In the United States potato fries was first introduced in the XIX century. It was President Jefferson, who served them first at a White House dinner in 1802.  Since then potato fries has become a cult throughout the United States. As for America itself, french fries are one of the favorite meal and significant export item. Fries are popular even far from States. In the past ten years, consumption of potato fries increased four times in Japan and Korea.
More than 4.5 billion pounds of potato fries are sold in the United States every year. According to the Restaurants and Institutions Menu Census report, the dish is the best selling menu item in the U.S. fast food restaurants and shops. In 1992, it was showed in more than 300 commercials. Frozen potato fries are the most popular prepared style of potatoes in the United States now.
What is the secret of such an incredible and rapid popularity? Potato fries is fast and easy to cook; this is one reason why it is considered to be a great alternative to traditional potato recipes. French fries are served with a variety of condiments, most notably ketchup, tomato sauce, Chilli Sauce, mayonnaise, brown sauce, tartar sauce, gravy or vinegar. Sauce may vary from country to country. In the Netherlands peanut sauce is extremely popular, while the people in the North of England prefer the dish, dressed with curry sauce. The most popular french fries sauce in Utah, USA, is a combination of spices, ketchup and mayonnaise. In Western Canada, the dish is usually flavored with Parmesan cheese, gravy, ketchup, vinegar, salt and pepper. Fast food fries is sometimes called cheese fries, because of melted cheese covering. The variety of cheeses includes Cheez-Whiz, mozzarella, Swiss cheese and cheese with garlic mayonnaise. In Holland at least 8 combinations of dressings are served. As we can see potato fries can be served with a great variety of dressings according to one's taste.
Potato fries have many variants, including "thick-cut", "shoestring", "curly" and "waffle-cut". In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the dish is usually known as chips. The term is used for the thick slices of potato served with fish and chips.
Potato fries contain a large amount of calories and fat, usually saturated. It is fried in beef tallow, which adds saturated fats to the diet. Replacing tallow with tropical oils such as palm oil simply substitutes one saturated fat for another. The fact that the dish is cooked at such extremely high temperatures is the subject of health-care organizations' anxiety. Excessive consumption of potato fries can also result in obesity. This is not the full list of reasons why one should not eat this kind of food often. Everybody knows that french fries are the fast food meal and it can negatively affect one's health and cause many diseases.
In March 2003, some cafeterias in the United States changed the title 'french fries' to 'freedom fries'. The action was a sort of discontent about French attitude to the U.S. policy in Iraq.