Americans eat more potato chips than any other snack food. Legend has it that the creation of this crunchy snack all started as a practical joke. In the late 1700s, future president Thomas Jefferson returned to America from France, bringing with him the recipe for “potatoes fried in the French manner.” Jefferson served these French-fried potatoes to his guests at dinner parties, and the dish became popular. Unlike the French fries Americans eat nowadays, they were thick-cut potato slices meant to be eaten with a fork. They soon found their way to restaurant menus. In 1853 chef George Crum worked at Moon Lake Lodge, an upscale resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, which hosted America’s rich and famous. One summer evening, railroad tycoon Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt visited the lodge for dinner and ordered French-fried potatoes, which Chef Crum cooked in the standard, thick-cut style. The Commodore complained that the potatoes were cut too thick and sent them back to the kitchen. Though Chef Crum had cooked this dish as it was usually prepared, he cut some slightly thinner potatoes for the Commodore and sent these to the table. But the Commodore sent them back again to be cut thinner. The chef, proving to be the Commodore’s equal, cut the potatoes paper-thin and fried and salted them until they were too crisp to be picked up with a fork. Chef Crum sent these out and waited, prepared to meet with the Commodore’s wrath. Surprisingly, the waiter returned to tell Crum that the Commodore loved his “crunch potato slices” and shared them with his friends. Before long everyone wanted them, and they were added to the menu as “Saratoga Chips.”