Legendary Creation of Potato Chips
- When
- August 24, 1853 (legendary)
- Where
- Moon's Lake House
A popular but disputed legend claims George Crum created potato chips at Moon's Lake House on August 24, 1853, to appease a difficult customer.
According to the legend, a customer complained that French-fried potatoes were too thick, soggy, or unsalted. Frustrated, Crum sliced potatoes extremely thin, fried them to a crisp, and seasoned them with extra salt, and the customer reportedly loved the result. This account is today known to be untrue, and the 1853 date is a likely placeholder; the "Saratoga chips" name is separately associated with Speck's thinly sliced fried potatoes at his restaurants.
Sources
- Potato chips Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
- George Speck Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.