‘SPUDS’ FOSTER – HOW TO COOK CHIPS

Arthur Clement  ‘Spuds’ Foster was  a decorated WWI veteran. He was also the man behind  the creation of the Tasmanian Potato Marketing Board in the 1920’s.  

Arthur Foster in uniform (left) with his brothers. (Photo courtesy of Greg Penney)

In 1930 Foster was appointed Commonwealth Potato Controller, and moved to the mainland. However he never ceased advocating for Tasmania. In 1943, during WWII,  Smith’s Weekly wrote a humorous but affectionate story about  him;

There is nothing half-baked about ‘Spuds’ Foster. He is in a way a hard boiled citizen. He should be, after five years of war experience. He is also an admirable one, and, as a sort of unseen guest at every table, an important one. His job is to see that, so long as spuds are available, they shall be evenly distributed to  the public, after military needs have been met.  Beyond that his job is to arrange, as far as humanly possible, that sufficient spuds will be available.

Of course the majority of those spuds were being  grown in Tasmania, especially  Brownells.

Brownalls. (Source – Diggers Seeds)

The paper dubbed him ‘Father of all the Murphies’….. adding a caricature of him with his head emerging from a collar of ‘taties’.

‘Spuds’ Foster

In 1946, after the war had ended, the Potato Marketing board of Tasmania had a stall at the Brisbane show, where thirty five tons of potatoes were  made into chips.  The variety chosen was Brownells, which were grown in the red, basalt soil of the State’s north-west. The head chef was also brought over from Tasmania, to supervise seven other chefs and twenty young girls serving on the counters. Supplies ran out long before the demand did. One interested visitor was Dame Enid Lyons, then a member of parliament.

Sydney’s Royal Easter Show was another perfect place to promote Tasmania’s chips, and in 1949  ‘Spuds’ Foster was free with his advice on the right way to cook them. Above all, he said, avoid using mutton fat, which;  ‘Sticks to your gums and is fit only to be made into candles.‘ Beef fat, was best he announced, using one 1lb of  chips to 6 or 8lbs of dripping.

I grew up on a farm in NW Tasmania (1950s) and my father grew Brownells. My mother deep fried her chips just as Mr Foster suggested. I was always slightly nervous  about her pan of  smoking fat and have never dared  follow her example. I’d probably burn the house down!  By the way, we always had battered barracuda  with our chips. Is that still a popular fish I wonder?

According to an article in the Australian Women’s Weekly, Sydney customers received sixpence  worth of chips  in greaseproof bags. I was amused to read that on one side of the packet they were told that potatoes were slimming, and on the other side that they would help increase weight. 😎 Forster chartered a plane to bring up thirty sons and daughters of Tasmanian farmers  to sell the chips; ‘Girls can earn up to  £20 a week and men up to  £30.‘  Well, it would be thirty odd years before  equal pay was legislated.

Arthur ‘Spuds’ Foster died in 1962. What a champion he was for Tassie potato farmers and their produce.

NOTE = COOKING CHIPS HAS CHANGED A BIT THESE DAYS. HERE IS A METHOD  COURTESY OF AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY.