Belgium claims ownership of French fries
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | December 28, 2012 21:17
Fries, crunchy, tasty fried sticks of potato are claimed both by Belgium and France as the product of their national gastronomic genius but the true origins are shrouded in popular folklore.
“Fries, they are the orphan of street cooking, of low birth. That is why it’s hard to establish where they really come from,” says French historian Madeleine Ferriere.
The provenance of the humble fried potato, or chip for the English, is a matter of dispute among experts, especially in Belgium where they are the national dish and a symbol of pride for a country sharply divided between a Flemish-speaking north and a French south.
“Belgians love fries but there was no scientific research on the issue until recently,” Pierre Leclerc, professor at the University of Liege, told a recent forum in the capital.
There are many theories and and just as many claims to paternity.
In France, fries supposedly first saw the light of day on ‘Pont Neuf’, the oldest bridge in Paris, where street hawkers began selling them just before the French Revolution in 1789.
This Paris origin theory has a long history and has been widely accepted and repeated despite Belgian claims that fries were in fact invented in Namur, in the south of their country.
The story goes that people there needing a cheap meal would fish in the River Meuse, frying what they caught.
“At the end of the day, we do not care where fries came from. What counts, is what has been done with them,” said Roel Jacobs, specialist in the history of Brussels and its culture.
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