Today, potato chips are generally considered to be junk food. But they once occupied a niche on the menus of elegant restaurants. It all started in the 1700s, when Thomas Jefferson brought a recipe for French fries to America from France. French fries came to be regarded as serious food. By the mid-1800s, they could be found among the side dishes on restaurant menus. Then, in 1853, the demands of an irascible diner and a chef’s annoyance ushered in a new epoch in eating.
George Crum, a Native American, worked as a chef at Moon Lake Lodge, a stylish restaurant at a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. One evening, a customer complained that Crum’s usual French fries were too thick. Crum prepared a new batch, this time sliced more thinly. But the arrogant diner sent the second batch back, too.
Crum was upset. He recognized that it was his job to gratify the wishes of the customer, but he was frustrated. He decided to slice a third batch of potatoes wafer-thin. The slices were so thin, in fact, that after they were fried, they could not be jabbed with a fork.
To Crum’s surprise, the finicky customer pronounced the crisp, crunchy, thin potatoes delicious! Other diners begged to try Crum’s new "chips." Soon, George Crum opened his own restaurant. The specialty of the house was, of course, potato chips.
Although the chips soon became popular restaurant fare, they did not become a common snack until much later. It was tedious work to peel and cut potatoes by hand—the only option in George Crum’s day. But in the 1920s, the mechanical potato peeler was invented, which made the widespread commercial manufacture of potato chips possible.