On his return to France, his mission was to popularize the tuber, which he felt had been unjustly rejected. However, Parmentier’s prison diet convinced him that the potato had been wrongly accused. In 1748, the French Parliament banned cultivation of potatoes as they were convinced potatoes caused leprosy and various other diseases. Regardless of who invented French fries, a Frenchman was certainly the potato’s greatest ally! French chemist, Antoine August Parmentier served as a soldier in the Seven Years War, and while in captivity in Prussia, was fed only potatoes.Īt this time, the French only used potatoes for pig food, certainly not for human consumption. This version of the history of French fries is immortalised in the name of a type of fry eaten by the French known as Frites Pont-Neuf, named after a famous Parisien bridge. Whatever version takes your fancy, the case for fries being of Belgian origin is very strong.Īround the same time and during the French revolution, the French claim the fried potato was invented by Parisien cooks under the bridges of the Seine river. Potatoes were sliced in small fish shapes, supposedly to imitate their traditional fare, and then fried in fat.Īs for the name “French fries”, it’s said to come from either the Irish “to french”, meaning “to cut”, or from the American allies who, when they landed in Belgian Ardennes, tasted the delicious fried potatoes and called them “French fries”, French for the language spoken by the inhabitants and fries because the cooking method. Many Belgians claim the potato was first fried as early as 1680 in the region of Wallonie, where the people traditionally ate small fried fish, but were forced to eat other food when the rivers froze in the winter.
Expert opinion on this important matter is divided as well. The identity of the person who first dropped a sliver of potato into hot oil is unknown the French claim it was one of their countrymen, while the Belgians are sure they first frenched a fry.
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