Fries! The Movie (2021) - full transcript

Here they are.

Perfect french fries.
Delicious.

One of the most popular,
most profitable foods

in American restaurants.

And who makes these perfect profit makers?

Thousands of fry chefs in all

types of restaurants serving
all types of people.

Fry chefs just like you.

And to help you make the best
french fries possible,

the Frozen Potato Products
Institute has made this film.

If you go into a fast
food place and you observe



kids, very, very young kids.

The thing that they're clearly
drawn to is the fries.

They have this food which they
can manage and control

and that they can douse in ketchup.

And the whole thing is just like,

it's like they're in heaven.

And on top of that,

these things are crispy
on the outside and like

soft and lovely and warm on the inside.

And it's just like, you know,

they're so intensely satisfied
with that experience.

I just think there are certain
things that are imprinted

on your soul and fries
are one of those things.

Fries!



- Oh, we love.
- I love the fries!

I love fries.

They're the most delicious
thing I've ever tasted.

- Who doesn't like fries?
It's not possible, you know?

Mmmmm!

Oh, it's just like bliss.

It's just like pure like
endorphins in your brain.

French fries are a communal food.

It's a vehicle for love
and friendship and community.

Fry it up and crispy deliciousness.

Is it French?

Is it South American?
Is a Korean?

Something like fries that can
be unique to all those places.

I think it's something
that connects us all.

They're always delicious.

They're always welcome.

I wouldn't want to be in a fry-less world.

Thank God for potatoes.

Oh, hello.

I didn't see you there.

Let's talk about some
French fried potatoes.

A French fry is essentially
a Parallelepiped

of potato, that is to say,

a stick that has been cooked
in such a way that it's creamy

on the inside and crisp
and crunchy on the outside.

And the way that happens is by
boiling the water

on the inside of the French
fry to make it nice and creamy

and boiling off the water
on the outside of the

French fry, replacing it with

oil to make it crisp and crunchy.

A French fry is determined
largely by the behavior

of starch. And starch is
a molecule that's made up

of lots of little sugar
molecules joined together.

Sugar molecules are the enemy
of a good French fry because

they tend to brown very easily.

The thing about a French fry
is that you don't want it

to brown until you've
already created the crust.

My feeling is that science

doesn't do a very good job of explaining

the deliciousness of pretty much anything.

But I've got my theories.

It's a combination of textures and flavors.

It's got a little potato flavor.

It's got a little oil flavor.

All those things are in there,

but they're delicate enough
that they don't overwhelm you.

So that you say, hmm, that was nice.

I want another.
And another.

And another.
And another.

And another.
And another.

And another.
And another.

Cooking and immersing

something in animal fat,
we've probably been doing this

for as long as we've been cooking.

Many, many culinary cultures

in the world have a version
of the French fry.

So there is something I think
universal about the crunch.

The nature of that crunch is, I think,

something that all of us
are drawn to in some way.

What particularly, I mean,
other than the fact that it's

delicious, is there some
other thing that satisfies?

I have no idea, but maybe it's just

the extraordinary contrast
between those two states,

between the outside and the inside.

For some reason that just
continually draws us in.

These Russet Burbanks.
These are a longer potato.

That makes them perfect
for a longer French fries,

which people have come to expect.

They've got a high starch
content which allows them

to stay fluffy when
they're cooked at high heat.

And not get too soggy or kind
of melty on the inside.

And a Russet Burbank certainly
delivers on expectation.

But what might a potato look

like that exceeds expectations?

I think that's an interesting question

and perhaps not an experiment
for the kitchens of Balthazar,

but perhaps an experiment for us.

A couple of years ago, I got
into the ketchup business.

And now selling millions
of bottles of ketchup a year,

we have always found ourselves
close to French fries.

We thought a great way to honor the fry,

was to create an exhibit.

So we asked a hundred

different restaurants
in New York to loan us one

of their fries, which we encased in a thin

layer of resin,
put in a glass specimen jar,

and for a few days we took
a gallery space on Bowery

and turned it into Fries of New York.

We actually had an outpouring of press.

We had thousands of people
come to the show.

It was, I think, at that moment where we

realized, wow, fries are really powerful.

People have passion for fries
that really rested this

this dream in our head
of creating a fry that could

stand up to any of those hundred fries.

But we don't really
want to start a restaurant.

Everything we do goes through
grocery stores.

And when you think about

that frozen aisle
of the supermarket and those

doors with French fries behind them,

it's almost this glowing
promise that you look upon

them and magically it's
the possibility of being able

to make a restaurant quality fry at home.

That is, I think, the Holy Grail.

Right?
That's the gold standard.

I think fulfilling
that mission is going to be

incredibly hard.
Fries are basically

the easiest thing to order
and the hardest thing to make.

So what I'd love to do is start

actually just by tasting these.

And let's talk about what

we're tasting and see if we
can kind of get an interesting

perspective on the fry that way.

As I go fry by fry?

Let's go fry by fry.

Great full body crisp.

So crispiness.

How do you like the chewiness inside?

Pretty lacking, but I can't
tell if that's maybe stale.

