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George Speck

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For the first conductor of the National Ballet of Canada, see George Crum (musician). For the avant garde musician, see George Crumb.
George Crum
George Speck with his sister "Aunt Kate" Wicks
Born
George Speck

(1824-07-15)July 15, 1824
Saratoga County, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 22, 1914(1914-07-22) (aged 90)
Malta, New York, U.S.
OccupationChef
Parent(s)Abraham Speck, Diana Tull[citation needed]

George Speck (also known as George Crum;[1] July 15, 1824 – July 22, 1914) was an American chef. He was known for his role in creating potato chips in Upstate New York.

Speck was born in Saratoga County, New York. He was a member of the Mohawk people. He worked as a hunter, guide and cook in the Adirondack Mountains, becoming noted for his culinary skills after being hired at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs. His specialties included wild meat, especially venison and duck. Speck later left Moon's and opened his own restaurant, Crum's, in nearby Malta. His establishment was popular among wealthy tourists and his reputation spread outside the Adirondacks.

Speck was known for serving thinly sliced fried potatoes at his restaurants, which subsequently became known as "Saratoga chips". The first published recipes for potato chips date from the early 19th century, decades before his career as a chef. However, after Speck's death various newspaper articles and local histories of Saratoga County began to claim him as the "inventor" of potato chips. This myth featured in national advertising campaigns in the 1970s. More detailed versions include claims that he invented potato chips by accident or to appease a difficult customer, often cited as Cornelius Vanderbilt; some accounts also claim that the true inventor was Speck's sister Catherine Wicks.

Early life

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Speck was born on July 15, 1824[2] in Saratoga County in upstate New York. Information about his actual heritage is unclear, though some have assumed him to be African-American and mixed-race, Speck and his sister Catherine Wicks "both identified as members of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe."[3] George Speck did not have the opportunity to go to school and was deprived of proper education.

Early career

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Speck developed his culinary skills at Cary Moon's Lake House on Saratoga Lake, noted as an expensive restaurant at a time when wealthy families from Manhattan and other areas were building summer "camps" in the area.[citation needed] Speck and his sister, Wicks, also cooked at the Sans Souci in Ballston Spa, alongside another St. Regis Mohawk Indian known for his skills as a guide and cook, Pete Francis.[3] One of the regular customers at Moon's was shipping tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, who, although he savored the food, could never seem to remember Speck's name. On one occasion, he called a waiter over to ask "Crum", "How long before we shall eat?" Rather than take offense, Speck decided to embrace the nickname, figuring that, "A crumb is bigger than a speck."[4]

By 1860, Speck had opened his own restaurant, called Crum's, on Storey Hill in nearby Malta, New York. His cuisine was in high demand among Saratoga Springs' tourists and elites: "His prices were…those of the fashionable New York restaurants, but his food and service were worth it…Everything possible was raised on his own small farm, and that, too, got his personal attention whenever he could arrange it."[5] According to popular accounts, he was said to include a basket of chips on every table. One contemporaneous source recalls that in his restaurant, Speck was unquestionably the man in charge: "His rules of procedure were his own. They were very strict, and being an Indian, he never departed from them. In the slang of the racecourse, he "played no favorites." Guests were obliged to wait their turn, the millionaire as well as the wage-earner. Mr. Vanderbilt once was obliged to wait an hour and a half for a meal...With none but rich pleasure-seekers as his guests, Speck kept his tables laden with the best of everything, and for it all charged Delmonico prices."[6]

Potato chip

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After his death, a local legend developed which credited Speck with the invention of potato chips.[7][8][9] However, according to Snopes, he "never made the claim that he had invented the potato chip, let alone claimed the tale as his own – those assertions emerged only many years after his death".[10]

