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National Potato Chip Day

March 14, 2012 by · Comments Off on National Potato Chip Day 

National Potato Chip Day, It’s time to get crunching, or munching if you will, for National Potato Chip Day! The potato chip has been around for a long time-since 1853, in fact. According to fooducateBlog and tidbit.com, potato chips were invented in 1853 by George Crum who was the chef at the Moon Lake House in Saratoga Springs, NY.

One night, in a pique of annoyance Crum apparently decided to have fun with a customer who kept sending his fried potatoes back to the kitchen, complaining they were too thick. So Crum cut the potatoes as thin as possible, fried them in oil, and salted the heck out of them.

According to Saratoga Chips, “What was intended as a stunt turned into an instant hit-the fussy patron and his friends loved the “crunch potato slices.” Soon the chips became known as Saratoga Chips.

“At first they were served in restaurants throughout the region. When George Crum left Moon’s Lake Inn to start his own restaurant called ‘Crumbs House,’ he placed large baskets of the chips on every table. It was not long before Saratoga Chips could be found in restaurants up and down the East Coast. Soon they became known as potato chips,” according to Saratoga Chips’ website.

The chips pretty much remained a restaurant staple for more than 40 years, that is until 1895 when potato chips were mass-produced in a factory in Cleveland, OH.

A private group resurrected the ‘Saratoga Chip’ in 2009 selling the crunchy tidbits in seven states-including New York, New Jersey and Vermont, and Washington, DC.

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