So it feels oily,

it feels it feels maybe over fired,

which I think detracts from the
complexity of the savoriness.

Yeah.

I love a good waffle fry.

So let's go waffle.

What I appreciated about this fry

is the fluffiness in the
inside and the texture of it.

I think it kind of holds
up nicely over time.

So I'm a personal fan

of the crinkle cut
because you get all that extra

nooks and crannies.
You look skeptical.

I feel like I have to overcome

childhood PTSD from like
the meals at school.

But there's something
about it that's just easy.

Yeah.

And it proclaims, here I
am and I'm an outsider.

All right. Final one.

- The last ones?
- Yeah.

Fascinating.

I think we all tasted the same thing

because if I ate these

at that restaurant, I'd be
like, oh, French fries.

I mean, now I'm like, oh, McDonald's.

Well, yeah.

This is, as it is,

a gigantic operational challenge for us.

We're trying to do something
that we've never done before.

I think also it's worth

pausing for a moment
to recognize it's hard.

French fries are hard.

It's hard to deliver a good fry, you know?

Fries!

You can't ever really think

about French fries too much.

Any simple thing.

The thing that seems simple, right?

Is very hard to get
exactly the way you want it.

I believe that frying is
God's cooking technique.

It's amazing how many
different ways there are

to tweak it and to get it just right.

Years ago, I started trying

to investigate all
of the different variables.

So I read every

scholarly work that there was
on French fries.

Effects of blanching
conditions on the mechanical

properties of French fry strips.

Processing conditions,
influencing the physical

properties of French fried potatoes.

Effective moisture
content on standardization

of the distribution of oil,
a structure and texture

properties, of changes
of polysaccharide content

and texture of potato during
French fry production.

This is all, by the way,
scintillating reading.

It's about the miracle
of moisture management.

The outside of it,

when we fry it is going
to have to be really crunchy.

The enemy of crunch is, of
course, moisture and steam.

The moisture on the inside
of the potato will instantly

steam out and ruin that crust
and make it soggy.

So it's all a game.

And the bigger the French fry is,

the more difficult it is
to maintain a balance between

a very nice crust
on the outside and a very nice

baked potato kind of texture on the inside.

So the main difference between
these two batches is just

the size, half inch and three eighths.

That's frying fast. This
is some hot, hot oil.

Oh, look at that.
Look at that.

Perfect, there's almost no
pull away from the crust.

You've got full internal potato.

Now, these guys are going

to stay crunchy from now until
I'm put into the ground.

Both of these were
treated exactly the same.

Only difference is this one I

put into the freezer and this
one just went into the fridge.

Oh, hot...

Hot! Hmm!

This is actually pretty good.
I have to say.

I must say, it is good.

This one is just my normal blanching.

These ones here, I put them
on a rack in the oven

for a little bit to flash
off more moisture.

These last ones, I steamed these.

My theory is that the inside

of this French fry will be nice.

And it is. Huh? Huh?
Theory.

I like a certain kind of
French fry, I like a French fry

that's between about three
eighths of an inch and about

half of an inch.
Anything smaller than that,

once you get down to quarter

inch and shoestring, it
becomes all about the crust.

There's very little inside anyway.

You know, look, you make what you like.

If you like the steak fry,
go buy a steak fry.

I'm just saying what I think
like I think like between this

and this is where French Fry Nirvana lives.

A bad French fry is in a front

and should be avoided at all costs.

A fry that's soggy is not... is gross.

It's not actually, it's not

like a lesser version of a proper fry.

It's actually a different food

that does not check any
of the French fry boxes.

And there are so many
other starches out there.

There's a bunch of good alternatives.

They're not the only

player out there.
But the good French fry is

sublime, and if we accept bad French fries,

then I think that we
reduce the incentive of

french fry purveyors
to insist on excellence.

Hello, my name is Lucas Peterson

and I'm a food columnist
for the Los Angeles Times.

I first started doing like

Matrix based food rankings
about four or five years ago.

The idea is that, like as a country,

we're really obsessed
with like putting things

in order and ranking things if
it's like colleges or if it's

our sports teams or whatever it is.

And so the idea that you could
do that to something as

subjective as food was just
supposed to be kind of funny.

I wanted to rank fries because
they have a place within our

culture that I think few other foods do.

I went to every major fast
food chain I could think of,

and I ate so many fries and
then I wrote what I thought.

Good taste is this way.

A good texture is this way.

Five Guys is up here.

McDonald's is around here.

I think Wendy's was OK.

Chick-Fil-A was OK.

And then down way

at the bottom, you have like Jollibee,

you have In-N-Out at the lower corner.

People were very mad.

The people who are upset
were primarily upset

because I said In-N-Out's
fries were really bad.

When I looked at some of the responses,

it was like, you don't
know Jack about fries.

In-N-Out is the shit.
For exclamation points.

Dumbest article to take up

space on my phone. Is this
writer in high school?

This post has been referred

for review by the un-American
Activities Committee.

This is why we need a wall

to keep people who don't like
In-And-Out of the country.

Yes, this is totally absurd.

But people have a really
close relationship to

like the foods that they
first eat in their lives.

