Welcome back to another sumptuous Talking Lamar podcast. On this episode, we're going to be

talking French fries, where they come from, how are they made, and just how delicious they are.

What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Sorry, I forgot what I was talking about.

What are you talking about? I am talking to you. That's just what I was talking about.

It's talking Lamar. I know talking to you. That's just what I was talking about. It's talking Lamar.

I know they teach a lot of things at school, math and English and history, a lot of history,

but I'm afraid they might have missed an important lesson. The history of a beloved culinary treat

that has been a huge part of my life and millions, maybe even

billions of other people all over the world. Europe didn't know what a potato was until the

16th century. Spanish forces brought potatoes back from Peru. Now, Spain controlled a big area, and part of that is what is now Belgium.

So they were some of the first Europeans to eat potatoes.

In the 1700s, Belgians fried very small fish for their meals.

But when the rivers froze over, they couldn't get the fish.

So they sliced the potatoes thin, just like the fish. They fried it and ate them. Now, the Belgian soldiers introduced

the fried potatoes to French soldiers during the Franco-Austrian War. Potatoes were a hard sell

in France. It was considered edible only for hogs.

A French pharmacist, Antoine Augustin Parimentier, who was also a farmer, was a big fan of the potato.

He introduced it to Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette, and some more aristocrats.

I'm thinking maybe had Marie Antoinette said, let them eat taters instead of cake.

She might have stayed out of the guillotine, but she didn't.

Now, Paramountier had a potato patch, and he hired guards to surround the patch and guard it so that people would think that what was in the patch was very valuable.

What a marketing genius.

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