10/06/2026
The history of the French fry is surprisingly disputed. Despite the name, French fries may actually have originated in Belgium, where tradition holds that people in the Meuse Valley were frying thin strips of potatoes as early as the late 1600s, supposedly as a substitute for the small fried fish they ate when rivers froze—although historians debate the evidence for that story. Potatoes were certainly being fried in France by the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with fried potatoes sold by street vendors in Paris and appearing in French cookbooks. In the United States, Thomas Jefferson famously served potatoes “in the French manner” at the White House in the early 1800s, though they were cut into rounds rather than today’s familiar sticks. By the 20th century, the long, thin fried potato had become a staple of American diners, drive-ins, and eventually fast-food restaurants, which transformed the French fry into one of the world’s most recognizable foods. Today, Belgium and France can both make credible claims to its heritage, but the fry itself has long since become international.