Just like things that you
remember when you're

in the back seat of your
parent's car and you go

through the drive thru
and whatever that happened

to be, you develop like a very
strong attachment,

an irrational attachment to it.

So to attack

the hallowed ground of like
what some people associate

very deeply with,
like safety and like warmth

that really like fucked some people up.

Oh, that doesn't, no.

That's good, good question.

That's good question, but no.

I think they are from Belgium.

Yeah.
So, uh, and I think

the potatoes, they come from I
believe from Turkey.

Umm, I have no idea,
honestly, but they're good.

That's all I know.

- Somewhere in Europe.
- Yeah.

You have to look in the
books to see, to shop for it.

Well, the history of French fries,

it is complex because much
of the history of French fries

is lost in time and space.

It's not recorded.

It's not a historical event.

Most of the time.

So we have these occasional references.

But for all we know,
French fries might have been

prepared thousands of years ago.

The potato began in the mountains of Peru,

as best we know.
The Spanish conquistadors

brought the potato back
to Europe and a fellow named

Pedro de Leon in in 1533,
discovered that potatoes were

better for preventing scurvy
than limes and began to carry

them regularly back on his ships to Spain.

And began to be cultivated there.

And the Spanish conquered
the part of Belgium in 1514

that became known as
the Spanish Netherlands.

Belgium farmers began

to realize that potatoes were
an efficient crop for them.

So the potato flourished in Belgium.

French fries began in the Meuse Valley,

as best we know.
Villagers noticed the river

had frozen over
and they couldn't get to their

favorite little sardine
fish that they liked to fry.

And the women took pity
on them and began to cut

potatoes in the shape of small
fish and fry them up for them.

They're Belgian frites.

And obviously everybody
in the world knows about it.

Belgian frites are the best
because it's part and parcel

of everybody's life in Belgium.

You can't get away without
them, without fries.

In Belgium, we're quite sad

when we hear French fries because it hurts.

It hurts because it's like,
it's like anywhere else.

Belgian wines or Belgian cheese.

No, you know, it's not the same.

It's quite our thing.

And I've been to USA,
I've been to New York.

And I try the fries there,
it's awful, disgusting.

They don't know what
they're doing, actually.

And I think that's why they
don't understand, you know?

So most of the time,
when you say you're Belgian,

they understand it's,
"Oh, fries, chocolate, OK."

But, uh, it's their French fries.

And it's not a big problem
because it's not French.

Come on. It's not French.

You know, there's a joke

that goes, which country lies
between Holland and France?

Well, it's just one big chip shop.

It's Belgium.
It's all chips.

Well, Belgium has nine million inhabitants.

Brussels, about one million inhabitants.

It's the capital, so naturally
it's the capital of chips.

Because the chips, the fries

are a Belgian product in origin.

The name was given to us by
the Americans, French fries.

Very strange because the
French don't eat potatoes.

The French eat bread with
their meal, you know?

We like our chips crunchy, I think.

You know, and the Belgian
method is to have them deep

fried twice so they're really crunchy.

They're the best chips in the world.

It's a food that unifies our country.

It's like the cement that
holds our people together.

Well, I am the ambassador

of the French Fry here in Belgium.

I want to have the fries,
the genuine way, you know,

in a caravan, in a camper
van alongside the roads.

I don't want these hospital

type of very clean chippies
that we have now in Flanders.

I like the genuine steps.

I suppose we've reached our

fantastic, one of the best
chip shops in the world here.

Bon soir.

You know what they put on French fries

in Holland instead of ketchup?
- What?

- Mayonnaise.
- God damn!

I seen them do it, man.

They fucking drown them in that shit.

Yeah, what's every Dutch people are doing,

they're drowning with mayonnaise.

Ketchup.

Dijon mustard.

Well, I love sauce.

Fish and chips with curry sauce.

I just want whatever.

- Uh, usually ketchup.
- Buffalo, ranch.

I'm going to say like putting
it in honey mustard.

I prefer that over ketchup, honestly.

I like them with fresh butter on it.

That's why they made me fat.

See?

- Salt and vinegar.
Always salt and vinegar.

Salt and vinegar.

Mayonnaise is when he go to Holland.

- Yeah, that's the European's.
They're weird like that.

This may get me booted off your film,

but I eat them plain.

I don't even have ketchup.

The people in France follow

a story that French fries
first appeared being sold

by street vendors on the
Pont Neuf bridge in Paris.

But that wasn't until the 1840s.

My thinking is that France
gets the French fried

by virtue of the fact
that they were first prepared

in part of Belgium that was
then part of France and became

known as French fries,
probably largely because

of those Doughboy's who came
back from World War One,

talked about the fries they'd
had, but they were told about

that by Europeans who were
French speaking Belgium's.

So go figure.

Yes, it's like a meditation.

Yes, and I'm quiet.
Yes.

I have no agenda, no problem, and I...

But I don't see the time,
you see what I mean?

I am singing, I am
running my kitchen, I am...

I and with me.

I do this for my friends,

for my family, for people that I love.

