Sixth Grade
Worksheets
A Bad Trick
Potato chips might have been invented because the cook tried to play a bad trick. One story says that a customer didn't like his fried potatoes. He sent them back to the kitchen. He thought his potatoes were too thick. He thought they tasted soggy. He wanted the cook to slice them thinner. He wanted the potatoes cooked longer.
The place was Saratoga Springs, New York. The time was 1853. The cook was a man named George Crum. He thought his potatoes were fine just the way he made them. People said that George had a bad temper. He decided to play a bad trick on the customer. He sliced the potatoes very thin. They were too thin to eat with a fork (as fried potatoes usually were). He fried them until they were crispy. George wanted to play a bad trick on the customer who sent back his potatoes.
The customer loved them! He asked for more. Other people tried them. They liked the new potatoes, too. People kept asking for them. For many years, they were called Saratoga chips. They were named after the town where they were first made. These may or may not have been the very first potato chips.
