There’s an ongoing argument about who invented “French fries.”
The name suggests they were created in France, where they may have first been served from a food cart back in the 1780s. Spain and Peru also lay claim to being the first to fry up thinly-sliced potatoes. Most foodie historians, however, believe that the first “French fries” were actually cooked up in a French-speaking section of Belgium.
Where French fries began may be in doubt, but there’s no doubt about when they took over as the most popular item on pretty much every restaurant menu in America.
It all began with a handshake back in 1967.
J.R. Simplot and his team in Idaho had been working on creating the perfect frozen French fries since the end of World War II. Simplot started his company in southeastern Idaho in 1929 and things really took off when he signed a contract to supply U.S. troops with dehydrated onions and potatoes during the war. After “Victory Day,” the dehydrated market dried up, so Simplot had to get creative.
While it may seem like a simple idea to make consistent and tasty frozen fries nowadays, the world was much different back then. By 1946, Simplot was able to start selling their first commercial frozen fries, but they weren’t done trying to improve both the process and the product.
They eventually became confident enough in their frozen product to offer them to Ray Kroc of McDonald’s. Kroc was famously against frozen fries, but did have the challenge of getting fresh potatoes year-round. So Kroc agreed to meet Simplot and try his frozen French fries. Former Idaho Governor and longtime Simplot employee, Butch Otter, was in that room that day. As he explained on Tommy Ahlquist’s “Ever Onward!” podcast, Kroc’s “oath” was that he’d never use frozen fries—but at the taste test, the three plates Kroc and his team chose as the best were all Simplot frozen fries.
Kroc and Simplot “cut the deal,” as Otter said, with a handshake—and the rest is restaurant history. French fries would soon go on to become the most widely-sold foodservice item in the country. Simplot, who passed in 2008, would become known as the “American Potato Baron” and McDonald’s would become world-famous for their consistently crispy and delicious French fries.
Idaho’s ideal potato-growing climate and dirt also helped. Russet Burbank potatoes grow exceptionally well in the Gem State’s volcanic soil and are ideal for making fries of all kinds. Simplot now offers over 100 different styles of “french fries,” using the lower case f, and are still following their late-founder’s business philosophy of always trying to be innovative and adaptable.
“Over the past 60 years, we’ve continued to grow, in part because of the growth in demand for french fries and other frozen potato products,” explained Josh Jordan, Simplot’s director of global content and reputation management. “Today, we have almost 16,000 employees working across our global food and agriculture footprint, including those at major food facilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, India, China, and Australia who distribute products worldwide.”
Governor Otter also served as the president of Simplot International for over a decade, starting in the late-‘70s. His work helped pave the way for the very forward-thinking company.
“The future looks bright for Simplot,” Jordan said. “We know that change is constant and the pace of change is only accelerating. For us, the key to succeeding lies in research and innovation, which are the same attributes that have led to our continued success since J.R. first started the business almost 100 years ago.”
“We see a future of growth, not for the sake of growth itself, but because we know we’re going to need to have scale to take on the challenges that face the global food and agriculture industries of the future,” he said. “Moving forward, we’re going to have to do more with less—less land to grow food on, using fewer resources while producing more calories per acre. That means we must grow our capabilities to better adapt and change to best meet the needs of our customers. We’ve got to get better every day to continue to meet the needs of a growing population and serve our purpose of contributing to feeding our world.”
Founding Father and former President, Thomas Jefferson, is credited with introducing French fries to America. He is also usually credited with stating, “I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
Sounds like the type of advice J.R Simplot would pass along today—served with a side of fries, of course.
