Monday, May 21, 2007
Food

All that...and a bag of chips

Getting to the bottom of the ‘chips with attitude’ bag

Leon Stoltz with Chipponie, the “spokeswoman” for PotatoFinger CREDIT:Spark St. Jude

By Suzanne Wright

Lainie and Leon Stoltz are the co-founders of PotatoFinger, a Decatur-based potato chip company. The Sunday Paper recently spoke to Leon Stoltz about his love of the humble chip and how his South African heritage flavors his favorite childhood snack.

I love potato chips. Which country do you think has the best?
I grew up in South Africa. We had the English influence of crisps with a lot of interesting flavors.

True—like ham and mustard flavor. How many flavors does PotatoFinger make?
We’re a boutique chip company. We started with four that appeal to the mass market: lightly salted, vinegar and salt, sour cream and onion, and barbecue. We recently added cheese and onion, jalapeño and peppedew, and cracked black pepper and salt.

What is peppedew?
It’s a South African spice that’s close to my heart. We buy the spice from South Africa, and the proceeds benefit charitable causes there. We create chips based on flavors that stores request based on customer feedback. Jalapeño and peppedew was designed specifically for the Mexican market.

Asia has some pretty unusual chips.
My primary focus for the past year has been in Asia. We buy chips wherever we travel and taste them. I’m not necessarily a fan of seaweed- or oyster-flavored potato chips, but [Asians] are certainly very creative.

Do you think the American palate is more conservative?
Yes, especially in the rural areas. We definitely see that in our sales.

Where are you selling?
We ship all across the U.S., Korea, Canada and Japan. Pretty soon we’ll have exposure in the European Union.

I like your tagline, “old-school thin and crispy.” Tell us about the company name.
In a nutshell, when I was growing up I always ate potato chips; I couldn’t leave snacks alone. Whenever I had my hand in a bag of potato chips, my mum would say, “Hi, potato finger.” She teased me—it was a family joke.

Your chips are “100 percent natural and healthier than other chips.” C’mon, carrots are healthy, not chips!
Well, if you eat too many, you’re going to gain some weight! Our bags say to eat responsibly. But ours have no trans fats or hydrogenated oils. We use cottonseed oil. One flavor, barbecue, has gluten, but we’re going gluten-free. My wife is a health nut. She doesn’t want to give anything to our kids that isn’t healthy.

Is your factory like Willy Wonka’s?
Ours is pristine—it really looks like a medical facility. Pictures of the lines [conveyer belts] are shown on our blog, but it’s pretty much like Willy Wonka. The potatoes are washed, dried, peeled, sliced, washed again and cooked on top of the oil. Then a laser beam kicks out anything that’s not supposed to be there. That’s all on one line. We also have people standing on the other end doing a visual inspection. Then they are seasoned, dropped into a bag, sealed and put into cases and onto pallets. The whole process takes 11 minutes.

I love those should-be-rejected, overcooked, darker brown chips.
They aren’t necessarily overcooked. They just have a higher sugar content.

The bag is very attractive and understated.
My wife is a graphic designer. She wanted to design a bag that she could take to a dinner party with a nice bottle of wine. Something that looked clean, more upscale, that you could give as a hostess gift. Not a bag of tacky potato chips.

Which begs the question, what wine goes with chips?
We like a semi-dry white wine.

I like your interactive online spokeswoman, Chipponie. She reminds me of a cross between Jessica Rabbit and Audrey Hepburn.
We couldn’t afford a real model, so we got creative. She’s a Betty Boop, ’60s kind of girl. She isn’t from any one culture, really. But people write to her. And she’s becoming more interactive as we speak.

For more information, visit www.potatofinger.com or Chipponie’s MySpace account at www.myspace.com/potatofingers.