George Crum

George Crum is the man who invented potato chips.

He was the head chef of Moon's Lake House, a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York.

In 1853, a customer complained that Crum's French fries were "too thick and soggy" and "not salty enough." The angered cook was frustrated by his remark, so he decided to give the maximal opposite of what the client was complaining about: he sliced potatoes paper-thin, fried them to a crisp, dropped a lot of salt on them.

Then he gave them to the customer, who loved them.

The chips became popular, and got called Saratoga Chips. They remained a local delicacy until the Prohibition era, when an enterprising salesman named Herman Lay popularized the product throughout the Southeast.

Urban legends say that the hard-to-please customer in Saratoga Springs was none other than railroad magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.