The Greatest Potatoes

Stowell's slightly undercooked debut, based on the true story of a creative chef, tells how potato chips came to be. The story involves "finicky and fussy Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt" and his 1850s "mission to find the greatest potato dish ever!" The self-styled potato critic trashes everything he eats, and international restaurateurs (represented by dubious Chinese, Indian, Italian and French stereotypes) shutter their cafés after his scathing reviews. When he arrives at Moon's Lake House Restaurant in Saratoga, N.Y., "only the fry cook, George Crum" dares to serve him. Crum dishes up towers of fries and hash browns, but Vanderbilt pooh-poohs everything. "If that persnickety old commodore wants a bad potato... that's exactly what he's going to get!" Crum mutters as he slices tubers "paper-thin," deep-fries them and salts them heavily. To Crum's amazement, the imperious commodore demands "More! On the double!" Watts (Emily Goes Wild ) illustrates this Iron Chef precursor in ribbony ink lines and fashion-magazine whooshes of watercolor, à la Chesley McLaren and Steven Salerno. Stowell's afterword explains that the real Crum, the son of a freed slave and a Huron Nation woman, thought he was playing "a practical joke" on a grumpy customer when he created the profitable snack. This version of events implies that the vengeful cook lacks his client's good taste—Crum's invention is portrayed as a lucky mistake—but the book's saving grace is a nice recipe for home-cooked potato chips. Ages 4-7. (June)