George Crum (July 15, 1824 – July 22, 1914) was an American chef. He worked as a hunter, guide, and cook in the Adirondack mountains, and became renowned for his culinary skills after being hired at Moon’s Lake House on Saratoga Lake, near Saratoga Springs, New York. One dinner guest found Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum decided to rile the guest by producing fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork creating the potato chip.
George Crum (July 15, 1824 – July 22, 1914) was born in Saratoga Lake, New York. Crum was working as a chef in the summer of 1853 when he incidentally invented the chip. It all began when a patron who ordered a plate of French-fried potatoes sent them back to Crum's kitchen because he felt they were too thick and soft. To teach the picky patron a lesson, Crum sliced a new batch of potatoes as thin as he possibly could, and then fried them until they were hard and crunchy. Finally, to top them off, he added a generous heaping of salt. To Crum's surprise, the dish ended up being a hit with the patron and a new snack was born. Years later, Crum opened his own restaurant that had a basket of potato chips on every table. Though Crum never attempted to patent his invention, the snack was eventually mass-produced and sold in bags – providing thousands of jobs nationwide.
Sources:
Ament, Phil. “Fascinating Facts about George Crum Inventor of the Potato Chip in 1853.” Inventor George Crum Biography, 1 Jan. 1970, www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/crum.htm.
“George Crum.” George Crum: Inventor of Potato Chips, www.black-inventor.com/George-Crum.asp.