Potato Chips - Born in the U.S.A.?

Do you know that the potato has a single origin in the area of southern Peru, however, over 99% of all cultivated potatoes worldwide are descendants of a subspecies indigenous to south-central Chile?

Do you know that the potato was only fed to pigs when white settlers in New England were introduced to the potato as a food by the American Indians, now America consumes more potatoes (especially as chips and fries) than any other country in the world?

Do you know that the potato chip was first invented in the Unites States?

In 1853, there was the choicest restaurant named Moon's Lake House in Saratoga, New York. There was a chef at Moon's named George Speck, who was the center of this invention-of-the-potato-chip story told by Commodore Vanderbilt, one of the most powerful tycoons of the age. He never could remember George Speck's proper name and always called him Crum.

Vanderbilt claimed to have been the picky patron who inspired the greatest snack on one summer evening. He sent his french-fried potatoes back to the kitchen TWICE complaining the potatoes too thick and not cooked enough. The touchy Chef Crum then sliced a potato into paper-thin coins, tossed them into boiling oil, and let them cook until they were hard. Finally he doused them with salt and sent the potatoes back into the dining room. The reaction was: "More, please. More of those Saratoga chips."

Within days, the Saratoga chip was all the rage. Before long, other restaurants in Saratoga were serving the chips, and then other restaurants in New York, and then other restaurants in the United States, and then... And then the Saratoga chip became known simply as the potato chip.

It is a great story but not necessary to be true in every detail. Still, the fact is that the potato chip WAS BORN in the United States of America!