When I was a little girl, I was about

five or six years old
and I was going with my mother

every Saturday morning to the market.

She always bring me to a shop
that they sell French fries.

And the French fries was so
wonderful and they was very,

very blonde, but they was
a little bit crispy, anyway.

I like to have these little
pieces of salt and of potatoes.

It was, and I had my mother
hand in my hand.

That was my dream.

I think that this moment

make me love more and more
the French fries.

And so when I had my children,
I want my children to know

French fries, but real good.

The French fries of my heart.

I put them in the oil.

Oh, I like that.

I like this moment.

This moment is the first best,

but when you will take the second best,

it will be like a song.

You will remove the basket

like this and you will shake it.

And the French fries make like a song.

Yes, it's true.
You will hear.

You know, if you've ever tried

to make fries yourself,
it is really, really,

really hard to turn
a potato into a crispy fry.

It's like, there's you know,

there is a whole art behind it.

And, you know, unless you have
the right kind of potato,

unless you cure the potato
for the correct amount

of time. You know, what
temperature you

put it in the fryer for how long?

What kind of fat are you using to fry it?

All of those elements need
to be standardized

and perfected to get a fry that works.

And if you're off in any one
of those dimensions,

the fry, you know,

there's nothing worse than a failed fry.

Making a French fry to cook

at home is a very hard task.

I think it's hard to make
a French fry, period.

Now we're talking about how do
you do all that

and then freeze the thing
and then help someone revive

it, resuscitate it, bring it
back to life and enjoy it?

I mean, that's really hard.

So we're working
with a company called Mattson

to test and develop the fry
and understand what might be

possible that is actually
rooted in food science itself.

Here's where we are today.

We have spent five weeks or so
procuring ingredients,

reviewing the research,
understanding the category,

looking at the competitive
set and so forth.

And we will present to you

a number of prototypes
for your review today.

The plan is for you to absorb
what you've experienced,

provide feedback over the next week,

narrow the range to four or five ideas.

And I think if there's one big
to do, it is let's figure out

how to make sure that these
things can get crispy.

So, ready to go.

Overall, there wasn't much
potato coming through for me.

The appearance kind of,
you know, set me off there.

Overall, it wasn't crispy enough.

They felt processed?

I like the bubbles on top.

- I actually liked it.
I gave it an eight.

Aroma was buttery and rich.

Flowery, creamy, chewy.

It was potatoey.

I can't believe we just ate

seven hours worth of French fries.

You got it!

Gotta burn those fries off.

* One, two, what's that sound?
Come on! *

* One, two, what's that sound?
Come on! *

This year, Britain celebrates

the 100th anniversary of fish and chips.

So Winston Churchill called
them the good companions.

Certainly no other food has won

such a special place
in the British way of life.

Although fried fish was
on sale in the 1950s,

it took 10 years for some
unknown genius to initiate

the historic association with the chip.

The oldest fried fish shop
in the country is Malin's

within earshot of Bow Bells
in London's East End.

It opened in 1960 and from this

small beginning grew a nationwide trade

that sells 50 million pounds worth a year.

Chips are, without a doubt,

right at the core of British culture.

Everybody, if you go elsewhere
around the world,

everybody talks about
English and British and their

fish and chips.

I do eat fish and chips, yeah.

I do like French fries.

They're a lot more salty here in

England though than normal chips.

And I do prefer just to have bigger chips.

And Americans can't get the words right.

Chips are our crisps.
And fries are our chips.

Fish and chips is one of the most

balanced meals you can eat.

The method of cooking seals
in the goodness,

while chipped potatoes are four times

as nourishing as plain boiled.

Well, even though my body's

a temple, I'm just looking
for someone to worship it.

I've actually been eating chips for years.

Yeah, I know it's all hard
to believe, isn't it?

be amazed at how good we look.

Yeah, that's right, yeah.

This restaurant
caters for the carriage trade

in Notting Hill Gate.
But you can still go

in and ask for a piece
of fish and eight of chips.

The only difference is you

will have a waiter to serve
you and a wine list.

My childhood memories of fries, hmm...

When I was younger,
my Nan used to take me to

Weston-super-Mare, which is on the coast.

And we used to eat fish
and chips there a lot.

- Yeah, when I was little.
Kids...

A day trip out to there.

Get on a bus, a load of us.

Come out and have our chips.

And of course,

one of its chief attractions
is its portability.

It seems to taste even better

eaten out of paper, strolling
home from the cinema.

Many, many years ago,
chips bought from the chip

shop will be served in newspaper.

So you could remember opening up

and you still have all
the pictures in the print all

over your hands when it gets

mixed in with the vinegar and the salt.

What really matters,

is that we can look
forward to at least another

century of nourishing enjoyment.

Another hundred years
of the good companions.

- Hi.
- Hi.

I'm going to have...

I'll have standard cod,
chips and mushy peas.

Do you have mushy peas?
- Yeah.

Gotta have mushy peas, you know.

OK, here we go.

The nation's favorite, fine fish and chips.

There you go.
Looking good.

My name's Martin Parr.
I'm a photographer.

Now, I've been photographing food

for many years now, in fact,

when I started, no one
was photographing food.

