French Fry Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
55 free French Fry trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
52 free French Fry trivia questions with answers. French fries are the most-eaten side dish on Earth, and almost everything about them is contested: Belgium and France both claim to have invented them, the oldest written record of fried potatoes actually comes from Chile, and the United States once had Congress rename them. This quiz covers all of it — the origin dispute, the two-bath frying method, why McDonald's fries tasted different after 1990, the handshake deal that put frozen fries in every fast-food kitchen, and the global family of fry dishes from poutine and patatje oorlog to slap-chips and salchipapas. Easy questions ask what the British call fries and which Canadian province gave us poutine; harder ones dig into which potato cultivar dominates the industry, the year Arby's launched curly fries, and the Utah restaurant chain that popularised fry sauce. It works as a food-trivia round for a pub quiz, a bar-night warm-up, or a solo test for anyone who thinks they know their frites. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on French fries, poutine, freedom fries and the companies and dishes involved, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 55 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Britain and Ireland, what are American-style potato chips called?
Crisps
Fried potato batons are the "chips" there, and thin fast-food fries are sometimes called "skinny fries" to set them apart from thick-cut chips.
Q 02Poutine, the dish of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, comes from which Canadian province?
Quebec
It emerged in the Centre-du-Québec region in the late 1950s, and the word was only added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2014.
Q 03Which two countries have a long-running dispute over who invented fries?
Belgium and France
Belgian historian Pierre Leclercq has concluded that fries are of French origin, becoming an emblematic Parisian dish in the 19th century, while Belgian tradition blames 'French gastronomic hegemony' for the name.
Q 04In March 2003, US House cafeterias replaced the word "French" on their fries and toast with what word?
Freedom
They became 'freedom fries' and 'freedom toast': Representatives Bob Ney and Walter B. Jones ordered the renaming in March 2003 over France's opposition to the Iraq War; the menus quietly reverted in 2006.
Q 05Which fast-food chain introduced its spiral-shaped Curly-Q Fries in 1988?
Arby's
Arby's put Curly-Q Fries on its menu in 1988; the spiral cut itself is older, sold as 'Suzi-Q potatoes' at an Oklahoma City restaurant in the late 1930s.
Q 06Until 1990, McDonald's cooked its fries in a blend that was 93% what?
Beef tallow
McDonald's fried in a blend of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil until 1990, when it switched to vegetable oil and added 'natural beef flavor' to keep the taste.
Q 07Which US president served 'potatoes served in the French manner' at the White House in 1802?
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson served 'potatoes served in the French manner' at an 1802 White House dinner; a manuscript in his hand records 'pommes de terre frites à cru, en petites tranches', likely from his chef Honoré Julien.
Q 08The oldest known written mention of fried potatoes, from 1629, comes from which country?
Chile
The mention is from Chile: Francisco Núñez de Pineda's account of his 1629 captivity among the Mapuche records eating 'papas fritas', probably thick slices fried in lamb or guanaco tallow.
Q 09The curator of Belgium's Frietmuseum has suggested which Spanish saint cooked the first fries?
Teresa of Ávila
Frietmuseum curator Paul Ilegems proposed Saint Teresa of Ávila, arguing Spain was the first European country to receive the potato and already had a Mediterranean tradition of frying.
Q 10In which Belgian city is the Frietmuseum, the self-styled first museum of potato fries?
Bruges
The Frietmuseum is in Bruges: Eddy Van Belle opened it in 2008 inside the Saaihalle, a 14th-century former wool hall, after the success of his chocolate museum Choco-Story.
Q 11A Belgian journalist claimed potatoes were fried in the Meuse valley before 1680 as a substitute for what?
Frying fish when rivers froze
Jo Gérard's story was that villagers took to frying potatoes as a substitute for frying fish when rivers froze; he never produced the 1781 manuscript, and the potato did not reach the Meuse region until around 1735.
Q 12In Belgium, fries are traditionally served in what kind of container?
A paper cone
The cornet de frites is a white cardboard cone wrapped in paper, usually finished with a spoonful of mayonnaise on top.
Q 13In the classic two-bath method, roughly what temperature is the second, crisping fry?
190 °C
Q 21The Dutch street food 'patatje oorlog' translates literally as what?
War fries
'Oorlog' is Dutch for war, so patatje oorlog means 'war fries': fries dressed with mayonnaise, peanut satay sauce and diced raw onion, a messy battlefield of a combination.
Q 22In Cape Town, soft, soggy fries doused in white vinegar are known by what name?
Slap-chips
Slap-chips ('slap' is Afrikaans for limp) are fried at a lower temperature for longer than usual, then soaked in vinegar; they are the essential filling of the Gatsby, Cape Town's giant sandwich.
