Potato chips were born from a chef’s petty revenge! In 1853, a customer at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, kept sending his fried potatoes back to the kitchen, complaining they were too thick and soggy. The chef, George Crum, got fed up with the picky eater and decided to teach him a lesson. Crum sliced the potatoes paper-thin, fried them until they were crispy, and doused them with salt, thinking the customer would hate the overdone snack. Instead, the guy loved them, and the “Saratoga Chip” was born.

Word spread fast, and soon the restaurant couldn’t keep up with demand. Crum, who was part Native American and African American, opened his own place in 1860, called Crum’s House, where every table got a basket of his famous chips. Back then, potato chips were a fancy treat, served in upscale restaurants with little forks, not the grab-and-go snack we know today. It wasn’t until the 1920s, when a traveling salesman named Herman Lay started selling them out of his car, that potato chips became a household staple. Lay’s Chips, named after him, is now the biggest chip brand in the world, selling billions of bags annually.

Here’s a crunchy twist: the original Saratoga Chips were so thin that they’d shatter if you tried to dip them—dipping didn’t become a thing until the 1950s when creamy dips like onion and ranch hit the scene. Today, Americans munch through about 1.5 billion pounds of potato chips each year, with flavors ranging from classic salt to wild ones like cappuccino or wasabi. So next time you crack open a bag, thank George Crum’s spiteful streak for starting it all—it’s a tasty tale of how a kitchen tantrum turned into a global snack obsession!