Now everybody does.

If you go to, you know, a posh restaurant,

everyone basically
photographs every course.

But I would do that anyway.

And I've been doing this
for maybe 20, 25 years.

And, of course,

chips and fries are
an integral part of that.

And over the years,

I photographed chips countless times.

You know, we're constantly used

to seeing pictures
in magazines where everything

looks beautiful, but in
reality it's quite different.

So my job is really to punch, sort of the

propaganda surrounding food
and to show the real food.

Well, I like very often
people eating. I mean

if you go to a party or
something and food's served,

people go completely haywire and bonkers.

You know, and that's always a good moment.

So I'm often behind

the counter waiting for people
to pick up their food,

queue for the food, scramble for the food.

You know, food is ubiquitous.

We all have to eat it.

And it's also very colorful
and pretty interesting.

Well, generally, fish and chip shops

use real potatoes.
That helps a lot.

I think most fries around
the world are just frozen.

Yours are fresh, aren't they?
- They are fresh.

- There you go.
- They are fresh everyday.

Well, if you talk about fries,

then you talk about taste
then talk about smell.

Memories start to come out.

Maybe childhood memories start to come out.

I still know very well at this
moment with my family

and when you went to the beach
and you get your fries.

Almost contrasting

with the smell of the sea,
but also adding something.

And this memory is so strong

that if they are our customers
and they taste these fries

on this place, maybe that's the new memory.

So I started up this project
making a fry stand.

And traveling to strange places with it.

I started off in the fields

with farmers harvesting their potatoes.

Second landscape was

on a special island
in the north of Holland.

It's called Tiscali.

I put it on the place where
you'll have to walk one

and a half hour before you will find me.

And people don't recognize it
immediately as art,

but they feel, OK,
something's going on here.

Why is he standing on this spot?

Something is happening
that's beyond imagination.

Next landscape will be Antarctica.

Pretty complicated to go to
Antarctica with a fry stand.

I built some skis to put under the wheels.

Of course, my fries will
be the best in Antarctica.

And they will be the only
Fries in Antarctica.

Here on the beach, you have to breathe.

And I think

breathing the air from the sea
is some kind of gift.

And the quality of being
alone was maybe a great one.

I like to be alone, I wonder.

Yeah.

* Potato, potato, potato,
potato, potato, potato *

* potato, potato, potato,
potato, potato, potato *

* the red or white, the brown,
they get that way underground *

* there can't be much to do *

* so now they have blue ones too *

* we don't care what they look
like, we'll eat them any way *

* they can fit on our plate.
Every way we can possibly eat *

*them and I think they're just great *

* potato, potato, potato,
potato, potato, potato *

* potato, potato, potato,
potato, potato, potato *

So we are here in Breña,

the Francisco's truck.

He is going to try Salchipapas.

Salchipapas is French fries,
frankfurter sliced then fried

again, mixed with
as much sauce as you want.

And that's it.

Salchipapa it's a funny
name as well, you know?

It's a word that is a mixture
of sausage and potato.

We're lucky in Peru that we have these

yellow flesh potato
is using Kanchan here for me

is a great potato for fries.
Fries is a product that we

for introducing potatoes
into the world diet.

I mean, potatoes has been

in the Peruvian culture
for over 10,000 years.

You know, the Inca empire,

the thing with the most value

was not oil or gold or silver, it was food.

Well, they actually bailed out
how to transport the potatoes.

How to make it grow
in such a high altitude.

You know, the potato cartel

that comes from the Andes?
We're blessed to have them

now. Without Peru,

the world wouldn't get any French fries.

So we should call them
actually, Peruvian fries.

Americans enjoy the wonders
of the French fried potato,

but did you ever stop to
wonder where they came from?

In 1802,

Thomas Jefferson brought
back a recipe from France

and recorded it in his own
handwriting at Monticello.

Jefferson later served French

fries as president and loved
surprise his guests with silver

bowls full of this exotic dish.

The mythology is that
Thomas Jefferson was responsible

for bringing the recipes and foods

back to America when in fact, he wasn't.

And this is half pork fat and
half duck fat.

So we're going to make
French fried potatoes, using

what was most likely the available fat

in the 18th century.

James Hemings was the first
American trained as a classic

French chef, and he was enslaved to

Thomas Jefferson. Trained
in France at the best possible

location, Chateau de Chantilly,
which was considered

in the 18th century, the best
food in France.

And the dishes that he brought
back from France,

macaroni and cheese, creme
brulee, meringues, French fries.

There was actually no trace
of fried potatoes in American

food culture before James
Hemings got back from Paris.

It literally is a simple dish
that went from Slave Kitchen

in Monticello around the world.

McDonald's, eat your heart out.

That is a beautiful thing right there.

We have no record of his recipe collection

because all of that was,

in my opinion,
either destroyed by Jefferson

or given to Randolph,
his relative who printed

the Virginia Housewife
cookbook, which in my view is

probably the biggest
culinary theft in history.

So this whole

notion that Jefferson cooked anything

is wrong. It's ignorant and
it's pretty racist.

