By Tamara Shiloh

Cornelius Vanderbilt, a steamship owner, sat in the dining room of Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a high-end restaurant that catered to wealthy Manhattan families. It was the summer of 1853 and working in the kitchen was George Crum (1824–1914), the establishment’s cook.

The meal being prepared was likely woodcock or partridge from the restaurant’s grounds, served with French fries. But when the dish was served, Vanderbilt refused it, arguing that “the French fries are too thick.”

This angered Crum so much so that he would prepare the potatoes again, but this time cut into slices as thin as he could make them. He dipped them in the hot oil, frying them to a crisp. He placed the browned and brittle rounds on the plate before sending it to the table.

To Crum’s surprise, Vanderbilt was “thrilled with the novel snack.” Crum’s dish soon became a regular part of the Moon’s Lake House menu. Crum was onto something and wanted more.

By 1860, Crum opened his own restaurant: Crum’s Place. There, millionaires like Vanderbilt stood in line for hours for what Crum dubbed Saratoga Chips.

During his youth, Crum, born George Speck in Saratoga Lake, N.Y., worked as a guide in the Adirondack Mountains and as an Indian trader. Over time, he began to realize his passion for cooking and focused on working as a chef. The restaurant and the success of his snack dish were a part of his dream; he had created a luxury.

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Unfortunately, he never patented Saratoga Chips, and never distributed them outside of New England. This opened the door for others to claim to have been the snack’s original inventor, fueling the debate regarding that person’s true identity.

In 1895, William Tappendon began to make the first attempt to place potato chips on local grocery store shelves. In 1921, the Hanover Home Potato Chip Company was established. Soon grocers in numerous areas around the United States were selling chips in bulk. Laura Scudder began putting potato chips into wax paper bags in 1926, giving birth to the bag-of-chips concept.

Herman Lay founded Lay’s in 1932 in Nashville, Tenn., which led to phenomenal success not only for him, but also other potato-chip makers.

Historian Dave Mitchell researched those who took credit for the creation of the potato chip, including Vanderbilt, both of the Moons, Crum’s sister Kate Wicks, the restaurant’s manager Hiram Thomas, and various Lake House cooks.

His research included the possibility that the potato chip was not invented in Saratoga at all, though it certainly earned its popularity there. The potato chip’s true origin, Mitchell concluded, “will probably never be known.”

Crum closed his restaurant in 1890 and died in 1914 at the age of 90. More than 150 years later his delicacy has gone on to even greater fame. Today, Americans alone consume about 1.5 billion pounds of potato chips every year.

Kids can learn more about George Crum’s story in Anne Renaud’s fictional picture book “Mr. Crum’s Potato Predicament.”

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