History of Potato Chips

In the summer of 1853, at an upscale resort restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York, a customer sent back his fried potatoes — they were too thick. The enraged chef sliced potatoes paper-thin, plunged them into hot oil, and the potato chip was born. Or so the story goes. This famous tale has been repeated for over 150 years, but what if it was nothing more than a manufactured legend? In fact, the earliest known record of potato chips appears in a British cookbook from 1817 — decades before the Saratoga incident supposedly took place. The history of the potato chip is a story where myth and fact intersect, and at the same time a microcosm of the food industry — a window into how a single food becomes popularized and localized on a global scale.

The First Record: A British Cookbook (1817)

The earliest record of potato chips is not from the United States in 1853, but much earlier — in Britain in 1817. “The Cook’s Oracle,” written by British culinary researcher and inventor William Kitchiner (1775–1827), became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States.^[1] The 1822 edition features a recipe titled “Potatoes fried in Slices or Shavings.”^[2]

The recipe describes: “Peel large potatoes… cut them in shavings round and round, as you would peel a lemon. Dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping.” And this dish, “sprinkled with a very little salt,” was the first recorded ready-salted potato chip.^[2]

Early American cookbooks also explicitly cited Kitchiner’s recipe. Mary Randolph’s “Virginia House-Wife” (1824) and N.K.M. Lee’s “Cook’s Own Book” (1832) both acknowledge Kitchiner’s recipe as their source.^[2]

The Legend of Saratoga Chips (1853)

The most widely known story about potato chips involves an incident that occurred on August 24, 1853, in Saratoga Springs, New York. George Crum (born George Speck, 1828–1914), an African American chef of Native American descent working at Moon’s Lake House, supposedly served a customer who complained that the french fries were too thick with potato slices so thin and crispy they could not be eaten with a fork — and the customer picked them up with their hands and was greatly satisfied.^[3][4]

According to legend, the complaining customer was railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, but historian T.J. Stiles, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Vanderbilt, asserts that “there is no truth to this story.”^[5]

Contradictions in the Legend

Historians have found several contradictions in this story.^[5]

First, the Moons did not purchase the Lake House until 1854,^[5] and there is no evidence that George Crum worked there as a chef in 1853. Second, an 1849 New York Herald article already mentions “Eliza, the cook, who is famous for her fried potatoes,”^[5] showing that crispy fried potatoes existed before 1853.

Who Was the Real Inventor?

Some historical records claim that Catherine Adkins Wicks (nicknamed Aunt Kate), George Crum’s sister, was the real inventor.^[6] When Wicks died at the age of 103, it was reported that she had actually devised the potato chip, and Crum himself is said to have never denied his sister’s claim during his lifetime.^[6] However, this also lacks definitive evidence.

What is certain is that George Crum operated his own restaurant, “Crum’s Place,” from 1860 to 1890, establishing potato chips as a popular menu item.^[7] At his restaurant, baskets of potato chips were served at every table,^[7] and the dish was called “Saratoga Chips” or “Potato Crunches.”^[8]

The Beginning of Commercialization: The Mass Production Era (1920s)

In the early 20th century, potato chips were still a dish served at upscale restaurants and hotels. George Crum’s Saratoga Chips had spread as a trend among New York’s upper class, and imitations appeared at fine dining establishments up and down the East Coast. But freshness and distribution mattered as much as taste, and the packaging technology of the time made it impossible to transport chips long distances or store them for extended periods. It was the packaging innovations of the 1920s that broke through this limitation.

Laura Scudder’s Wax Paper Bag (1926)

In 1926, Laura Scudder of California made her first kettle-fried potato chips in her home kitchen.^[9] Her innovation was selling potato chips in small wax paper packages. Scudder had her employees use an iron to seal three sides of wax paper, then fill them with potato chips and seal the remaining side to create airtight bags.^[9]

Before this method, potato chips were sold in barrels or tins.^[10] Wax paper bags kept potato chips fresher longer, protected them from contamination, and prevented breakage.^[10] Thanks to this remarkable invention, potato chips could be sold to the mass market,^[10] opening a new era of convenience foods.

Laura Scudder’s is also known as the first company to print freshness dates on food products,^[10] a practice that has become an essential standard in today’s food industry.

Herman Lay and National Distribution (1930s–1960s)

During the Great Depression in 1932, Herman Lay borrowed $100 to establish H.W. Lay Distributing Company in Atlanta, Georgia.^[11] He started as a salesman delivering potato chips from Barrett Food Company in a Ford Model A,^[11] peddling potato chips from Atlanta all the way to Nashville, Tennessee.

