I have always believed that French fried foods are uniquely American.
The "French" in the name comes from the fact that the patent issued on
the deep fat fryer was issued to a man named French and any food that
was prepared using this method became known as French fried. Is this
true? Who invented the deep fat fryer and what did anyone by the name
of French invent in this field?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 27 Jul 2004 14:32 PDT

Heelo Gene,

I found a casual mention of "french fried potatoes" in a newspaper
article from 1848, suggesting that the phrase was well-known at the
time, and didn't require any particular explanation.

I also searched a full-text database of patents, and could find no
patent by anyone named French that had to do with deep frying. 
Although there are patents that make mention of french fries, none of
them appear to have originated the term.

Which leads me to my question for you:  Are you interested in the
origin of the term "french fries" or do you want to know the history
of the invention of the deep fat fryer?

Let me know.

pafalafa-ga

There's a highly questionable story tying French toast to an innkeeper
named Joseph French:

The Oxford English Dictionary cites 1660 as the year "French toast"
first made an appearance, in a book called The Accomplisht Cook... A
contradictory, though highly dubious, creation myth holds that French
toast owes its creation to an Albany, N.Y., innkeeper named Joseph
French. Legend has it that French whipped up a batch of the
golden-brown treats in 1724 and advertised them as "French toast"
because he'd never learned to use an apostrophe "s."

http://slate.msn.com/id/2088426/

Deep-frying probably pre-dates the deep-fryer; it's possible to
deep-fry in a regular pot.

These page claims french fries originated in Belgium:

http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/9.2/fries/fries-sidebar-09.2.html
http://web.archive.org/web/19970724135313/http://www.ping.be/friet/engels/ehistor3.htm

:-) As2O3

Frenched fries (cut in thin lengthwise strips before cooking):
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:KJf6hamicmEJ:www.marcofolio.com/cell/2004/07/french-fries.html+%22french+fries+origin%22&hl=pt

More about the issue:
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:F2fVDvebkf8J:www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/english/fr/french%2Bfries.html+%22french+fries+origin%22&hl=pt

pafalafa-ga: I found a page stating that "French fried potatoes" are
sauté potatoes, "i.e. the French way of shallow frying potatoes that
have been peeled, parboiled, allowed to cool and then sliced thinly."

I guess this complicates things a bit; the answer depends on how you
define "french fries".

(The link might cover part of the answer, so I haven't included it.)

:-)