Australia is the hot chip capital of the world, but this is how we could do it better

I’ve been on the road for the past month across North America and I can say, without a doubt, Australia is the hot chip capital of the world.

You might think the land of the *ahem* free would take that crown, but there are many more options for sides in the United States than there are in Australia, and surprisingly hot chips don’t often come out on top. Barbecue ribs, tacos, hot dogs, wings and pizzas are sometimes served with fries. But across all of these dishes, they’re not exactly standard issue.

I was at a soul food restaurant in Detroit recently and across collard greens, rice and beans, mac and cheese, and cornbread stuffing, not a single person in the place had chips on their plate. In fact, hamburger joints are the main avenue for fry consumption in the US.

Another contender for the title of global chip capital is Belgium – the country that actually invented them. To this day, the Belgians must endure the English-speaking world calling their creation “French” simply because American GIs in the First World War understood European geography exactly as well as you’d expect. In their true homeland, fries aren’t just a side dish; they are the main event, sold at dedicated friteries as a standalone snack or served as the essential partner to classic carbonnade beef stew, steak, mussels and vol-au-vents.

Belgium does fries very, very well, but I would still argue that Australia edges them out. Why? Because we have achieved total chip saturation.

Every pub, chicken shop, fish and chip shop, kebab shop, cafe and hamburger joint serves hot chips as standard. Over the past decade or so we rebranded “steak and chips” to “steak frites” and it spread with an enthusiasm so fierce it started to get a little worrying. Even our fine-dining establishments regularly offer chips these days.

As a nation, we’ve worked hot chips into every possible facet of our food. 

It’s nearly impossible to find a kids’ menu that is less than 50 per cent hot chip anywhere in the country. We anecdotally love pies at the footy, but if you’ve actually been to the footy lately you’d realise that the fries are beating the pies by about 10 to one. It’s surely only a matter of time before lunchtime sushi counters and the Bunnings sausage sizzle start installing deep-fryers (please don’t).

We took one look at kebabs and decided that serving them with chips or stuffing a few inside was not enough. So we did away with the pita entirely and invented the Halal Snack Pack (HSP) and its South Australian predecessor, the “AB” (don’t Google it).

While much of Europe serves schnitzels with potato salad or noodles, we gave that a “yeah, nah” and doubled up on the fried stuff with hot chips instead, leaving the poor emotional support salad vastly outnumbered on the plate.

Few countries have innovated on the chip, but more than 50 years ago, South Australian icon Peter Brinkworth strolled out the back of his Gawler chicken shop and invented chicken salt, changing our hot chip landscape forever.

We forge childhood friendships pooling our coins and bonding over a shared serving of “minimum chips” after school.

Chips are ingrained in our collective psyche. Whether you’re a meat-lover or a vegan, eating kosher, halal or gluten-free, ordering wagyu in the eastern suburbs or drive-through rotisserie chooks out west, there is no food more universally loved by our multicultural Australia.

How our chip culture could be better

Despite our deep and abiding nationwide love of chippies, I do have some notes.

Pretty much every chip we have available is from the same frozen packets, fried in the same vegetable oil. I am not against frozen chips or vegetable oil at all. Frozen chips are excellent, and the freezing process even helps them crisp, and vegetable oil is probably the healthiest option we could ask for, but it would be great to have some variety.

I’d also like to reiterate my call for all chip shops to sell single slices of buttered bread as an extra.

Are there any local chip shops offering the option of frying in beef tallow, duck fat, or of freshly cut chips? Any with optional variations on whatever the house chicken salt might be?

I’d also like to reiterate my call for all chip shops to sell single slices of buttered bread as an extra. With great bread and great butter in Australia, it’s a combination that is frustratingly undercapitalised. Chip butties are one of life’s great pleasures, but nearly impossible to assemble outside the home.

And finally, I understand the convenience of oven fries, but let’s normalise popping down to the shops to buy chips if you’re having them as part of your dinner. Not delivery – actually going down to the shops and engaging with society for a brief moment.

I understand the convenience of oven fries, but let’s normalise popping down to the shops to buy in chips if you’re having them as part of your dinner.

Our chip shops should be the boulangeries of Australia. We have them on every corner of every suburb, and just as the French pop down to the bakery to buy baguettes to accompany their dinner, we should do the same for piping hot, freshly fried chips.

I’m a simple man. Is a dream of a chip butty really too much to ask? I’m talking soft white bread, a generous smear of cultured butter and a payload of freshly cooked, well-seasoned chips. It’s the kind of sandwich best eaten in the car, serving as an entree to the actual meal: those same chips alongside a resting steak once I finally make it home.