the crisp at the crossroads revised response essay

As Reyner Banham refers in his essay “The Crisp at the Crossroads”, crisps are among the triumphs of progressive technology. George Crum in 1853 was working as a chef at a restaurant called Cary Moon in Saratoga, New York. George Crum was known that he was bad tempered and so people that dined at the restaurant used to test his temper. Some of them used to send their foods back saying that they weren’t good enough and challenged George Crum to make them even better. One day one of the customers kept sending his French fries back because he said that they were soft and not crunchy enough. The customer sent his French fries back to George Crum three times. And so George made some French fries that were so small and thin that couldn’t even be pierced with a fork. But he never imagined that those crisps would be loved by the customer and not only. People used to ask for them all of the time so George put the French fries on the restaurant’s menu and called them Saratoga crisps. To his surprise the crisps become an everyday habit of people around the world because not long later they were not only served in the restaurants but in supermarkets too.
Firstly crisps were stored in tins but they often were found damp after a while. Later on when airtight bags were invented, crisps started being mass produced by factories and were sent for consuming around the world. At the beginning they started off by Crum in 1853 being thin slices of potatoes that were fried and served with salt as their topping and then they were sold plain and the packet inside included another sachet which had salt in it for those who wanted to add salt as a topping. Moving on the next stage was that the factories produced them “Ready Salted” and now two centuries later are served with – only God knows how many flavors and toppings exist around the world.
Nowadays the crisp companies of each country produce their own special flavors that have to do with the countries region and popularity of a certain flavor or ingredient. For example in Cyprus and Greece oregano is a very popular ingredient that is being used a lot in different foods. So crisps were made in Cyprus and Greece with oregano flavor and are very popular and sell more than any other flavor as in Italy the pizza flavor sells more. Flavors keep on expanding dramatically and there doesn’t seem to be a stop in this whole process because it is profitable for the companies and we keep buying them because they are a cheap snack. It’s a two way situation because both of us; the factories and the people buying them find profit from this situation.
Through the last few years marketing manufacturing and advertising means helped a lot to their promoting and got crisps into our houses literary. The fact that they have an attractive packaging, there are so many flavors, come in “light” packages, and are probably the cheapest snack in the market that can be served for any occasion helped to their promotion. Television commercials also helped a lot to their promotion because they make us unconsciously think that we want to buy them and eat them because they are so good and no one can really deny that. But the important thing is that we are not doing any good to our health by eating them but we also can’t help it because we never get the chance to think about the all the dangers that may cause.
The sense that a small synthetic appetizer, side dish or snack can really be bad for our health never crosses our minds until we give it a good thinking. Even if it does cross our minds some crisps are also labeled as “lights”. Their packages promote the fact that they have less fat, energy, proteins and so on. But for a potato to become a crisp means that it goes through a non-natural process which is to be fried in cooking oil. Each packet of crisps contains at least one to one and a half table spoons cooking oil which is bad for our health if we consume it in large quantities every day and most of the times more than once per day.
Even people who avoid living the modern way of life find their selves in consuming crisps more than the desirable amount that they would have liked to consume. All of us get carried away when it comes to crisps; we get carried away from our desire of a quick snack. Crisps can become a bad habit for one’s health and especially in the times that we live now. Many people spend most of their time sitting on a couch basically doing nothing special, just watching TV and eating junk food because they can’t be bothered to get up and make a decent meal to eat. Crisps have made things even worse for “couch potatoes” health. Crisps can be found in either small convenient packages or big family packs and are easy to carry around with you and that the reason why people eat them as a part of their daily fast food meals.
Crisps are “synthetic” potatoes, which can be a bad habit for one’s health if they are consumed on a daily basis. But on the other hand they are a convenient snack, side dish or appetizer that can be served for many occasions. Next time we are all faced with a packet of crisps in a supermarket we should think twice before buying them because at the end of the day we are not benefited by any way when eating crisps.