![]() No one is certain about exactly how the potato chip was invented some claim it was Crum’s sister, working at the same restaurant. He became famous for his unique specialties with venison and wild game, and he was encouraged to continue experimenting in the kitchen. ![]() During this time, his reputation as a cook earned him a position at Moon’s Lake House Restaurant on Saratoga Lake, where wealthy New England patrons built their summer camps. Taking their perception of the unaltered sound as the benchmark, they found that when the crunchy sound was amplified, testers considered the chips to taste fresher and crispier, while muting the crunch resulted in the same chips being rated as less crispy and stale.There are a few stories about the invention of the potato chip, but the most reliable ones all center around George Crum, a famous Black chef in the 19th century who served the wealthiest Americans and eventually opened his own wildly successful restaurant.īorn George Speck around the year 1824 to a Native-American mother and African-American father, he worked as a hunter and guide in upper New York state. In different test runs, using the exact same chips, the sound of the crunch was processed in different ways and passed back to the testers via the earphones. Now flavour is one thing, but did you know that the crunch produced when we bite into a chip, also plays a significant role in our perception of the snack? According to a New York Times article, a team of psychologists at Oxford University conducted an experiment where they equipped test subjects with sound-blocking headphones, and made them bite into potato chips in front of a microphone. Frito-Lay, for example, have reportedly invested more than $400 million in new product development, including techniques to reduce the salt content in Lay’s potato chips without compromising taste. In response to these issues, potato chips companies are investing huge amounts in research and development of new, more health-conscious products. They have been identified as one of the leading contributors to long-term weight gain, as well as being linked to heart disease. Of course, being deep-fried and doused in salt, chips aren’t exactly a health snack. That’s more than a third of the total savoury snack market for the year. The rest, as they say, is history – chips (or crisps, as the Brits like to call them) have taken over the world, with the global chip market in 2005 generating total revenues of more than US$16 billion. ![]() In 1938, Herman Lay started producing Lay’s Potato Chips, the first successful national brand in the US. Crispy, crunchy potato chips – not the healthiest snack around, but we cannot seem to get enough of them.ĭespite the popularity of Crum’s invention, no-one recognised it’s potential as a mass-produced, off-the-shelf snack – it remained a restaurant delicacy until 1926, when Mrs Scudder began mass-producing potato chips packaged in wax paper bags. ![]() Much to his amazement, Vanderbilt loved the the crispy chips, so much so that the restaurant decided to add them as a regular menu item, under the name ‘Saratoga Chips’.Ī few years later, in 1860, chef Crum opened his own restaurant, and he took pride in serving his ‘signature dish’, placing potato chips in baskets on every table. George Crum, the chef at the Moon Lake House, wasn’t impressed by what he considered to be an overly fussy customer, so he went overboard to address his concerns – he sliced the fries paper-thin, fried them to a crisp and seasoned them with a generous helping of salt. He ordered french fries, but found the fries he received too thick, bland and soggy, so he sent them back to the kitchen. On the above date, Railroad magnate Commadore Cornelius Vanderbilt went dining at the Moon Lake House, a restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York. However, most references I could find stated the date as 24 August 1853, so here goes. I should start today’s post with a bit of a disclaimer – while this tale is told as the truth, the exact date details are difficult to confirm. ![]()
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