The all-purpose potato chip is America's most popular snack, and its unique flavor has created a world gastronomic miracle.
However, the true history of potato chips is this. In 1853, a frustrated chef invented this food to satisfy picky customers.
George Crumb was an African-American with Mohawk ancestry and a hobby of hunting.
He was born in Saratoga, New York, in 1822, but some say he came from the Adirondacks.
As a young man, he taught hunting and trapping animals, and worked at the Lakeside Hotel Restaurant in Saratoga Springs with his sister, Katherine Weeks. A chef, he learned good cooking skills there and was particularly brave in trying new dishes.
Since the railway runs through the town, the lakeside hotel has many customers and business is booming.
George Crumb and his sister
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According to widely circulated accounts
George. Crum once made fried potatoes for a very picky customer named Cornelius Vanderbilt, a wealthy railroad tycoon and a frequent guest at the Lakeside Hotel.
(In the "Gilded Age" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Vanderbilt was undoubtedly one of the representatives of billionaires.
He was a famous shipping, railroad, and financial Tycoon, the third richest man in American history, with a net worth far greater than Bill Gates, and the prototype of the computer game "Railroad Tycoon"
)
Crum makes one every time. Vanderbilt was very dissatisfied with the fried potatoes, always saying that the potatoes were cut too thick, much to Crum's dismay.
When the annoyed cook made the last batch of fried potatoes, he cut the potatoes extremely finely, fried them crispy and sprinkled them with a lot of salt.
Unexpectedly, the tycoon was very satisfied with this unprecedented taste.
Restaurant owner Cary Moon immediately began promoting the new product.
At first, potato chips were packaged in cone-shaped paper, and later they were packaged in boxes.
Saratoga's Lakeside Hotel Restaurant
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Another version of the story is that Crum's sister was in He accidentally invented the potato chips while working together.
While she was chopping potatoes, a very thin piece fell into the frying pan and was fried to a crisp.
The potato chips she invented were called "Saratoga chips". To commemorate her contribution, when she died at the age of 102 in 1924, people wrote in her obituary This story.
(In fact, before the invention of potato chips, there was a British cookbook in 1822 that recorded a similar recipe. This dish is called "Potato Chips and Potato Crumbs", but the potato chips here are 0.6 cm thick. ).
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Later, Crum opened his own restaurant in Saratoga, and potato chips became a common dish on the table.
At the time, his "Saratoga Potato Chips" were relatively expensive.
According to rumors, Crum's restaurant has strict rules, does not give privileges to the rich, and everyone eats equally.
Guests had to wait, and Vanderbilt himself was said to have waited for an hour and a half.
Although Crum set the standard for potato chips, he never applied for a patent.
Entrepreneurs such as Laura Scudder and Herman Ray invented wax paper packaging for potato chips, making the snack popular in 1932.
Although the story of the invention of potato chips has been difficult to verify and many areas are still in doubt, George Crum and his sister Catherine Weeks were the main contributors to this legendary food.