Sweet Serendipity: 3 Stories of Accidental Food
Asher Sevy (G10)
As the author that took us on a tour of Beijing’s wild side in issue 4, Asher presents yet another comprehensive article, this time on the accidental creation of…food. Confused about what that means? Well, keep reading to find out!
“Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
Our planet produces enough food to consistently feed ten billion people, and each style of cuisine has its own special qualities. One question many have asked is, “Where did all this even come from?” Now, as the child of an overseas diplomat, I know there are some real exotic foods out there, but let’s talk about some that are more close to my home and how they were made. Foods like potato chips and sandwiches may seem common and unexciting to us now, but when they were first created, they were a huge hit — literally the best thing since sliced bread.
Today, we’ll be covering the three stories on some of the most-adored foods in the United States as well as worldwide. Back when they were created, these foods quickly escalated in popularity as they were unique and mind-blowing like nothing else. Why? Because they were accidents. Let’s find out more...
#3: Ice Cream Cones
(Courtesy of lloydstaffing.com)
Let’s set the scene. It’s 1904, at the St. Louis World’s Fair. A man by the name of Ernest Hamwi was selling zalabia, a thin waffle from Syria, at a stand right next to an ice cream vendor named Charles Menches. It was a hot summer day, and people were buying up ice cream faster than Menches could sell it. Eventually, Menches ran out of serving plates. Hamwi, a quick thinker, rolled up one of his zalabia waffles into the shape of a cone and scooped ice cream on top. Hamwi’s invention, first known as the World’s Fair Cornucopia, became widely popular and led to what we now know as ice cream cones.
However, this isn’t the only story of how these cold, delicious treats were created. Another man, Italo Marchiony, has also been credited for the invention of the cone, except he created it in 1896 and applied for a patent just two years before Hamwi’s “breakthrough,” and received the patent a year later in 1903. Marchiony, also a street vendor, sold lemon ice cream on Wall Street in New York City. He had actually started building his own cone-making device, as opposed to Hamwi, who sold his by hand. Marchiony may have been the real creator of these cones, but Hamwi was the one to popularize them. Ice cream cones started out as folded waffles, but nowadays they come in every shape and size. There are waffle cones, sugar cones, wafer cones, chocolate-dipped cones, candy cones, waffle bowls, and more. As humble as their beginnings were, ice cream cones wouldn’t be as popular as they are now without the help of these two men.
#2: Potato Chips
(Courtesy of blackhistory.com)
The story behind potato chips takes place in 1853, in Saratoga Springs, New York. A temperamental cook named George Crum worked in the kitchen of Moon’s Lake House, a popular vacationing spot for rich people. He was originally born George Speck, but one of his customers, Cornelius Vanderbilt, had accidentally called him Crum, and the name stuck. Crum had the misfortune (or perhaps fortune) of serving an extremely picky diner, and after the customer sent his fried potatoes back to the kitchen again and again, complaining that they were too thick and not fried enough, Crum had gotten grumpier and grumpier. At this point, he had had enough. Crum took the potatoes, sliced them as thin as he could, fried them to a crisp, and sent them back. Little did he know that the customer would actually love the new dish, and eventually after word spread, these new “Saratoga chips” came to be known as some of the most iconic American foods of all time. Crum’s success with these new chips as well as other dishes helped him to open up his own restaurant in 1860 called Crum’s. How perfect is that — a restaurant named after an accidental nickname, selling an accidental culinary masterpiece?
#1: Sandwiches
(Courtesy of medium.com)
Who ever would have thought that sandwiches were created because of gambling? In 1762, before the Revolutionary War, an English nobleman, John Montagu, Fourth Earl of the coastal town of Sandwich, was out playing cards. He had, to say the least, a bad habit of gambling for long hours. In this case, it had been a total of twenty four hours since he had begun. By this time you can imagine he was probably famished. Montagu ordered his food to be served between two slices of bread so he could hold it in one hand while keeping the other free. Other gamblers started asking for “the same as Sandwich,” which led to his association with the dish. Although the sandwich had been eaten thousands of years before, with accounts dating back to at least 100 BC, Montagu was credited for its invention, hence the name “sandwich.” Montagu’s birthday, November 3, 1718, is now known as Sandwich Day.
Out of the three, ice cream is ranked as the most popular comfort food in the US (7%), with chips following it (4%), and sandwiches last, according to a 2016 survey by the Harris poll. But personally, I find sandwiches my favorite, as there are endless possible combinations of sandwich toppings out there, each equally delicious! (If you don’t believe me about the sheer number of possible sandwich combinations, then just visit the nearest Subway.) These accidental foods are all dearly loved by the United States population, which goes to show that the unknown is something we should embrace. As Bob Ross once said,
“There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.”
Citations:
“66 Top Food Quotes & Sayings.” Askideas.com, 5 September 2016, https://www.askideas.com/66-top-food-quotes-sayings/.
Erdman, Jeremy. “We produce enough food to feed 10 billion people. So why does hunger still exist?” Medium, 2 February 2018, https://medium.com/@jeremyerdman/we-produce-enough-food-to-feed-10-billion-people-so-why-does-hunger-still-exist-8086d2657539.
Tripathi, Neha. “23 July: The story of first ice cream cone.” NehaScope, 23 July 2020, https://nehascope.com/2020/07/23/23-july-the-story-of-first-ice-cream-cone/.
Jones, Charlotte. Mistakes That Worked. Delacorte Press, 2013.
“The Potato Chip Was Invented by a Black Man Named George Crum.” Black History, November 2019, https://www.blackhistory.com/2019/11/potato-chip-invented-by-black-man-george-crum.html.
Kageyama, Ben. “The First Sandwich in History.” Medium, 6 September 2020, https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-first-sandwich-in-history-d0efc90a125a.
Reiter, Amy. “Guess What America’s Favorite Comfort Food Is.” Food Network, February 2016, https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/2016/02/guess-what-americas-favorite-comfort-food-is.
Evans, Erin. “59 Bob Ross Quotes on Art, Nature, and Making Your Today Better.” Bright Drops, https://brightdrops.com/bob-ross-quotes.
“What Types Of Ice Cream Cones Are There?” KaleidoScoops, 24 February 2016, https://www.kalscoops.com/what-types-of-ice-cream-cones-are-there/.
