south-western Trentino on the opposite side of the Dolomites, will be at 1,700 metres on Piana di Nambino, next door to a swish après-ski club.

The two outlets came under the fast food chain’s “quick service restaurants” product range and were the company’s way of targeting a broader market beyond its loyal Gen Z customers, “from young families to mountain lovers”, said Marzia Farè, the chief marketing officer for KFC Italia.

“We strongly wanted this project because it perfectly represents the way we imagine the evolution of KFC: continuing to surprise, reaching places where no one would expect to find us, and doing so without giving up what makes us unique,” she told brandnews.it.

Needless to say, with the cost of ski passes in Italy increasing each year, the outlets will appeal to those looking for cheap food in otherwise extremely pricey resorts.

But Oscar Farinetti, the founder of Eataly, Italy’s high-end food-store chain, has said the brand “doesn’t belong here at all” – while pointing the blame at customers. “We Italian consumers should be a tad more cultured,” he told Il Sole 24 Ore. “We need to acknowledge our assets – our cuisine made of few ingredients and excellent products. There is a lack of studying one’s own roots – we’re eating fried chicken instead of a nice slice of salami with a glass of fresh wine.”

Luigi Casanova from Mountain Wilderness, an NGO that works to protect mountain environments, told Corriere della Sera: “The era of polenta and luganega sausage is over,” while Paola Demagri, from Trentino’s provincial council, spoke about mountain identity being “sold out to Kentucky chicken”.

Others were more measured in their response. Cristian Ferrari, the president of Società Alpinisti Tridentini, the oldest mountain association in the Trentino area, said: “We have nothing against fried chicken, but are we sure this is the issue we should be most worried about?”