Recipes for frying potato slices were published in several cookbooks in the 19th century. In 1832, a recipe for fried potato "shavings" was included in a United States cookbook derived from an earlier English collection.[11] William Kitchiner's The Cook's Oracle (1817), also included techniques for such a dish.[12] Similarly, N. K. M. Lee's cookbook, The Cook's Own Book (1832), has a recipe that is very similar to Kitchiner's.[13]

The New York Tribune ran a feature article on "Crum's: The Famous Eating House on Saratoga Lake" in December 1891, but mentioned nothing about potato chips.[14] Neither did Crum's commissioned biography, published in 1893, nor did one 1914 obituary in a local paper.[15] Another obituary states "Crum is said to have been the actual inventor of "Saratoga chips.""[16] When Wicks died in 1924, however, her obituary authoritatively identified her as follows: "A sister of George Crum, Mrs. Catherine Wicks, died at the age of 102, and was the cook at Moon's Lake House. She first invented and fried the famous Saratoga Chips."[17]

Wicks recalled the invention of Saratoga Chips as an accident: she had "chipped off a piece of the potato which, by the merest accident, fell into the pan of fat. She fished it out with a fork and set it down upon a plate beside her on the table." Her brother tasted it, declared it good, and said, "We'll have plenty of these."[18] In a 1932 interview with the Saratogian newspaper, her grandson, John Gilbert Freeman, asserted Wicks's role as the true inventor of the potato chip.[19]

Hugh Bradley's 1940 history of Saratoga contains some information about Speck, based on local folklore as much as on any specific historical primary sources. In their 1983 article in Western Folklore, Fox and Banner say that Bradley had cited an 1885 article in the Hotel Gazette about Speck and BI the potato chips.[14] Bradley repeated some material from that article, including that "Crum was born in 1828, the son of Abe Speck, a mulatto jockey who had come from Kentucky to Saratoga Springs and married a Stockbridge Indian woman," and that "Crum also claimed to have considerable German and Spanish blood."

In any event, Speck helped popularize the potato chip, first as a cook at Moon's and then in his own place. Cary Moon, owner of Moon's Lake House, later rushed to claim credit for the invention, and began mass-producing the chips, first served in paper cones, then packaged in boxes. They became wildly popular: "It was at Moon's that Clio first tasted the famous Saratoga chips, said to have originated there, and it was she 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. 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."[20] Visitors to Saratoga Springs were advised to take the 10-mile journey around the lake to Moon's if only for the chips: "the hobby of the Lake House is Fried Potatoes, and these they serve in good style. They are sold in papers like confectionery."[21]

A 1973 advertising campaign by the St. Regis Paper Company, which manufactured packaging for chips, featured an ad for Speck and his story, published in the national magazines, Fortune and Time.[14] During the late 1970s, the variant of the story featuring Vanderbilt became popular because of the interest in his wealth and name, and evidence suggests the source was an advertising agency for the Potato Chip/Snack Food Association.[14][22]

A 1983 article in Western Folklore identifies potato chips as having originated in Saratoga Springs, New York, while critiquing the variants of popular stories. In all versions, the chips became popular and subsequently known as "Saratoga chips" or "potato crunches".[14]

The 21st-century Snopes website writes that Crum's customer, if he existed, was more likely an obscure one.[23] Vanderbilt was indeed a regular customer at both Crum's Malta restaurant and Moon's Lake House, but there is no evidence that he played a role by requesting or promoting potato chips.[24]

