Adult ESL Lessons: Potato Chips (Advanced)

This is Lesson 20, “Potato Chips,” from our collection of advanced adult ESL lessons. The lesson features an article about the history of potato chips, followed by comprehension questions, discussion questions, and an activity about healthy and unhealthy foods. This content-packed lesson is useful for helping more advanced English learners refine and improve their English fluency. This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many other ESL lessons for adults like this one in our book ESL Pathways: Frontiers.

ADULT ESL LESSONS: Potato Chips (Text-Only Version)

• Do you like to eat potatoes?
• Do you like to eat french fries?
• How else do people cook potatoes?
• What is your favorite snack food?
• How often do you eat snacks?
• Is snack food the same as junk food?
• What do you consider to be junk food?
• What are some healthy snacks?
• What are some unhealthy snacks?
• Which healthy snacks do you like to eat?
• What have you eaten today?

Read about the first potato chips.

In the late 18^th century, Thomas Jefferson introduced fried potatoes to the United States.  At that time Jefferson was the American ambassador to France.  He had tasted fried potatoes while he was in Paris.  Jefferson always served fried potatoes to his dinner guests.  They were considered to be a delicacy.  The french fry is an American invention but its name is based on the country of the origin of fried potatoes-France.  The simplest explanation of the origin of the name is that the verb “to french” is a cooking term meaning “to cut into thin strings”; therefore, french fries are potatoes that have been frenched, and then fried.

During the early 19th century, fried potatoes became increasingly popular in the United States.  They became a common menu item at restaurants across the country.  In 1853, a diner at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., ordered the fried potatoes with his meal.  The diner, Cornelius Vanderbilt, complained and said the potatoes were too thick.  He sent the potatoes back to the kitchen and demanded a crispier potato.  The chef at the restaurant, George Crum, was furious with the criticism.  He sliced the potatoes paper-thin, salted them heavily and refried them.  Instead of ruining the meal for the diner, Crum’s creation was a hit with the customer.  The owner of Moon’s Lake House realized that the chips were a hit and made them a menu item.  Eventually, Crum opened his own restaurant that featured the thin, fried potatoes.  He called them Saratoga Chips.  As word of the chips got out, other restaurants began to serve them too.  It wasn’t long before potato chips were a staple at restaurants across the country.

For several decades potato chips were largely a Northern dinner dish.  In the 1920s, Herman Lay, a traveling salesman in the South, helped popularize the food from Atlanta to Tennessee.  Lay peddled potato chips to Southern grocers out of the trunk of his car.  He built a business and a name that is still known today. Lay’s potato chips became the first successfully marketed national brand of potato chips. Today, Americans consume more potato chips than any other people in the world.  Some people say this could be one reason why so many Americans are overweight or obese.

Comprehension Questions:

1. Who introduced fried potatoes in the United States?
2. What did Jefferson always serve to his dinner guests?
3. Who invented the french fry?
4. When did fried potatoes become popular?
5. Who complained about his potatoes in 1853?
6. Where was the diner eating?
7. What was wrong with his potatoes?
8. What did the chef do?
9. Did the chef ruin the customer’s dinner?
10. What did Crum call the chips?
11. Who was Herman Lay?
12. Where did Lay peddle chips to local grocers?
13. What was the first American national brand of potato chips?
14. Who eats the most potato chips in the world?

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you ever eat potato chips?  Why?
2. Why are potato chips not really a healthy snack?
3. What snacks do you like to eat?
4. Why do people eat snacks?
5. When do you like to have a snack?
6. What are some other popular snacks in your country?
7. How many snacks should we eat in one day?

8. What things do you consider to be junk foods?  Why?
9. How many times do you eat in one day?
10. What kind of foods should we eat to maintain a healthy diet?
11. What does it mean to go on a diet?
12. Have you ever been on a diet?  If so, did it work?
13. Why can’t some people stop eating?
14. Is obesity a problem in your country?  Why are some people overweight?
15. Some people say that ‘we are what we eat’?  What does this mean?
16. What is your favorite thing to eat?  How often do you eat it?
17. If you were at a restaurant and didn’t like the food, would you complain?  Why?