Feb. 18, 2026 | Belen Ponce Leal | Lifestyle Editor
French fries are one of the most beloved sides to many fast food dishes. Most burgers come with a full side of them, chicken baskets come stacked with them and even fish have “chips” to adorn the main dish. Fries come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: some curly, some salty, some spicy or just plain.
Growing up, both of my parents worked at a potato factory and would often bring bags of fries home whenever they would have extras. I watched my mom dip them in a pot of boiling oil, and I was so hungry that I would usually burn my fingers while trying to grab them. As an adult with an air fryer and somewhat more patience, I recently made them while my husband was making some chicken tenders to go with them and started wondering where they came from.
There seems to be a bit of a custody battle between two countries that claim to be the creator of fries. The name “French fries” implies that they originated in France. According to cookbooks from the country, they mention that potatoes have been fried as early as the 1700s, but probably didn’t look anything like the fries we imagine today. Some say that the side dish was originally a snack sold by street vendors as a sort of street food. If anyone has seen those videos of street food on TikTok, it is believed to be made similarly.
However, fries were recently believed to be tied to Belgium as their “birthplace.” According to some historians, fries were invented in the winter of 1680 when the citizens of Namur, who had a knack for loving fish, needed to find something else to eat during the time when the lake froze over. Since they no longer had fish to cut up, they decided to use potatoes instead. They cut them into long skinny pieces, fried them up and created French fries as a sort of struggle food. While others argue about the legitimacy of this “fry lore,” Belgium has been firm in its belief that it is the parents of this famous side dish that we Americans can’t get enough of.
Yet, there could be another reason why these two countries specifically claim to have created fries. A Belgian researcher named Pierre Lecercq did extensive research trying to figure out where fries came from. He discovered that a cook named Herr Krieger, who was trained in Paris, was traveling town to town in Belgium in the early 1800s. He sold fried potatoes that were sliced, which he described as Paris-style fried potatoes. Supposedly, he cut them into slices because it made it easier to cook them.
French fries have been stuck in a custody battle for a few years now, and in the end, where they came from doesn’t really matter. After all, I couldn’t care less whether they come from Belgium or France. I personally enjoy the thought of them being made by a trained French cook, but sold around towns in Belgium. Yet, as long as the fries are crunchy with some ketchup or fry sauce, I will enthusiastically eat them no matter where they’re from. Except In-N-Out.
Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu
