Thomas Jefferson and French fries

Thomas Jefferson—possibly the first American foodie—is generally credited with introducing the French fry to America. Thomas Jefferson loved the foods of his native Virginia. He also travels to Europe and his service as minister to France opened his eyes to a new culinary world.

In 1785, Jefferson was appointed the United States Minister to France. Sailing with Jefferson was his daughter, and a nineteen-year-old enslaved house servant named James Hemings, whom Jefferson referred to in his early records and correspondence as “Jame.” Jefferson’s intent to have James master the French “art of cookery” and then bring French recipes and cooking styles back to Monticello when Jefferson’s foreign assignment was up. Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson,

During his stay in France, he had collected about 150 recipes. Among these are such current all-American favorites as vanilla ice cream, macaroni and cheese, and fried potatoes, which Jefferson originally knew as pommes de terre frites à cru en petites tranches (potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings).

Thomas Jefferson was served French fries in Monticello in the early 1800s, but it was not until the early twentieth century, when American soldiers back from serving in Europe in World War I demanded them, that the fried potato became popular in the United States.

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson, at that time he was the third President of the United States, famously served fries at a White House dinner. Jefferson requested potatoes to be fried “in the French manner”.

French fries do not seem to have caught on with the general public until the 1870s and only became truly popular in the 1900s.
Thomas Jefferson and French fries

History of French fries

Today potato is the world’s fourth largest crop, after corn, wheat and rice. About 10 million tons of frozen fries are consumed in the world each year.

The origin of French fries is nineteenth century Belgium, where patates frites were served on the street in paper cones.

In the 1840s pomme fries first appeared in Paris. They immediately popular and were sold on the streets of Paris by pushcart vendors.

The evolution of the fry certainly began much earlier as Spanish conquistadors returned from the New World with potato, which had been harvested for millennia in the regions around Peru.

Thomas Jefferson, ambassador to France, served French fries in Monticello in the early 1800s, but it was not until the early twentieth century, when American soldiers back from serving in Europe in World War I demanded them, that the fried potato became popular in the United States.

The name was shortened to French fries and was further reduced to fries in the late 1960s.

The advent for the automobile as the primary mode of transportation, particularly on the West Coast, began a new chapter in the life of the French fries.

Drive-inns and drive-thrus relied on the French fry as the sidecar to the burger.

The industrial production of French fries started in the USA after World War II. The invention of the industrial process of French fries production is generally attributed to Jack Simplot of the J.R Simplot Company in Idaho.

History of French fries