Thin Slices of deep fried or baked potato, a widely eaten snack around the world. These chips nowadays come in various flavors.
Being a Chef you meet all sorts of customers visiting your restaurant. Some are exceptionally nice and some are cranky. Handling cranky customers is the challenging task of being a chef. Chef “George Crum” an Afro-American origin chef working at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA faced one such cranky customer. French Fries were a very popular and highly in demand in those times. On one evening of 24 August, 1853 Crum was serving customers and he encountered one Customer ‘Cornelius Vanderbilt’ a huge American business magnate. He ordered some French Fries, and when Chef Crum sent out his order, he complained that they were too thick, soggy, and not well salted. Crum made a fresh batch and sent out again but this time also his fries were rejected, stating the similar reasons. This kept happening a few times, every time Chef Crum would send out the batch the Customer would remain unsatisfied. This annoyed Chef Crum a lot, in order to deal with this customer Chef Crum cut the potatoes ultra-thin, making it impossible to be eaten with a fork, fried them, added extra salt and sent out the order hoping to annoy the cranky customer. Surprisingly the Customer loved this lot. Thus potato chips were invented. Another story says that Crum’s sister Katie, who also worked in the kitchen with him. one day a slice of potato fell in the fryer, when Crum tasted this he loved it, and he discovered the chips. The Chips were originally called “Saratoga Chips” and they are today largest consumed snack in the world. Even though Chef Crum gets the credit the oldest mention of the Chips is found in English cook William Kitchener’s book The Cook’s Oracle, first published in 1817, which was a bestseller in the United Kingdom. The recipe is called “Potatoes fried in Slices or Shavings” and reads “peel large potatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them in shavings round and round, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping”. Take care that your fat and frying pan are quite clean; put it it on a quick fire, watch it and as soon as the lard boils and is still , put in the slices of potatoes and keep moving them till they are crisp ; take them up and lay them to drain on a sieve; send them up with very little salt sprinkled on them.”
The Chips become flavorful
Initially until 1950s the potato chips were only salted and had no flavors to it. They were sold in sealed paper packets. It was until Joe “Spud” Murphy the owner of Tayto Crisps, an Irish potato chips manufacturing company pioneered a technology to add seasoning directly to the chip. The world’s first seasoned potato chips were Cheese & Onion and Salt ‘n’ Vinegar both of them became an overnight sensation. Later the technology became popular through out Europe and USA , giving us variety of flavored potato chips today. The potato chips have distinct flavor in various part of the world.
