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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that serves a bite size slice of history

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Speaker 1: every day of the week. I'm Gabe Blusier, and today

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Speaker 1: we're talking about possible origins of one of the world's

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Speaker 1: leading snack foods, the portable, versatile, crunchable potato chip. The

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Speaker 1: day was August eighteen fifty three. According to culinary legend,

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Speaker 1: acclaimed chef George Crumb Speck invented the potato chip. The

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Speaker 1: breakthrough allegedly occurred while he was working at the Moon's

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Speaker 1: Lake House restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York, after a

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Speaker 1: fussy customer sent back in order of fries for being

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Speaker 1: too soggy. The offense did chef is said to have

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Speaker 1: retaliated by slicing a new batch of potatoes incredibly thin

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Speaker 1: and then frying them till they were crispy and crunchy.

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Speaker 1: Much to Crumb's surprise, the customer not only eight the

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Speaker 1: paper thin potatoes, he loved them, and pretty soon the

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Speaker 1: rest of the town and then the rest of the

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Speaker 1: country loved him too. It's a relationship that continues to

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Speaker 1: this day as Americans now consumed just under two billion

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Speaker 1: pounds of potato chips each year, more than six and

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Speaker 1: a half pounds per person. Many historians question whether George

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Speaker 1: Crumb is really the man to thank or blame for

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Speaker 1: potato chips, but whether he invented them or not, he

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Speaker 1: in his town certainly got the country hooked on him,

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Speaker 1: for better or worse. George Speck was born in Saratoga County,

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Speaker 1: New York, on July eighteen, twenty four. He later changed

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Speaker 1: his name from Spec to Crumb, but more on that lay.

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Speaker 1: George grew up in upstate New York with his parents,

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Speaker 1: Abraham Speck and Diana Tull, and his sister Katherine. The

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Speaker 1: children's exact heritage is unknown, but since they both later

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Speaker 1: identified as members of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, it's

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Speaker 1: believed they were half Native American and half African American.

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Speaker 1: The Spec children spent their youth in the Adirondack Mountains,

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Speaker 1: where George made a living as a hunter and guide,

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Speaker 1: and then later as a chef. By the early eighteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: George's skill in the kitchen had earned him a job

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Speaker 1: at Moon's Lake House, a popular restaurant in the Adirondacks

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Speaker 1: that catered to wealthy clientele who used the resort town

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Speaker 1: as an escape from the pressures of Manhattan. Among these

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Speaker 1: rich and powerful patrons was railroad tycoon commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

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Speaker 1: He was such a regular at the restaurant that he's

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Speaker 1: often credited as the one who gave Crumb his new

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Speaker 1: last name. Apparently, even though Vanderbilt frequently dined there, he

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Speaker 1: was never able to remember the chef's surname. He knew

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Speaker 1: it was a word for a small piece of matter,

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Speaker 1: but he ultimately picked the wrong one and began addressing

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Speaker 1: the chef as Crumb. George was reportedly amused by the error,

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Speaker 1: or at least he pretended to be. He adopted the

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Speaker 1: name from then on, saying that he actually preferred it

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Speaker 1: since quote, a crumb is bigger than a speck. Some

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Speaker 1: sources claim that Cornelius Vanderbilt was also the customer who

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Speaker 1: sparked the invention of the potato chip. However, that theory

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Speaker 1: has since been debunked, as records later revealed that Vanderbilt

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Speaker 1: wasn't anywhere near the restaurant in August of eighteen fifty three.

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Speaker 1: It seems that if the event happened at all, it

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Speaker 1: was due to the complaint of a different difficult customer,

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Speaker 1: whoever that may have been. They weren't a fan of

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Speaker 1: George's steak cut French fries. The mystery diner said the

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Speaker 1: fries were too thick and soggy and asked for a

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Speaker 1: new batch to be made with thinner cut potatoes. In

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Speaker 1: some versions of the story, this happens two or three

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Speaker 1: times before the chef snaps, but whatever the case, Chef

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Speaker 1: Crumb took the criticism personally, and to get his revenge,

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Speaker 1: he sliced the potatoes as thin as he possibly could,

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Speaker 1: and then fried them to a crisp and douse them

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Speaker 1: with salt. The dish was supposed to be unpalatable, but

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Speaker 1: it wound up being exactly what the pickie diner was

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Speaker 1: looking for. Word traveled fast, and soon Crumb was frying

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Speaker 1: thin potato slices for a steady stream of customers. Moon's

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Speaker 1: Lakehouse quickly became known for its new house specialty, which

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Speaker 1: were dubbed Saratoga Chips in honor of nearby Lake Saratoga.

