It became known as the “Saratoga Chip.” The potato chip was born.Īs one could imagine, there are several versions of this story and all are disputed. When served the item, the customer took a bite…and then another…and then another, before proclaiming that the fried slices of potatoes were delicious. ![]() So, once again, the customer told Crum to try again.Ĭrum, none too pleased that someone would insult his cooking, cut the potatoes paper-thin, dumped them in a vat of oil, let them cook so long that they became hard and crispy, and then salted them heavily, thinking that these “fried potatoes” would now be inedible. Crum did his best to make them thinner, yet when the discerning patron got his second order, again he complained that the thickness of the potatoes weren’t to his liking. Crum whipped up a batch and served it to the customer, who complained that the potatoes were cut much too thick. A customer came in and ordered Moon’s Fried Potatoes, the well-known house specialty. The story goes that it was about dinner time during Moon’s second summer season on the Lake. But here’s where, perhaps, elements of legend creep in. Up to this point, based on the evidence at hand, we can be fairly certain all of this is true. So good, in fact, he was hired by Cary Moon to work at his restaurant. After an earlier career as a trapper and hunting guide, he made his way to Saratoga Springs, where he began cooking and, by all accounts, seemed to get pretty good at it. When George was a young man, he adopted his father’s horse racing name – Crum. George was born George Speck, his mother was Native American and his father was a free African-American making a living as a horse jockey. At the restaurant, two people shared the cooking responsibilities, Catherine “Aunt Kate” Weeks and her brother (or brother-in-law, depending on who’s telling the story), George Crum. Vacationers and wealthy summer home owners visited the restaurant often. Moon’s Lake House, owned by Cary Moon, was one of the finest of those restaurants. Resorts, inns, restaurants, and spas had begun to crop up along the shores of Saratoga Lake. ![]() Known for its mineral springs and their supposed rejuvenation properties, Saratoga Springs had just started becoming a tourist destination with help of the railroad that cut through the town. It was 1853, eight years before the beginning of the Civil War. Meet the Specks, the Black siblings credited with inventing the potato chip.The prevailing story of the origin of the potato chip starts in Saratoga Springs, New York, a historically affluent and resort community. Tell a friend about the inventors the next time you grab a bag! Because of them, we can. While the duo’s story may be forgotten by many, we want to make sure their story is kept alive. George ran his restaurant until its closing in 1890, passing away in 1914 at the age of 92. They became a local treat in the area until the 1920s when Herman Lay, future owner of Lay’s potato chips, began marketing the treat all over the South, the sibling’s invention eclipsed by the mass production and distribution of potato chips across the country. ![]() George would later open his own restaurant in Malta, New York where he regularly served the basket of chips. Cary Moon, owner of the restaurant, later tried to claim credit for the invention, mass distributing boxes of potato chips. Whatever the origin story, the potato chip rose to prominence as a result of the siblings, many coming to the restaurant from everywhere for the chips. She first invented and fried the famous Saratoga Chips.” Kate had also published several articles over the course of her life recounting the story, leading many historians to believe that she was the actual inventor, George receiving later credit because of his own notoriety. Catherine Wicks, died at the age of 102 and was the cook at Moon’s Lake House. A post shared by Ginsberg's Foods importantly, an obituary for Kate, published in The Saratogian in 1924, read, “A sister of George Crum, Mrs.
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