No. It's not a spelling mistake. Crips - not crisps - are a world first - and they've been invented by a Nottinghamshire chef. They were unveiled to the public at Goose Fair 2004. What on earth are they? Well. Crips are the new - half chip, half crisp - hot potato snack which have been patented by Carl Larden, a chef from Radcliffe on Trent. We wanted to know more. So, we had a word... Carl. What gave you the idea for the crips? Well, the idea came from Spain where I saw a man selling freshly made crisps at the side of the road with a really dangerous vat of oil with a great big burner underneath. They tasted great. I just got thinking... Crisps are the biggest selling cold snack in the world. Chips are the biggest selling hot snack in the world - wouldn't it be great to combine the two. I've been a chef for 29 years, since I was 17. I became a chef because I wanted to travel the world. I've travelled a lot - one job landed me on a rich man's yacht, which helped. I also believed in the saying that if you want good food then you should cook your own. How long has it taken to get crips up and running?
 | | Carl Larden (on the left) |
I had the idea five years ago. However, I have had to work with some very clever engineers to perfect the machinery needed to produce crips. Out of 500 varieties of potatoes there are only four or five that will give you the perfect crips. We got through tonnes of potatoes to find out. You need to have the right starch and sugar content to get the crisp exterior and softer potato interior. Is this your first unique culinary dish? No. That was spicy garlic mushrooms. The sauce was made with eastern spices, honey and garlic. I've been selling these at Glastonbury for years and years. But I had to get out of mushrooms - if you don't sell them the day you buy them then you have to get rid of them. Potatoes last a lot longer. I like potatoes. Is your equipment pretty similar to a fish n chips fryer? Well, yes and no. We had to redevelop the fryer. If you used a fish n chips fryer it wouldn't be able to heat up the oil fast enough. What we've produced is a queue eater. After five years in development we can now produce good fast food very quickly - a portion of crips takes just 30 seconds to cook - without ruining the oil. I need to thank my consultant engineer Rupert Vanderpost for that. Why launch the crip at Goose Fair 2004? I had to launch at Goose Fair. I'm a Nottingham boy. Goose Fair is for the children of Nottinghamshire... and my partner in the business is James Mellors. Where do you go from here?
 | | Crips. The new Crisps. |
Fairgrounds and theme parks are the perfect place for food on the hoof. But also Silverstone, Ascot, the waterparks in Europe and of course Glastonbury and Womad. I originally trained as a sauces chef. So when the idea of the crip came along it was originally to be used as a vehicle to make the dips. At Goose Fair I'll be offering five standard dips (tomato sauce, salsa, garlic mayonnaise, barbeque, sweet chilli)... but I have come up with some more extravagant dips for other venues (lime and ginger, Camembert and grape, Thai curry, spicy tomato, lemon and dill). The problem of obesity is always in the news at the moment. Do you really believe that this fast food snack is healthy? I believe food should be pure, in a simple state. We use the right potatoes and the right oil - a high grade vegetable oil. We cook the food at the right temperature - so food doesn't absorb any oil. We also keep the skins on the potatoes giving you a good deal of roughage. If you do all that then this snack is good for you. Fancy a snack? Well, look out for Carl and his crips at Goose Fair. | 
