America’s #1 snack food is recognized each year on March 14th. National Potato Chip Day, this snack will be enjoyed by millions across the country.

The history of the potato chip:

On August 24, 1853, a restaurant customer kept complaining that his potatoes were too thick and soggy. He kept sending them back. Chef George Crum decided to slice the potatoes as thin as possible, frying them until crisp and added extra salt. To the chef’s surprise, the customer loved them, and they soon became a regular item on the restaurant’s menu under the name of “Saratoga Chips.”

By the late 1870s, the term “Saratoga Chips” was being widely used as a standard menu item on train cars, hotel restaurants, and street carts.  The name carried over to grocers when the chips were made in larger batches by bakeries.  They were shipped by wagon to the restaurants and grocers by the barrel, and the grocers would then sell to private families by the pound.  People were instructed to bake the chips in a hot oven for a few minutes and they would be as crisp as if fried that same day.

The Dayton, Ohio-based Mike-sell’s Potato Chip Company, founded in 1910, calls itself the “oldest potato chip company in the United States.”  New England-based Tri-Sum Potato Chips, originally established in 1908 as the Leominster Potato Chip Company, in Leominster, Massachusetts, claims to be America’s first potato chip manufacturer.

• In the 20th century chips began to be mass-produced for home consumption.
• Flavored chips were introduced in the 1950s.
• Potato Chip revenues are over $15 billion a year worldwide!

What is YOUR favorite potato chip?