Are French Fries Actually French?

​

French Fries.

​

I'm positive there's no one in the world who does not know the glorious and addictive trait of this scrumptious treat.

However, did such a world renowned appetizer really come from France as the name suggests?
Let us dig in to the origins of this godly snack. (Ha! Get it? Dig in. Ha. Okay, I'll stop)

There are two main contenders for the rights of the birthplace of the french fry. One is France (Go figure) while the other is Belgium.

Now, some people might say, "Well sh*t, they're both in Europe and they're both white. Can't we just say it was invented by white people? Who cares?" Unfortunately for you, I care. This kind of boring information entertains me so bear with it.

​

Let's first start with the French side of the debate.

Antoine Augustine Parmentier was a French medical army officer that was taken captive during the Seven Years War. In prison, he was given potatoes as food to eat. You potato lovers out there may be thinking Hell Yeah!! Free potatoes in jail? Sign me up!! But in that time period, the French never actually consumed potatoes and only used them for hog feed since they thought that potatoes caused diseases. In fact, potatoes were banned in 1748 by the French Parliament because they were convinced that it caused leprosy.

However, while he was in prison in Prussia, Parmentier started to question the French's viewpoints on the potato as he was constantly eating them. When he returned to France, he started to advertise the potato as a potential food source, and in 1772, the Paris Faculty of Medicine formally declared potatoes safe to eat. There was still significant resistance against the sudden rise of popularity of the potato until 1785 when a famine overtook France. That's when people decided that they rather not starve than continue to be bigots.

By 1795, potatoes skyrocketed in popularity and french fries were very common in street vendors and push carts throughout France. In other words, the invention of the french fry must've occurred within that time period. You want the specific date of the invention? Well, it doesn't exist. Apparently people rather document stupid stuff like the invention of the light bulb in contrast to the creation of a world renowned appetizer. I wonder why?

Now let's look at Belgium's story.

In local Belgium lore, villagers of the Meuse Valley often ate small fish they caught in the river after they fry them up. However, in the winter, the river would freeze up and they would have to find other sources of food (I guess ice fishing didn't work for them. It never works for me either). Thus, the potato enters the fray (or the fry. Hahaha...sorry). The villagers sliced up the potato and fried it the same way they did the fish and ate it. Apparently, there are historical accounts that they have been frying potatoes in that way since the late 17th century, which if true, would mean that the credit of the french fry belongs to the Belgians. But that's only if its true.

​

Once again, there is no way to prove which country truly deserves the title of inventor of the "french" fry, so like any other topic, it can be debated for centuries to come.

Now you may be wondering that if the Belgians were the ones who created it, why is it called the french fry in English?

There are two possible stories. One being more likely than the other.

One story suggests that during World War I, American soldiers stationed in Belgium were offered this treat by some Belgians. However, since the official language of the Belgian Army was French, the soldiers started to call the appetizer french fries.

The other suggests that France was the one who spread fries to America and Britain (with help of super foodie Thomas Jefferson) thus it was called the french fry. And since Thomas Jefferson wasn't exactly alive during World War I, this theory holds more support.

And that's pretty much it. Once again, there is no exact date or location of the birth of such a renowned food. Such information was swept away by the chaos of time that we call history.

But, despite not knowing where it came from, I think that we can all agree that french fries are delicious.

​

Please leave a like or comment below on what I should talk about in the future. As of right now, I'm thinking about researching the origin of tea or fried rice next but let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys around!