You might not be at all surprised to learn that George Crum himself also may have had nothing to do with the potato chip, at least in terms of its origin. It could have been your great grandfather or mine.” There is no documentation to substantiate this. “I am annoyed at Mary Lou Whitney when she claims Commodore Vanderbilt was the man who refused to accept the fried potatoes. Later, Saratoga Springs historian Violet Dunn would claim that there was no evidence whatsoever that Vanderbilt was the customer, writing in a letter to the Snack Food Association, It was this advertising campaign that firmly established in popular folklore how the potato chip was invented and who invented it. Vanderbilt loved them and the potato chip was born.” “The chef, to spite Vanderbilt, sliced his potatoes very thin, fried them to a crisp and salted them heavily. The Snack Food Association, in partnership with Mary Lou Whitney, the wife of the great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, published an account (essentially as an advertisement) that mostly leaves Crum out of the origin story, partially crediting Vanderbilt with the invention. This part of the story was, at the very least, appropriated by the Snack Food Association in the late 1970s. The more famed tale is that the customer was shipping and railroad mogul, Cornelius Vanderbilt. The less interesting account was that it was simply a regular (albeit whiny) farmer, hungry from a long day out in the fields. First off, assuming the story is true, there is the question of who this customer actually was. It became known as the “Saratoga Chip.” The potato chip was born.Īs one could imagine, there are several versions of this story and all are disputed. When served the item, the customer took a bite…and then another…and then another, before proclaiming that the fried slices of potatoes were delicious. So, once again, the customer told Crum to try again.Ĭrum, none too pleased that someone would insult his cooking, cut the potatoes paper-thin, dumped them in a vat of oil, let them cook so long that they became hard and crispy, and then salted them heavily, thinking that these “fried potatoes” would now be inedible. Crum did his best to make them thinner, yet when the discerning patron got his second order, again he complained that the thickness of the potatoes weren’t to his liking. Crum whipped up a batch and served it to the customer, who complained that the potatoes were cut much too thick. A customer came in and ordered Moon’s Fried Potatoes, the well-known house specialty. The story goes that it was about dinner time during Moon’s second summer season on the Lake. But here’s where, perhaps, elements of legend creep in. Up to this point, based on the evidence at hand, we can be fairly certain all of this is true. So good, in fact, he was hired by Cary Moon to work at his restaurant. After an earlier career as a trapper and hunting guide, he made his way to Saratoga Springs, where he began cooking and, by all accounts, seemed to get pretty good at it. When George was a young man, he adopted his father’s horse racing name – Crum.
George crumb potato chips free#
George was born George Speck, his mother was Native American and his father was a free African-American making a living as a horse jockey. At the restaurant, two people shared the cooking responsibilities, Catherine “Aunt Kate” Weeks and her brother (or brother-in-law, depending on who’s telling the story), George Crum. Vacationers and wealthy summer home owners visited the restaurant often. Moon’s Lake House, owned by Cary Moon, was one of the finest of those restaurants. Resorts, inns, restaurants, and spas had begun to crop up along the shores of Saratoga Lake.
Known for its mineral springs and their supposed rejuvenation properties, Saratoga Springs had just started becoming a tourist destination with help of the railroad that cut through the town. It was 1853, eight years before the beginning of the Civil War. The prevailing story of the origin of the potato chip starts in Saratoga Springs, New York, a historically affluent and resort community.
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