We owe that dish to James Hemings.

He brought French fries
to America, definitely.

I think French fries were like
one of the most American

foods, and they just embody
the American thing,

just like fried foods
and they're easy, cheap,

and you can get them pretty much anywhere.

Fries are my go to comfort

food, I think for a lot

of Americans, it's very satisfying.

It's you know, it's got that mealy texture.

So you feel like you've eaten
something substantial,

although you'll probably
crash half hour after.

If you say, what do you think
of when I say French fries?

I immediately think

Nathan's Coney Island summer
walking the boardwalk,

the smell of the boardwalk,
hearing the seagulls.

It's so part of my childhood,

having grown up right across the street.

Whenever you had a, you know,

a few extra nickels in your
pocket, to your parent's

chagrin and despair,
ruin your appetite for dinner

because you were eating French fries.

But it is you know, it's a passion.

I think Americans think of French fries,

people around the world tend
to think of French fries as

an American dish because it's
so associated with American

quick service restaurants or
fast food restaurants

and McDonald's probably
at the lead of that.

Dick and Mac McDonald came

here from New Hampshire
to Los Angeles around

the Great Depression.
Back then, Los Angeles wasn't

yet car crazy, but it was just
starting to get that way.

And they saw they identified

that the roads as they got developed

in the United States,
were going to need places

to accommodate tourists, travelers.

The whole world was going
faster and they just sort

of seized that idea that we
need to accelerate how fast we

can both create and prepare
the food, but how fast we can

get it out to you, the customer.

Ray Kroc is the entrepreneur who founded

McDonald's Corporation as we know it.

He bought McDonald's

from Dick and Mac McDonald
in San Bernardino, California,

when they had a single restaurant.

Ray was really taken with how

delicious the brother's fries
were, and he was very

frustrated that he couldn't
replicate the formula.

Ray Kroc wanted to
bring the perfect fry to the

world, to deliver us from
the travesty of soggy fries.

And he spent millions

of dollars in the early years
of McDonald's when he could

hardly afford that, to perfect
the French fry at McDonald's.

Everything that they did
needed to be systematized

in a way so that the same
taste you got out here

in California was one you
would get in other places.

They developed a technology

which enabled you to ship
perfect fries throughout

the year, everywhere they need to go.

And that's what makes

the ubiquitous French fry today possible.

McDonald's was a franchise

constructed around the French fry.

It wasn't burgers that made
McDonald's McDonald's.

It was fries.

McDonald's rides this
French fry recipe to glory.

They become the world's
greatest fast food place.

You know, it's rare in history
that one man can be said to be

responsible for some epochal event,

but the demise of the McDonald's
French fry really can be laid

at the feet of a guy named Phil Sokoloff.

He's in many ways an exemplary figure.

You know, he's a kind of passionate,

brilliant, irascible in the way that

we like irascible self-made man in America.

He has had a near-death

experience, he has a heart problem,

he becomes convinced
that managing his cholesterol

is the only way for him to survive.

But being a sort of

entrepreneur of kind of grand ambitions,

he is content not just to fix
his own cholesterol,

but he would like to fix the
cholesterol of all Americans.

And so he begins this public

campaign of shaming corporations.

He takes out ads in The Washington Post

and The New York Times
and Wall Street Journal

and goes on morning talk shows
accusing major corporations

who use animal fats in their
products of killing Americans.

I want people to lower their
cholesterol and live longer.

That is my cause.

That is why I'm spending my money.

I mean, no one had done this.

I mean, Ralph Nader done this
about General Motors and cars,

but like, no one had done
this with food before.

And he's going after
the people who are making

food to the core of kind
of American food identity.

Remember McDonald's in the early 80s.

They really are the paragon
of American enterprise.

I mean, we venerate them

in the same way we venerate
tech companies today.

And the idea that

a lone guy from Omaha,
Nebraska, who no one's ever

heard of, can come and make
them change the formula

that lies at the heart of their business.

I mean, it's just it's unheard of.

McDonald's had been using

beef tallow mixture, and so they switched

to another formula, which is
heavily vegetable oils.

So the fry we have today is
a kind of palate imitation

of the original fry paradigm of the 1960s.

And we've been living

with the consequences of that
terrible decision ever since.

We know that French fries are

an unhealthy treat, but could eating them

on the regular send you to an early grave?

Nutrition experts suggest

that six French fries really
does equal the serving size

we're supposed to have
and people lost their minds.

From my professional
opinion, loving French fries has

a major sort of quality to it
that's very appealing to us.

First of all, carbohydrates,

carbohydrates are what sugars are.

I mean, complex carbohydrates

like potatoes break down into sugars.

And that's why we love sugars,
because it's easy,

accessible energy and we
need that biologically.

So we're evolutionarily

programed to love carbohydrates.

Then we have saltiness,

which is also something
that we're attracted to.

The saltiness is also often

associated with things that are proteins,

that we're also hardwired to
be attracted to salty taste.

And then, of course, there's
fat and fat is fabulous.

It feels really good in our
mouth and it actually triggers

endorphin releases and dopamine release.