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Speaker 1: The chips were such a strong seller that the restaurant's owner,

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Speaker 1: Carrie Moon, tried to take credit for the invention, and

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Speaker 1: later started selling the chips in boxes. It's possible this

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Speaker 1: led to a falling out between Crumb and own. By

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, the chef had opened his own restaurant near

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Speaker 1: Saratoga Lake, and while potato chips weren't on the menu,

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Speaker 1: a whole basket of them was provided to each table.

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Speaker 1: Aside from that complimentary starter, Crumb didn't personally acknowledge his

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Speaker 1: role in inventing the potato chip. Instead, he made a

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Speaker 1: name for himself with other trademark dishes, including Brook, Trout, Lake, Bass,

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Speaker 1: and Partridge. One of the earliest celebrity chefs, Crumb was

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Speaker 1: known throughout the US, and in eighteen eighty nine, The

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Speaker 1: New York Herald even declared him quote the best cook

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Speaker 1: in the country. Crumb's restaurant closed the following year as

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Speaker 1: the chef prepared for retirement. He lived another twenty four

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Speaker 1: years before passing away in nineteen fourteen at the age

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Speaker 1: of ninety two. It's worth noting that most obituaries written

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Speaker 1: at the time of his death don't mention potato chips

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Speaker 1: at all, and in the ones that do mention them,

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Speaker 1: the author takes pains to note that Crumb was said

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Speaker 1: to have invented the snack, but they stopped short of

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Speaker 1: declaring that he actually did. Because Crumb's alleged innovation went

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Speaker 1: so unrecognized during his lifetime, some historians dispute whether it

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Speaker 1: ever happened at all. One interesting twist is that Katherine Wicks,

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Speaker 1: George Crumb's sister, claimed that she was the true inventor

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Speaker 1: of the snack. She had also been a cook at

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Speaker 1: Moon's lake House, and according to recollection she published before

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Speaker 1: her death, she was the first to fry the famous

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Speaker 1: Saratoga chips and her version, though it wasn't a disgruntled

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Speaker 1: customer who caused the breakthrough. Instead, she accidentally dropped a

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Speaker 1: thin slice of potato into a hot frying pan, and

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Speaker 1: when her brother approved of the tasty result, she decided

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Speaker 1: to fry up some more. Of course, there's also the

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Speaker 1: possibility that neither George nor Catherine invented the potato chip.

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Speaker 1: As many food historians will tell you, recipes for thinly

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Speaker 1: sliced fried potatoes date back to at least the early

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. Most famously, an English doctor named William Kitchener

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Speaker 1: published a recipe for potatoes fried in slices in his

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventeen cookbook. Funnily enough, Kitchener's recipes were meant to

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Speaker 1: guide readers to a more nutritious diet, meaning that he

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Speaker 1: apparently thought fried potato chips were a healthy snack. If only,

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Speaker 1: but even if Kitchener was the first person to publish

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Speaker 1: a potato chip recipe, that doesn't make in the inventor.

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Speaker 1: In all likelihood, potato chips were probably invented over and

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Speaker 1: over again in various times and places around the world.

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Speaker 1: Potatoes are a staple food, after all, which means lots

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Speaker 1: of occasions for chefs to experiment with them. That said,

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Speaker 1: even if the story of Crumb's invention is likely a myth,

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Speaker 1: it's a fact that potato chips were popularized in Saratoga Springs.

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Speaker 1: They really were called Saratoga ch hips, and until about

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Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties they were considered a delicacy, served mostly

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Speaker 1: at high end hotels and restaurants and on luxury trains

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Speaker 1: and cruise ships. Wealthier families who could afford to eat

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Speaker 1: chips at home also had the option to purchase them

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Speaker 1: in bulk from markets where they were scooped from wooden

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Speaker 1: barrels or sometimes glass cases. The snack only went mainstream

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties when a California entrepreneur named Laura

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Speaker 1: Scudder started selling chips and wax paper bags that were

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Speaker 1: sealed with a warm iron. This not only kept the

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Speaker 1: chips fresh, it helped prevent them from being crushed in transit,

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Speaker 1: allowing the product to be distributed on a national scale

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Speaker 1: for the first time. Not long after, a traveling salesman

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Speaker 1: named Herman Leigh began singing the praises of prepackaged chips

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Speaker 1: and communities all across the country. By nineteen twenty six,

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Speaker 1: the mass production and distribution of potato chips had knocked

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Speaker 1: the snack off of restaurant menus and into the kitchen

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Speaker 1: cupboards of almost every family in America. We may never

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Speaker 1: know who actually invented the potato chip, but what really

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Speaker 1: matters is that someone did. Today is as good a

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Speaker 1: day as any to celebrate that pioneering work. But you know,

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Speaker 1: make sure you snack in moderation. Despite what some doctors

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Speaker 1: may tell you, potato chips don't count as a vegetable.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluzier, and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about snack food history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i HC Show,

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Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free

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Speaker 1: to send them my way at this Day at I

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

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Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.

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Speaker 1: The NAT