The first recorded mention of fried potatoes comes not from Paris or Brussels but from a 1629 war zone in Chile, where a captive Spanish soldier described Mapuche women sending papas fritas to their chiefs. From there the episode follows the potato into Spain, through the legend of Saint Teresa of Avila, and into the bitter custody battle between Belgium and France over who invented the modern deep-fried baton. The Belgian tale of Meuse Valley peasants frying potato fish in the frozen winter of 1680 falls apart on inspection, while French records point to Pont Neuf street vendors selling fries in paper cones around the Revolution.

The second half digs into the science and the industry. The two-bath method, blanching at 160 C to gelatinize starch and then crisping at 190 C to trigger the Maillard reaction, is compared to bisque and glaze fir ...