Both those things together

really do make you feel good,
at least momentarily.

So French fries are

the perfect marriage of salt,
fat and carbohydrate.

Part of the thrill of a French
fry is the notion that it is

decadent, that it's you know,
you can't have a lot of it.

Why?
Because it's bad for you.

So what do you do?

Well you reserve your
consumption to those moments

in the day or in your week
when it's appropriate.

And it is the tension between
how good the thing tastes

and the discipline it takes
to limit your intake.

That creates the beauty
of the experience, right?

That's the whole point.

But if you turn these things into.

If you just make it

commonplace, if I say, you
know what, I fixed the fry.

Now if you want, you can have, you know,

fries with every meal,
what would be the point then?

Like you just what you've done
is you have drained

the pleasure out of that experience.

There is something to be said
about the happiness that goes

into having a meal that's
indulgent, and I think those

indulgences only come from
when they're sporadic, right?

They only come from when it's a treat.

I feel like fries have been

a part of my life for so, so long.

I mean, I've truly grown up on them.

It was like after school snack.

In high school, you were just sitting

on the hood of your car, just
munching on French fries.

It was so much a part

of my life that it almost
wasn't a huge part just

because it was such a natural,
normal thing.

It was a every day, it was a lifestyle.

Yeah, it really was.
- A French Fries lifestyle.

Oh, my gosh.

That's what these are for.

Yes, it's cool.

Oh, my God.

- OK, you go first.
- I will.

I don't know.
It just, I'm going

cheddar.

It's incredible because you
have the illusion

of lightness, right, crispiness,

and then you go into something
soft and you think it's light.

And then in 20 minutes, we're
going to regret it.

I still don't believe

that they're unhealthy, though, in any way.

I mean, in comparison

to the things that most people love to eat,

if I could indulge in one
thing, it would be fries.

You know,

I'm not a cake person,
not cupcake, not ice cream.

We had a video of taking Luna

through her first McDonald's
drive through and...

Oh, my God,

that must have been an experience.

So many people were like,
my child is never going

to know what McDonald's tastes like.

You know, when you have access

to so many different types
of food, why would you bring

them through a McDonald's drive through?

And for me, it's like nostalgia.

There's something exciting
about that to me still.

And seeing her eat the exact

same thing I ate when I was little.

It's nothing wrong about it.

If you if you don't eat

like pounds of fries, if you
have moderation about it,

which we're not going to have today.

But if you have some.
- I used

to grow up comparing French
fries, you know, I was like,

Dairy Queen is good because
they feel like they're sugared

and they follow a Burger King
feels that same way too.

They have a crispy coating.

McDonald's is lighter.
- Oh, so you know your fires.

Like really look like an expert, right?

Wow.

All right,

so we've been asking everyone
to name, some cuts of fries.

Just give me your thoughts.

Crinkle cut fries.

For some reason,

people often under fry the crinkle cut fry.

They come out to blond.

They don't have a lot of texture to them.

I also think they they
kind of look childish.

Shoestring fries are same.

They're not so satisfying
on the plate like they're

in that weird zone, like,
is this a fork thing?

Is this a hand thing?

You know what I mean?

I do not like McDonald's French fries.

I do not like them, anyone that thinks

the McDonald's French fry is
good cold, just please don't

talk to me about it because
they will affect everything

I think about everything else you think.

Most curly fries,

if you are honest
with yourself, are not good.

If they have a coating
on them, they can be OK.

But that's about the coating.
Adding a coating

to the outside of the fry is just cheating.

You ever had a good wedge fry?

No, you haven't.

Let me say this, tater tots are delicious.

Anyone that doesn't think

a tater tots is delicious is incorrect.

Are they in the same
family of French fries?

Well, they are a fried potato product.

They are closer to a French

fry than they are to a mashed potato.

They are closer to a hash

brown than they are to a French fry.

And ain't nobody thinking that
a hash brown is a French fry.

Here's the metric.
If you said

give me some fries and I
handed you tater tots,

you'd be like, I didn't
say I want tater tots.

I said, I wanted fries.

Napoleon, give us some your tots.

No, go find your own.

Come on, give some your tots.

No, I didn't get to eat anything today.

Gross.

People get mad if you say
the tater tots are a French fry.

My name is Kelsey McKinney.

I'm a freelance writer.

I'm going to talk about how

tater tots play into the
history of the French fry.

It's two brothers, the Grigg
brothers, Nephi and Golden.

Golden is just kind of like the younger

hang on.

He doesn't really matter in the story.

So the late 40s,

the Grigg brothers are only making corn.

They're not really working
toward making potatoes.

But American culture really
changes the way that we eat

dinner changes after

World War Two.
In between 1945

and 1946, Americans consumed more than

eight hundred million
pounds of frozen food.

It was all we ate, basically.

So Nephi and his brother are

looking at each other thinking,
this is a huge market.

This is something that we can

jump into that we can
become super rich off of.

And so they mortgaged their
farm and buy a bigger farm

on the Oregon Idaho border,
they name it Ore-Ida.

And they start making French fries.

What the machinery does is it

chops the potatoes very
roughly on the sides and then

it slices it in kind of like
a tic tac toe pattern.

