The Code

A restaurant customer’s complaint resulted in the popularization of the potato chip. In 1853, an unhappy customer at Moon’s Lake House, in Saratoga Springs, New York, kept complaining that his potatoes were too chunky and thick. The chef, George Crum, took great offense and sliced the potatoes wafer thin, baked them until they were crunchy, and covered them in salt.
When the customer was served, rather than being perturbed, he was delighted, and finished every last crumb on his plate. Chef Crum’s retaliatory concoction was the start of a resounding success. His “Saratoga Chips”, not the earliest recorded introduction of potato chips but the first well-publicized ones, became a local delicacy until an enterprising businessman named Herman Lay commercialized the product during Prohibition. More than 150 years after its invention, the potato chip is worth a third of the global snack market. Leaders know the next potato chip might well be cooked on their production floor, and they keep an eye out for it!
─ Ken Chapman ─
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.