Historicatures George Crum

“A crumb is bigger
than a speck.”

George Crum

(1824-1914) — Chef, Guide, Hunter, Inventor of Potato Chips

By Bob Hilson

George Crum invented the potato chip. Or was it his sister?

Was it an irritated Crum who, while trying to teach an annoying customer a lesson, purposely sliced a potato into razor thin slices, then dumped them into boiling cooking oil until crispy, and finally showered the golden brown circlets with salt?

Or was it Kate Wicks, his sister, who while working at her brother’s restaurant accidently dropped a potato sliver into a frying pan while preparing a meal? Her brother saw it sizzling in the pan, added a little seasoning and – viola – a crunchy chip.

Tough call, but Crum gets credited with inventing the can’t-get-enough-of delicacy in the 1850s. His first effort was at Cary Moon’s Lake Restaurant, a high-end diner in Saratoga County, New York, where he worked as head cook, and later at his own Crumb’s House restaurant, where people came from all over the region to try his crispy potato slices, known as Saratoga Chips.

Scandalized spa society

As word spread, Crum served them by the bagful and baskets of the ‘tater slices were placed on each table at both restaurants. They soon became so popular that it was fashionable to be seen with a sack or purse filled with the crunchy chips. One newspaper noted: “It was [a woman of high society] who first scandalized spa society by strolling along Broadway and about the paddock at the race track crunching the crisp circlets out of a paper sack as though they were candy or peanuts,” the article read.

“She made it the fashion, and soon you saw all Saratoga dipping into cornucopias filled with golden-brown paper-thin potatoes; a gathered crowd was likely to create a sound like a scuffling through dried autumn leaves.”

Tourists to the upstate New York town of Saratoga Springs were advised to take the 10-mile journey around the lake to Cary Moon's Lake Restaurant if only for Crum’s chips: “The hobby of the Lake House is fried potatoes, and these they serve in good style. They are sold in papers like confectionary,” another newspaper said.

Born George Speck in 1824 in Saratoga County to an African-American father and a Native-American mother, the creator of Saratoga Chips was a hunter, guide and cook in the Adirondack Mountains before finding his niche in the kitchen. His specialties included venison and duck.

Although his surname was Speck, the name “Crum” stuck after a diner – apparently frustrated after a long wait for his meal — asked a waiter to inquire of “Crum” how long before he could eat. Speck embraced the “Crum” moniker, reasoning “a crumb is bigger than a speck.”

While working in the kitchen at Moon’s Restaurant, a diner once sent his French-fried potatoes back to Crum’s kitchen because they were too thick. A proud and usually ornery man who didn’t like his cuisine criticized, Crum fumed for a few minutes before slicing a potato into hair thin slivers before cooking them and sending the dish to the guest.

To Crum’s amazement, the diner loved the tasty treats and requested more of Crum’s chips.

Crum, who died in 1914 at age 92, never patented his chips or tried to widely circulate them. However, in the 1920s a traveling salesman whose last name was Lay took an interest in the chips and began marketing them throughout the south.

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