Potato Crisps
Over the picturesque opening sequence of harvesting on Lidstone's Farm, the film's narration goes into some detail about the history of the potato, going as far back in time to the age of the "kindly Incas", as the rather ironic voice-over puts it. The history of the crisp is something just as special, but we have saved it for the website!
In common with Ice Cream, the crisp was an American invention - and a serendipitous one too. The legend begins with a working chef named George Speck, a Native American who preferred to be known as 'Crum'. In 1853, Crum served up a dish of french-fries to an awkward customer who promptly sent them back, complaining that his fries were cut too thickly. Crum was so cross that he angrily sliced a fresh batch of potatoes as thinly as he could possibly manage, just to annoy the customer some more. However, the wicked plan backfired because, after they were fried and served, the potato slithers were considered to be quite delicious - especially with a dash of salt - and the customers just kept on asking for them! A few years later, Crum (or 'Mr. Speck', as you might call him) had his own restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York, and on every table he provided what had become known as his Saratoga Chips.
Crum never patented the crisp, but he did pretty well out of them at his restaurant all the same, serving customers as classy as the Vanderbilts, no less. It is not known exactly how many Saratoga chips Crum ate, but whatever the figure they couldn't have done him much harm because he lived to the grand old age of 92 before dying in 1914. This was too early to see his crisps hit the big time: that didn't happen until the invention of the automatic potato peeler in the 1920s, which was also the time that Crum's invention made its way across the water to England. By now, the Saratoga Chip had become known the Potato Chip, but in England the chip was a term already in use to describe what Americans call the 'French fry' - so the English renamed the chip, calling it a 'crisp'.
And so it is that this particular little snack came to have no fewer than three identities - one more even than its inventor!
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Production Notes
Locations:
Lidstone's Farm, Wembury, Devon (potato harvesting);
Burt's Crisps, Plymouth, Devon.