TWISTED HERO: George Crum from 1853

My hero is George Crum.  He is the guy who invented potato chips on August 24th 1853.  I know, its not really a healthy thing but like Pinch I am a big fan of potatoes and there is nothing like sitting back and opening a bag of your favorite potato chips or making some homemade batch of fresh ones.

BIRTH OF POTATO CHIPS: Potato Chips date back to 1853. In the summer of 1853, Native American George Crum was employed as a chef at an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. One dinner guest found Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum decided to rile the guest by producing fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork. The plan backfired. The guest was ecstatic over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, and other diners began requesting Crum's potato chips".  

It wasn’t until the early 20th century that potato chips expanded from restaurant food and started selling in bags.

TWISTED TIMELINE:

1853 George Crum invents the Saratoga Chip, a thin French fry, now known as the potato chip
1860 Crum opened his own restaurant, featuring potato chips in a basket placed on every table..
1895 William Tappendon of Cleveland, Ohio begins selling potato chips as a food in grocery stores
1921 Wise Delicatessen Company, Berwick, Pennsylvania
1921 Utz - Hanover, Pennsylvania. started as the Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips
1932 Lay's - founded by Herman Lay of Nashville, Tennessee

TWISTED FACTS:

1.  Americans today consume more potato chips than any other people in the world.

2.  As a world food, potatoes are second in human consumption only to rice. 

3.  The potato chip did not leave the United States as a food item until 1921 when they were introduced in England.  Since the words chips was already in use for what we in this country call french fries, the word crisps was used.

4.  The potato used for making chips is not the same brand of potato you get at the super market. Special varieties are grown specifically for chips. They are called “chipping” potatoes and have to be specially ordered.

5.  Potato chips sales are over $16.5B (2005) a year worldwide. They tally up about one third of all savory snacks.

So, Let plan a giant Potato Chip party on Wednesday August 24th 2011 and celebrate the most popular snack in the world.

Excerpts courtesy of:

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/potatochips.htm & http://www.fooducate.com/