Flavour: The potato chip story
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Self-confessed crisp lover Ruth Alexander traces the story of the crisp or potato chip, starting with a tasting experience matching fine wines and “rubbish crisps” at a wine bar in the northern English city of Manchester.
With the help of journalist and crisp historian Natalie Whittle, Ruth finds out about the commercial beginnings of the potato chip in the fine dining rooms of nineteenth century New York. She meets the chef who travels the world searching for new taste sensations to develop into a packet of crisps for snack giant Frito-Lays. Can you guess which flavours nearly, but not quite, made it onto the shelves?
Ruth also talks to salty snack expert Jolene Ng of Mintel, who researches the role crisps play in modern life. And with Japan renowned for its unusual flavours, Ruth meets Makoto Ehara, the boss of one of the country’s biggest potato chip makers Calbee, who tells her about the threat climate change poses to the future of the potato chip industry.
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Produced by Lexy O’Connor
Photo: A woman in a bright pink jumper is smiling as she pushes a supermarket trolley through the potato crisp aisle. Credit: dowell / getty images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:03.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously, also from the BBC |
| 0:07.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning, sorry. |
| 0:11.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, |
| 0:17.2 | your Dead to Me is available first on BBC Sounds, a whole month earlier than anywhere |
| 0:22.2 | else in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear the very latest in history and loads |
| 0:27.4 | of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.8 | Hello and welcome to the food chain from the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander perched on a bar stool in the Cork of the North, |
| 0:41.6 | a wine bar in the town of sale in the north-west of England. |
| 0:45.0 | And I'm here for a food and wine-paring evening with a difference. |
| 0:49.3 | I'll let owner and simileate Mark Huff explain. |
| 0:53.0 | Right then, hello, good evening. |
| 0:54.9 | Welcome to Corklandall for tonight's wine tasting, |
| 0:57.5 | which I think it's safe to say |
| 0:58.7 | will be the most ridiculous wine tasting |
| 1:01.0 | you've ever been to your entire life. |
| 1:04.1 | So you're probably thinking, well, what's the purpose of this? |
| 1:06.4 | So this is, of course, our wine and crisp tasting. |
| 1:10.2 | I have to say I was very pleased to be at this event. |
| 1:13.3 | I have always loved crisps, even though I know they're not good for me. |
| 1:17.9 | I just can't stop eating them. |
| 1:19.6 | And I reckon I'm not alone in that. |
... |
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