References

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  1. ^ Hugh Bradley, Such Was Saratoga, New York: 1940
  2. ^ "George Crum (1824-1914) •". 6 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b Gruse, Doug (November 25, 2009). "Chipping Away at History". Post-Star. Glens Falls, New York. Speck and Wicks both identified as members of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe. Their children also considered themselves to be American Indians.
  4. ^ Elizabeth Barrett Britten [Jean McGregor]. Chronicles of Saratoga, Saratoga Springs, NY: Bradshaw 1947:176
  5. ^ Hugh Bradley, Such Was Saratoga, New York: 1940, 121-122.
  6. ^ New York Tribune December 27, 1891
  7. ^ D'Ambrosio, Brian (8 May 2012). From Football to Fig Newtons: 76 American Inventors and The Inventions You Know By Heart. Lulu.com. p. 61. ISBN 9781105737725. William Kitchiner's The Cook's Oracle includes a recipe for what can only be described as a potato chip. Whether one called it a potato chip or not, it would seem that a thinly sliced potato cooked in hot oil and served sprinkled with salt existed before George Speck or his sister Katie Speck Wicks "invented" the potato chip.
  8. ^ Berry, Steve & Norman, Phil (July 14, 2014). "Crisps buoyed Britain in its darkest hour". The Telegraph.
  9. ^ Hugh Bradley. Such Was Saratoga 1940:121-122
  10. ^ "Potato Chip Origin". Snopes. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  11. ^ "Civil War Recipes and Food History – The Potato During the Civil War" Archived October 22, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Civil War Interactive website
  12. ^ Kitchener, Dr. William, 1822. The Cook’s Oracle; Containing Receipts for Plain Cookery, on the Most Economical Plan for Private Families: Also the Art of Composing the Most Simple and Most Highly Finished Broths, Gcuravies, Soups, Sauces, Store Sauces, and Flavoring Essences; the Quantity of each Article is Accurately Stated by Weight and Measure; the Whole Being the Result of Actual Experiments Instituted in the Kitchen of a Physician, 4th ed. A. Constable and Co. of Edinburgh and London, 464 pp. (See p. 208 for potato chip recipe. This is identified as the first American edition.)
  13. ^ Lee, N.K.M. (A Boston Housekeeper), 1832. The Cook's Own Book: Being A Complete Culinary Encyclopedia: Comprehending All Valuable Receipts For Cooking Meat, Fish, And Fowl, And Composing Every Kind Of Soup, Gravy, Pastry, Preserves, Essences, &c. That Have Been Published Or Invented During The Last Twenty Years. Particularly The Very Best Of Those In The Cook's Oracle, Cook's Dictionary, And Other Systems Of Domestic Economy.Diamond Mb With Numerous Original Receipts, And a Complete System of Confectionery, Boston: Munroe and Francis; New York: Charles E. Francis and David Felt.
  14. ^ a b c d e William S. Fox and Mae G. Banner, Topics and Comments: "Social and Economic Contexts of Folklore Variants: The Case of Potato Chip Legends", Western Folklore (Western States Folklore Society), Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr. 1983), pp. 114–126, accessed June 20, 2013
  15. ^ "George Crum Dies at Saratoga Lake", The (Saratoga Springs) Saratogian, July 27, 1914
  16. ^ "Famous Hunter Guide and Cook Dies at 96 Years". unknown (clipping only).
  17. ^ The Saratogian Saratoga Springs, New York, October 8, 1924
  18. ^ Elizabeth Barrett Britten [Jean McGregor]. Chronicles of Saratoga, Saratoga Springs, NY: Bradshaw 1947:44-45
  19. ^ "Another Claims Potato Chip Idea" Glens Falls Post Star August 4, 1932
  20. ^ Ferber, Edna (1947). Saratoga Trunk. Garden City, New York: DoubleDay. pp. 233–234.
  21. ^ R.F. Dearborn, Saratoga and How to See It. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, and Company 1871:51
  22. ^ Burhans, Dirk (2008). Crunch! A History of the Great American Potato Chip, Madison, WI: Terrace Books (Univ. of Wisconsin Press), pp. 15–21.
  23. ^ "Potato Chip". snopes.com. 10 November 2000. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  24. ^ "Early Lake Houses Saratoga, New York" Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine, from Reminiscences of Saratoga, compiled by Cornelius E. Durkee, reprinted by The Saratogian 1927–28
[edit]
  • Mitchell, Dave (10 August 2013). "George Crum". Chips, Crums and Specks of Saratoga County History. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
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