What would the world be like without, one of our most beloved snacks …
the incredibly edible potato chip?
Thanks to the creator, African American George Crum, we will never have to know. Born George Speck in 1822, in Saratoga Lake, New York, Crum was the son of a Native-American mother and an African- American father. Crum worked as a trapper and a mountain guide in the Adirondacks before he realized his talents with food.
As the story goes, in the summer of 1853, Crum was working as a chef at the Moon Lake Lodge, an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs. It seems a guest ordered the restaurant’s popular French-fried potatoes, but complaining that they were too thick, sent them back to the kitchen. In response, a disgruntled Crum grabbed a few potatoes and sliced them spitefully thin, so thin that the guest would not be able to eat them with a fork. Fried in oil and salted, the crispy potato slices were sent out. As fate would have it, the guest loved them! So it was, Crum had stumbled upon what would become America’s favorite snack.
In 1860 George Crum opened his own restaurant on Malta Avenue in Saratoga Lake, where he featured his sought after potato chips in baskets on each table. The restaurant successfully operated for 30 years. Unfortunately Crum never patented his invention, leaving others to profit the most from his ideal. In 1895 William Tappendon was the first to mass-market potato chips, selling them to local grocery stores. Laura Scudder’s idea to put potato chips in wax paper bags in 1926 allowed them to be sold in smaller quantities.
In 1932, Herman Lay of Nashville, Tennessee founded Lay’s Potato Chips. First produced in a factory in Atlanta, Georgia and peddled out of the back of his car, Lay’s eventually became the first successful national brand. Crum’s discovery went on to generate over $6 billion dollars in sales every year. Crum died at the age of 92. His fame as a successful inventor and businessman is a proud legacy in African-American history.
NOTE: This article was originally published in the April/May Issue of Opus Cultural LIfestyle Magazine.
