Utah Arts Festival: Addicted to spuds

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Utah Arts Festival owes a huge debt to its neighbors to the north in Idaho.

At the Fresh Cut French Fry booth, "we used between two and three tons of potatoes last year," said Alyssa McCollin, one of the people working the booth. (McCollin's aunt and uncle operate both the french-fry stand and the Scrumptious burger stand next to it.)

McCollin said she expects even bigger sales this year, because the weather is expected to be more temperate. "Last year, it was soooo hot," she said.

When they say "fresh cut," they mean it. It's one guy's job to shove whole potatoes into a chopper, push down the lever, and catch 3/8'' square lengths of potato in the bucket below.

And aside from the water the potatoes soak in to keep them fresh, the oil in the fryers and some salt at the end, there are no other ingredients.

Of course, there's one more chore when serving french fries at the Utah Arts Festival: Explaining to out-of-towners the mysteries of fry sauce.