Who Invented Potato Chips?
How were potato chips discovered? Here is his story:
George Crum was born on July 15, 1824, in New York, the state where he would become legendary. Some say it came from the Adirondack Mountains. Others suggest that he is African American, with his father Abraham and mother Diana, descended from Oneida, Stockbridge, and Mohawk. Crum and his sister Kate Wicks were exposed to racism at that time and now in many places.
George Speck (also known as George Crum; July 15, 1824 – July 22, 1914) was an American chef. He was known for his role in popularizing potato chips in Upstate New York and was later mythologized as their creator.
They have been variously called by nicknames as "Indian", "Mulatto*", "Black" or simply "Colored". George was born with the surname Speck, but this surname was not accepted due to the meaning of the word "speck**". In the following years, the surname was changed to Crum.
*Mulatto is a hybrid child of a Negrid person and a Caucasian person.
George Crum (born George Speck, 1822-1914) was working as a chef at Moons's Lake House restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 24, 1853, when a customer complained that his french fries were too thick and “not the way they should be.” took. Crum was so enraged at this complaint that he responded by dicing the potatoes and frying them in hot oil. However, he met with a surprising reaction; the customer loved the thinly sliced french fries. As Saratoga potato chips, or Saratoga crispy potatoes as they are called in England, were in great demand from other customers, Crum soon opened his own restaurant with the profits from this invention.
George Crum died on July 22, 1914, at the age of 90, and Kate Wicks at the age of 102. When Wicks died, some newspapers declared that Wicks, not Crum, found the potato chip. But this, in my opinion, is a statement made to create speculation. The New York Tribune newspaper of the period carried out many interviews and news on this subject.