If you can’t eat just one, then you have George Crum to thank for it
The world has a dissatisfied customer to thank for the potato chip.
In 1853, George Crum (also known as George Crum Speck), the progeny of an African-American father and a Native-American mother, was working at the Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, NY, when a patron came in and ordered French fries with his meal.
The patron rejected the first two orders of fries as too thick, even though Crum had made the second batch thinner than the first. Annoyed, and hoping to get under the skin of the picky patron, Crum carefully sliced a new batch of “fries” wafer thin, cooked them until they were hard and crunchy and sent them out to the unhappy customer.
The patron loved the crisps, and the potato chip, known then as the Saratoga Chip, was conceived.
Crum continued to make the chips at Moon Lake Lodge until 1860 when he opened his own restaurant in Saratoga Lake, where he was born. A basket of chips was the appetizer before each meal his restaurant served, much like bread is served at many restaurants today.
Crum never attempted to seek a patent for the potato chip, and there are those who strenuously disagree that Crum was the first person to make potato chips. They say that recipes for potato chips existed in cookbooks dating back…