Q 23In Australia, what seasoning is a popular addition to hot chips?
Chicken salt
Chicken salt was created by Peter Brinkworth in Gawler, South Australia, in the 1970s to season rotisserie chicken and became the standard shake-on seasoning at fish-and-chip shops; most versions contain no chicken.
The second, crisping bath is about 190 °C (375 °F); the first, at around 160 °C, cooks the potato through and can be done in advance, so the second fry is brief.
Q 14In 1967, Ray Kroc of McDonald's sealed a handshake deal for frozen fries with which Idaho potato baron?
J. R. Simplot
J. R. Simplot and Ray Kroc agreed on a handshake in 1967; fresh russets were unavailable for months each summer, so frozen fries fixed a quality problem, and by 1972 all McDonald's fries were frozen.
Q 15Which potato cultivar dominates North American french fry production?
Russet Burbank
Russet Burbank, a russet-skinned mutation of Luther Burbank's 1870s Burbank potato, is the standard fry potato for McDonald's and the big Idaho processors because of its long shape and high dry matter.
Q 16McCain Foods, the world's largest maker of frozen fries, was founded in 1957 in which Canadian province?
New Brunswick
McCain Foods was founded in New Brunswick in 1957 by brothers Harrison and Wallace McCain, who built their first frozen-fry plant in the Saint John River valley beside the family's seed-potato business.
Q 17McCain has long claimed roughly what share of the world's fries are McCain fries?
1 in 4
McCain's slogan is that 1 in 4 of the world's fries is a McCain fry; the company sells in about 160 countries, with Simplot and Lamb Weston as its main rivals.
Q 18Ore-Ida invented Tater Tots in 1953 from what?
Leftover slivers from fry production
Tater Tots began as leftover slivers from fry production at Ore-Ida, which the Grigg brothers chopped, seasoned and formed into little logs in 1953; the brand name fuses Oregon and Idaho.
Q 19In which US state was fry sauce, the pink ketchup-and-mayonnaise blend, popularised?
Utah
Fry sauce was popularised in Utah: Don Carlos Edwards served it at his barbecue restaurant in the 1940s and then at the first Arctic Circle drive-in in Salt Lake City, where it became a regional staple.
Q 20In 2018 Heinz launched a mayonnaise-and-ketchup blend under what name after a Twitter poll?
Mayochup
Heinz's Mayochup reached US shelves in 2018 after a Twitter poll passed the 500,000 'yes' votes the company demanded; many replied that the Mountain West had called the same mix fry sauce for decades.
Q 24In June 2004, the US Department of Agriculture classified batter-coated French fries as what?
A vegetable
The 'French fry rule' counted batter-coated fries as a vegetable under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, a trade-law classification for produce dealers, later upheld by the Fifth Circuit in Fleming Companies v. USDA.
Q 25Which author's 1856 cookbook first printed the term 'French Fried Potatoes' in English?
Eliza Warren
Eliza Warren's Cookery for Maids of All Work (1856) gave 'French Fried Potatoes' as thin slices fried golden in boiling fat, so the English term predates the familiar deep-fried batons.
Q 26In French, thick-cut fries of about 10 mm are named after which Paris landmark?
Pont Neuf
Pommes Pont Neuf, about 10 mm square, are named after the Paris bridge; thinner cuts are pommes allumettes (matchsticks, about 7 mm), and pommes gaufrettes are waffle-cut.
Q 27Fernand Lachance supposedly coined 'poutine' in 1957 by saying curds in fries would make what?
A damn mess
'Ça va faire une maudite poutine!' ('that'll make a damn mess') is what Fernand Lachance supposedly said at Le Café Idéal in Warwick in 1957, one of several competing origin stories from Centre-du-Québec.
Q 28Which chef's foie gras poutine at Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon helped push the dish onto upscale menus?
Martin Picard
Martin Picard's foie gras poutine at Au Pied de Cochon, opened in Montreal in 2001, made the dish restaurant-worthy and inspired lobster and braised-beef poutines in Toronto and a poutinerie boom in the early 2010s.
Q 29'Disco fries', with mozzarella and brown gravy, were popularised by diners in which US state?
New Jersey
Disco fries are a New Jersey diner staple; the name dates to the 1970s, when the customers arriving after midnight had usually come straight from the disco clubs.
Q 30The 2003 renaming of French fries over France's Iraq stance began at Cubbie's, in which state?
North Carolina
Cubbie's is in Beaufort, North Carolina; owner Neal Rowland renamed his fries in February 2003, citing World War I precedents such as 'liberty cabbage' for sauerkraut.