Chapter 5: Why the Fries Taste Good

Chapter Five: "Why the Fries Taste Good"
J.R. Simplot is "America's great potatoe barron". He was born in 1909 and dropped out of school at age fifteen. Soon, at age sixteen became a potatoe farmer. He eventually became the largest shipper of potatoes in the West. At the age of thirty six, Simplot had his own farms and factories. His connection to the fast food industry began when he started freezing foods such as french fries. He sold his frozen fries to McDonalds, making a huge profit.

Potatoe farms in Idaho have changed in the last twenty five years from old fashioned picking and sorting to a world with new appliances such as the potatoe sorter and dehydrator. "Marvelous innovation after another promised to simplify the lives of American housewives."

McDonalds french fries taste different because the McDonald brother developed a way to make them. They used crisper, thinner potatoes in a special frier. When Simplot tried to sell the McDonalds brothers his frozen fries, he offered to make a factory souly for manufactoring McDonalds fries. The brothers took the offer.