Winter. When I was a kid that meant bundling up against the bitter cold and piling into the car. Mom and Dad took us to the original Nathan’s in Brooklyn – long before most people knew the name, food, and frozen products. We bought huge servings of French Fries, smothered in salt, ketchup, and mustard, loving the steamy crunch.
Little did we know that our delicious fries weren’t French but the magic of Nathan Handwerker. Handwerker couldn’t imagine that Nathan’s Famous would grow into a global multi-million-dollar business when, in 1916, he opened his nickel hot dog stand on Coney Island.
I still eat Nathan’s fries, except now they’re frozen and cooked in the air fryer.
Why is there a French in fries? The history of any popular food is always a challenge. Too many people battle for the right to claim being the first – especially with a food savored around the world.
French fries, whether pommes frites (French), patatas fritas (Spain), fritten (Germany), or chips (UK) have more names, toppings, and stories than a lifetime of 500-calorie McDonald’s large (supersized) fries. Even China imports them (mostly from the U.S.)
