[ Food history is replete with honored legends, creative stories,
slightly twisted truths, unsupported claims, leaps of faith, and
outright lies. Actually most new dishes are not invented; they
evolve.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE FAKELORE OF FOOD ORIGINS  
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Ashawnta Jackson
November 22, 2022
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_ Food history is replete with honored legends, creative stories,
slightly twisted truths, unsupported claims, leaps of faith, and
outright lies. Actually most new dishes are not invented; they evolve.
_

Where did potato chips come from? How about clams casino? Are the
origin stories for these foods true, or do they fall into the category
of “fakelore”?, Getty

 

Can anyone own a recipe? The combination of this-with-that to make
something wholly unique? When (if) that does happen—is this the
dish’s authentic origin story?

The answer is complicated, librarian Lynne M. Olver argues.
“Throughout history, claims for how new dishes were introduced range
from the reasonably plausible to the absolutely impossible. Generally,
most new dishes are not invented; they evolve.” And part of that
evolution involves folklore, or more accurately, fakelore , the
winding tales repeated as truth from generation to generation.

“Food history is replete with honored legends, creative stories,
slightly twisted truths, unsupported claims, leaps of faith, and
outright lies,” Olver explains.

Several foods have fallen victim to fakelore. Take one of our most
beloved snacks—the potato chip. As folklorists William S. Fox and
Mae G. Banner explain , many believe that the chip originated in
Saratoga Springs, New York, in the mid-nineteenth century. After
several complaints that his fried potatoes were sliced too thickly, a
frustrated cook “sliced the potatoes paper thin, fried them in deep
fat, salted them heavily, and served them up.”

A common version of the story holds that the cook’s name was George
Crum, and the hard-to-please customer was shipping and railroad
magnate, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Variations on this story have
been passed around since at least the late 1800s. But is any of it
true?

Probably not, but the tall tale was helpful to at least one entity,
the Potato Chip/Snack Food Association. The association and its public
relations team were the likely culprit in introducing Vanderbilt as
the unhappy customer. The wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt “Sonny”
Whitney, the great-great-grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, also
capitalized on the chip’s mythology, publishing the Potato Chip
Cookbook in 1977 and “publicizing potato chips and her cookbook in
numerous newspaper articles and television appearances.” A local
historian, who found no evidence of a Vanderbilt connection, called
out Mrs. Whitney as an “opportunist who merely seized upon the
potato chip story as a theme for one of her parties.”

All food fakelore isn’t as bitter, though. The origin of clams
casino, a clam served on the half-shell and studded with herbs,
aromatics, and bacon, is also one with questionable beginnings. As
with the potato chip story, this dish was purported to be invented in
1917 to satisfy a wealthy and demanding customer, this time Mrs. Paran
Stevens, the wife of a hotelier. She was described in her New York
Times obituary as “never hesitating to give full expression of her
opinions about everybody and everything,” so it probably wasn’t a
huge shock when she showed up demanding something special.

Julius Keller, the maître d’ of the restaurant, served her and her
guests the improvised and then-unnamed dish, telling her “we shall
call it clams casino,” after the Narragansett Pier Casino
restaurant. But in her research of the dish, Olver found “no print
evidence confirming that Julius Keller was ever employed at the
Casino.” This “new” dish was also not so new, and “may have
been inspired by popular oyster recipes of the era.” As Olver points
out, however, it doesn’t really matter. “Keller was obviously a
savvy promoter who knew how to capitalize on a popular trend. And for
that alone he should be given credit.”

Food origins can be murky, and though they’re often exaggerations or
even lies, they persist. Some stories just cling to us, Fox and Banner
explain, either because they’re too fun not to tell or because
“the story-telling abilities of the participants in folk
processes” are so strong. Everyone just loves a good story.

* food history
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* food lore
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* origin stories
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