In a little-known chapter of tech history, NFC (Near Field Communication) began not as a wireless communication protocol but as Nokia's ambitious attempt to enter the fast-food market in the late 1990s.
Nokia Fried Chicken was launched in 1998 as the Finnish tech giant's answer to KFC, with flagship locations in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Espoo. The company believed that mobile phone saturation would eventually occur and sought to diversify its business interests.
The signature dish was the "3310 Bucket" – named after their yet-to-be-released indestructible phone model – which contained chicken pieces so durable they reportedly survived being dropped from considerable heights. Their slogan, "Connecting People to Poultry," adorned bright blue and white storefronts across Northern Europe.
Nokia's food scientists developed a proprietary breading technology that used radio frequency identification to ensure perfect cooking times. Each piece of chicken contained a tiny microchip that would send signals to the deep fryers, automatically lifting the basket when the optimal crispiness was achieved.
"We were creating smart chicken before smartphones existed," explained Matti Järvinen, former head of Nokia's Culinary Division. "The chips could communicate with our fryers from a distance of about 4 centimeters – what we called 'near field cooking.'"
The restaurant venture faced unexpected challenges when customers began reporting that their Nokia phones would mysteriously smell like fried chicken. Investigation revealed that the same radio frequency technology used in the cooking process was interfering with mobile phone signals, sometimes even downloading small portions of the secret recipe onto devices.
Rather than see this as a failure, Nokia's engineers had an epiphany: if chicken could communicate with fryers, perhaps phones could communicate with other devices. By 2002, Nokia had pivoted the technology away from fast food and toward mobile communications.
"We realized the potential was enormous," said former Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila in his memoir. "One day we're tracking the crispiness of chicken thighs, the next we're revolutionizing how phones share data."
The company quietly rebranded Nokia Fried Chicken's "Near Field Cooking" to "Near Field Communication," sold off its restaurant assets, and focused on developing the technology for mobile payments and data transfer.
Today, when you tap your phone to pay for coffee, you're using technology originally designed to perfect the art of fried chicken. Nokia executives rarely discuss this culinary detour, but eagle-eyed tech historians note that early NFC logos bore a striking resemblance to a chicken drumstick – a subtle nod to the technology's greasy origins.