In 1853, railroad magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt,dining at a Saratoga Springs, NY, resort, sent his fried potatoes back to the chef, complaining that they were too thick.

The chef that evening was Native-American George Crum, who decided it deserved a sarcastic reply.He sliced potatoes paper thin, fried them to a crisp in boiling oil, and salted them. The Commodore loved the "crunch potato slices," as he called them.
"Saratoga Chips" became a restaurant fad from that day forward.

In the 1920s, Herman Lay, a traveling salesman in the South, helped popularize the food from Atlanta to Tennessee. Lay peddled potato chips to Southern grocers out of the trunk of his car, building a business and a name that would become synonymous with the thin, salty snack. Lay's potato chips became the first successfully marketed national brand.

So, every time you eating a bag of chips, say "Thank you Mr. Crum."

Mr. Crum