12 Facts about George Crum
Before we dive into 12 fascinating facts about George Crum (also known as George Speck), let's clear up some common legends about potato chips, especially since his story ties right into Black history and innovation.
Did George Speck invent Potato Chips?
According to legend, Crum became annoyed when a customer, Cornelius Vanderbilt, complained that his French-fried potatoes were too thick. Crum reacted by slicing the potatoes as thinly as possible, frying them in grease, and serving the crunchy brown chips back out to the guests.
George Speck, also known as George Crum, was a chef known for inventing what we know as Potato Chips. He became famous for popularizing potato chips in Upstate New York and was later known as their creator. He was a mixture of black Americans and Mohawk Indians. However, Moon's Lake House, where he worked, was credited with the invention of the potato chip around the mid-1800s.
Was George Crum's sister involved in the invention?
George Crum is commonly believed to have invented the potato chip, but his sister Kate Speck claimed to have come up with what would become known as the Saratoga chips. She accidentally sliced off a sliver of potato, and it fell into a hot frying pan. George Crum approved of the chip after tasting the sliced potato. Her claim is undermined by the existence of cookbooks describing earlier versions of the chips that were called fried potato shavings in the United States and Great Britain.
Moon's Lake House overlooking Saratoga Lake, NY—where George Crum popularized potato chips in the 1850s as head chef. (Photo courtesy Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum)
Potato Chip Origin Myths
Folks often point to Namur, Belgium, around 1680, where frozen rivers stopped the fish fry, so locals sliced and fried potatoes instead. Others say french fries debuted on Paris's Pont Neuf bridge just before the 1789 French Revolution, though "fried potatoes" show up in French records as early as 1775.
The George Crum Legend
The famous tale? A picky diner—some say Cornelius Vanderbilt—sent back Crum's thick french fries at Moon's Lake House. Annoyed, Crum sliced potatoes paper-thin, fried them crisp in grease, salted them, and served the crunchy surprise. Guests loved it, and Saratoga chips were born.
George Crum: The Man Behind the Chips
George Speck, or George Crum, was a Black and Native American chef who popularized potato chips in upstate New York during the mid-1800s. Moon's Lake House got the credit at first, but his sister Kate Speck also claimed she accidentally dropped a potato sliver into hot oil, though earlier "fried potato shavings" recipes existed in U.S. and U.K. cookbooks.
Born in 1822 to a Native American mother and a black jockey father in Saratoga Lake, New York, George Crum was first employed as a mountain guide and trapper in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
He was known as Crum. His father used that name when he was a horse jockey.
In 1853, he took a position as the head chef of Cary Moon's Lake House in Lake Saratoga, New York, where he cooked dinner for guests one evening.
Having planned to make french fries, one of his guests complained that they were too thick. He was annoyed, so he cut the potatoes very thinly, and when he deep-fried them in oil, they were thin and crisp. After adding salt, they tasted good.
Crum's chips were initially known as potato crunchers and also Saratoga chips.
George decided to build his restaurant near Saratoga Lake in 1860. He served potato chips as an appetizer at every table. The restaurant was a huge success and lasted 30 years before closing in 1890.
Although he did not patent his potato chips and never tried to market them outside of his business, potato chips were widely sold by others after he left. The industry grew to a six-billion-dollar sector.
Moon's Lake House owner later tried to claim credit for the invention and began packing and distributing potato chips in boxes.
As soon as Crum opened his restaurant in 1860 in Malta, New York, he provided every table with a basket of potato chips. Visitors travelled 10 miles to try Crum's potato chips.
George Crum died in 1904 at the age of 92, leaving behind the legacy of inventing the world's greatest snack food.
Crum's involvement first appeared in an advertisement in 1885, and Vanderbilt was introduced in an ad made 120 years after the potato chip was thought invented.
In 1895, he started making potato chips in his kitchen, then delivered them to local stores. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, people began to sell potato chips in grocery stores. The first such person may have been William Tappendon of Cleveland, Ohio.
Potato Chips Today
Hand-slicing was tedious until 1920s mechanical peelers turned them national. Now America's top snack, raking in over $6 billion yearly in U.S. sales.
Watch our Your Kid Professor clip for more: https://youtu.be/4dGinG6fefg. Black innovators like Crum remind us history's full of unsung brilliance—what's your favorite fact? Share below.
#BlackHistory #GeorgeCrum #PotatoChipsInventor #SankofaChicago