So what you're losing is
a ton of potato, right?

You're losing the whole outside.

Anything that's not a perfect
cube can't be a fry.

So now he has a lot of extra

potato product that he can't use.

This is very upsetting

to Nephi because he's a child
of the Great Depression.

He grew up having not enough

food and he's looking at all
of these potato scraps.

This is a ton of money
that he's throwing away.

And so he's frustrated
and he's looking at it

thinking like these are
potatoes, potatoes are food.

If only we could find a way

to turn this into a product
that could make me money.

He calls for this guy
whose name is lost to history,

because Nephi did not think
it was important, apparently.

And that guy helps him come up

with a way to create basically
like tubes of this

potato product that would then
be shoved through a funnel

and then chopped off so
that you can fry them.

So Nephi has these small potato pods,

he knows he's going to this
convention with a ton of other

potato guys, the National Potato Convention

is held in 1954
at the Fountain Blue in Miami.

It's a brand new hotel, shiny, beautiful.

It's the kind of place
that like movie stars going.

And you also have three

hundred members of the
National Potato Convention.

Nephi sneaks down
into the kitchen and talks

to the chef. He bribes him
into letting him put a little

platter of his potato product
on each of the tables.

And he's like, can I please
just can I please do this?

And the chef says, Sure, fine,

I don't care, because why would you care?

It's a potato convention.
It does not matter.

And of course, they're a massive hit.

It takes off immediately.

I mean, this is a food than
if you're a 50s housewife.

That's a dream come true.

It's just great, crunchy fun.

Easy to serve your kids, right?

You shove it in the oven

and spend the rest of your
day drinking martinis.

So we've got a really exciting
set of distinguished guests

this evening that we're
looking forward to tasting

and actually critiquing these
fries and giving feedback.

We have Kate Krater,

super experienced kind
of New York restaurant

reviewer, food writer Hannah Chang,

who's half of the founders
of Mimi Cheng's Dumplings

and Zen, who has cooked for the last

two of our Big Sur
Kensington's tasting parties.

Yeah, when we invite people,
we want to invite people also

who aren't scared to say the truth.

We want those people that are
not scared to.

At this party?

Yeah, absolutely.

Our freezer is loaded.

This is the classic potato fry.

This is a harissa fry.

This is a medley of both sweet

potatoes and a Japanese sweet potato.

This is a 30 percent parsnip

tater tots and 70 percent potato.

It's a really beautiful sweetness to it.

I think that's a first really nice texture.

Yeah, this is the sweet potato.

We're working on these for

a product for sale in grocery stores.

These fries here and these

tater tots are basically
the exact thing that someone

would experience in their own home.

Minus the lovely tray of Uni.

Minus the lovely tray of Uni.

I mean, that is...
Uni not included.

- Hello, how's it going?
Good to see you.

Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming.

Yeah.

It doesn't really take much to
twist my arm for a French fry party.

This is our take on like
a classic straight ahead fry,

but reinvented with a specialty potato.

It's really good, it's got almost

a built-In tang like salt
and vinegar potato chips

but as a French fry.

What do you think of this one?

A palate opening French fry.

It's got a lot of flavor.
- It's nice

that it gets crispy on the bottom,

which isn't what happens
with any of the other fries.

Not those though. Those
look disgusting.

I mean, I kind of love wedges.
- Do you really?

Does anybody like this one the best?

This is the regular one.

No, sorry, that's just a no for me.

Yeah, it's fine.

The classic is the hardest to win.

It is, yeah.

Everybody has their own
personal favorite and they're

like, no, nothing's
going to overthrow that.

Like what could be improved here?

Just make it like McDonald's.

Exactly.

We totally understand that the
frozen French fry is broken.

Right.
It doesn't like to live up

at all out to like the restaurant.

So we're trying to solve that.

And I don't think we've hit it.

- Well, thank you.
That that's super helpful.

Yeah, yeah.

So after a lot of hard
work and really over about a

year of development,
we didn't love where we're

at with the fries
and ultimately if we don't

love it, we don't launch it,
we would rather stick to our

knitting until we're really confident to go

into the hallowed space of the French fry.

You know,

it's a quest that will remain
in our mind and in our heart.

But until we're compelled

by a new breakthrough,
I don't think we're going

to come out with a French fry anytime soon.

Someone comes home with a bag

of frozen fries, first of all,
this is a fine thing to do.

Same thing is in that bag

that ninety nine percent
of the restaurants are using.

Right.
Don't feel bad about that.

Don't make the mistake
of putting them in the oven.

Fry them, fry them, please fry them.

Just suck it up and deep fry it.

Yes, hello,.

You hear the French fries.

They are singing,

you see?

Food is something
that, given its extraordinary

place in our lives, we don't
talk about it nearly enough.

Come on, we...

This is a subject that bears

so much more conversation and thought.

I think if you think about
fries, about why you're drawn

to them, I think you
become someone who is much

more responsible in the way you eat them.

Let's make the fry decadent

again and let's make it a treat.

That, to me, is the direction
we should be going with fries.