Who invented Potato chip?

George Crum, Herman Lay, 1853

When it comes to popular snacks, the potato chip or ‘crisp, must be up there with the leaders, Thomas Jefferson, later president of the USA, came to enjoy the French style while on duty as ambassador there in the late 18^th century. He bought the recipe home and served the thick cut fried potato slices (not today’s meaning of ‘French fries’) to his guests.

History of Potato chips:

In 1853 Native American chef George Crum had French fried potatoes on the menu at the Sun Moon restaurant at the expensive Saratoga Springs resort in upstate New York. But one diner, reputedly the millionaire banker and New York social icon Cornelius Vanderbilt, did not care for them. Too thick, he declared, and sent them back. Crum prepared a second, thinner serving but the guest was still not satisfied Irate, Crum cut them so fine they went cristp when fried, too thin and hard to be speared with a fork. He expected the diners to be angry, but they were delighted. Proclaiming the browned, paper-thin tidbits delicious, they demanded more.

Crum was onto a winner. He made his invention a speciality of the house, calling them ‘potato crunches’. He was soon packaging them for sale as Saratoga Chips.

Some distance remained to be covered before this New England dinner-time delicacy could be counted a global gastronomic phenomenon. There key events all occurred in the 1920s: the invention of machines to peel and slice the potatoes, previously done laboriously by hand; the first use of waxed paper bags to keep the crisps crisp (plastic film not het being available); and the intervention of Herman Lay. A travelling salesman from the north, he peddled potato chips to storekeepers throughout the American south from the boot of his car. He built a business that linked his name indelibly with the salty snacks, especially once he merged his company with Firto, a Dallas based firm that made corn chips. Frito-Lay is the largest maker of potato chips in the USA and therefore on the planet.