By 1937, Lay had hired 25 employees and began producing his own line of snack foods.^[12] Lay’s was soon sold throughout the southern United States and became the first potato chip manufacturer to purchase television advertising.^[12] (In 1944, the company featured “Oscar the Happy Potato” in a series of advertisements.)^[12]

In September 1961, H.W. Lay & Company merged with The Frito Company to create Frito-Lay Corporation, the largest snack food company in the United States.^[13] In 1965, Herman Lay, chairman and CEO of Frito-Lay, and Donald M. Kendall, president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola, merged the two companies to form PepsiCo, Inc.^[13]

Herman Lay’s success was not simply the result of a good product. Even during the Great Depression, he personally drove to retail stores to make deliveries and built brand recognition through television advertising — then a revolutionary medium. Lay’s ability to grow from a regional snack brand into a national name was the result of product quality, distribution, and marketing all working in concert.

Global Expansion and Cultural Variations

Potato chips originated in the United States, but from the mid-20th century they spread across the world, merging with local food cultures to develop their own distinct forms and flavors. This was not mere export — it was an active reinvention, shaped by local ingredients, tastes, and cultural codes.

UK: Crisps and Salt-Vinegar Flavor

In the United Kingdom, potato chips are called “crisps,” and commercial production began in earnest in the 1920s. The quintessential British flavor is salt and vinegar, influenced by fish and chips culture. Walkers is the most famous crisps brand in the UK, founded in 1948 and reportedly leading the market to this day.^[14] Interestingly, in English-speaking countries, “chips” and “crisps” refer to completely different foods depending on the region. In the UK, “chips” means the thick-cut fried potato we know as french fries, while “crisps” refers to the thin, crispy snack. In the United States, the thin fried version is “chips” and the thick version is “french fries.” The same food has effectively swapped names across the Atlantic. This naming confusion persists to this day, and is the reason multinational food companies targeting both the UK and US markets must use different product names for each region.

Japan: Nori Flavor and Wasabi Chips

Potato chips were introduced to Japan in the 1960s, and products combining unique Japanese flavors such as nori, wasabi, and teriyaki have become popular. Founded in 1964, Calbee has established itself as the leading brand in the Japanese potato chip market.^[15] Calbee later expanded into Asia-Pacific markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia, exerting significant influence on the formation of East Asian potato chip culture. In Japanese convenience stores, limited-edition seasonal flavors are released regularly — this has become more than a product launch; it is a cultural event that consumers eagerly compete to experience.

Korea: Honey Butter Chip Craze (2014)

In South Korea, “Honey Butter Chips,” launched by Haitai Confectionery in August 2014, caused an enormous social phenomenon.^[16] The combination of sweet honey and savory butter broke the traditional salty potato chip formula, and the product surpassed 10 billion won in sales within three months of launch.^[16] The shortage became so severe that in some convenience stores five boxes sold out in 40 minutes, and at large supermarkets, despite purchase limits of five bags per person, 500 bags sold out in less than 10 minutes.^[16] Online, they were traded at dozens of times the original price. Since then, the Korean market has diversified with the emergence of various sweet and complex-flavored potato chips.

Conclusion: How Myths Are Made

The history of the potato chip carries a sociological lesson in and of itself. The 1853 Saratoga legend has failed to survive historical scrutiny, yet it remains the most widely circulated story to this day. This tells us something important: people are drawn to narrative over fact. The story of “an accidental invention by an angry chef” is far easier to remember and far more compelling than the complex historical context that actually gave rise to the potato chip.

The real history, by contrast, is far more gradual and intricate. Beginning with Kitchiner’s 1817 recipe, passing through American restaurant culture, popularized by Laura Scudder’s packaging innovation, and brought to a national market through Herman Lay’s business acumen — it was not the work of a single genius inventor, but the accumulated contributions of countless chefs, entrepreneurs, and inventors over the course of decades.

Today the potato chip industry has grown into a business worth tens of billions of dollars annually and continues to be reinvented to suit local tastes and cultural contexts around the world. The salt-and-vinegar flavor in Britain, the seasonal limited editions in Japan, the Honey Butter craze in Korea — all of these show just how differently a food with a single origin can be localized. The potato chip is one of the clearest illustrations of how globalization and localization coexist within the food industry.

Historically speaking, the success of the potato chip was only made possible when three conditions were met simultaneously. First, the technology to slice potatoes thinly and fry them uniformly. Second, the packaging technology to maintain freshness. Third, the distribution networks to transport goods across wide distances. The reason the 1817 recipe did not grow into a global industry for nearly two hundred years is precisely because it took that long for all three conditions to be met at once. The history of the potato chip makes this point quietly but clearly: a good idea does not become an innovation on its own — it becomes an industry only when the technology and economic conditions of its time are ready to support it.