#Prince’s hot chicken professional
“And they kept asking us to come back.” But Martin - a high school psychology teacher and head track coach - had a busy professional life and a close-knit family. “We ran out of chicken, as a matter of fact,” recalls Martin. Martin set up the Poppy Festival stand as a one-time idea, but the organizers were smitten. He was a schoolteacher and track coach who was not trying to be a businessman. We just jumped right in and started helping. “People would wrap a white slice of bread around the wing. “It was a little rinky-dink setup, and it was amazing that he could pump out all that chicken,” says Kim. Martin was busy deep-frying batch after batch of the Prince family’s signature dish, Nashville hot chicken. Right there in the middle of the festival was Kim’s father hovering over a fryer in a small easy-up tent, knee-deep in a familiar process. California’s magnificent state flower is always a draw, but the Prince sisters - who were home from college on a visit - came to see what their father, Martin, was up to.Īs the family parked the car and wandered through rows of food and retailers, they caught the scent of something familiar. The springtime event usually coincides with the flower’s annual bloom and draws visitors from around the world just to catch a glimpse of hills covered in a sea of orange and yellow flowers. I n 1992, Kim Prince and her twin, Kelly, rode with their mother, Louise Prince, to Lancaster’s second-ever California Poppy Festival.