Everything about Freedom Fries totally explained
"
Freedom Fries" was a short-lived name used by some in the
United States for
French fries, as a result of
anti-French sentiment in the United States.
During the international debate over the decision to launch the
2003 invasion of Iraq,
France expressed strong opposition in the
United Nations to taking such action. The French position wasn't popular with certain groups in the United States, leading to campaigns for the boycotting of French goods and businesses and the removal of the country's name from products.
The name "freedom fries" was first used by Neal Rowland at his Cubbie's restaurant in
Beaufort, North Carolina.
The Congressional renaming
On
11 March 2003,
Representatives Robert W. Ney (
R-
Ohio) and
Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-
North Carolina) declared that all references to French fries and
French toast on the menus of the restaurants and snack bars run by the House of Representatives would be removed. House cafeterias were ordered to rename French fries "freedom fries". This action was carried out without a congressional vote, under the authority of Ney's position as Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, which oversees restaurant operations for the chamber. The simultaneous renaming of
French toast to "freedom toast" attracted less attention.
According to a statement released by Ney, this move was a symbolic effort to express displeasure with France's "continued refusal to stand with their U.S. allies" (see
Iraq disarmament crisis). The statement further read: "This action today is a small, but symbolic, effort to show the strong displeasure many on
Capitol Hill have with our so-called ally, France."
This sentiment was communicated through the Internet, chain e-mails, and frequent references on 24-hour news coverage from networks such as
CNN and
Fox News. The move was internationally satirized.
The French
embassy made no comment beyond pointing out that French fries come from
Belgium. "We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we're not focusing on the name you give to
potatoes," said Nathalie Loisau, an embassy spokeswoman. Critics also asserted that "French Fries" were called such because they're "frenched", or thinly sliced, although this might be a
false etymology—the first American reference to French fries was made by
Thomas Jefferson, who referred to them as "potatoes, fried in the French Manner".
Congressmen Ney and Jones, however, were not the first to rename French fries as freedom fries. A number of private restaurants across the country started the renaming movement. Neal Rowland, owner of the privately owned fast-food restaurant Cubbie's in
Beaufort, North Carolina, began the movement by selling his fried
potato strips under the name "freedom fries". Rowland claimed that his intent wasn't to slight the French people, but rather to be "patriotic and supportive of President
George W. Bush" after hearing about the news on
2003-02-19. He explained that the name change came to mind after a conversation with a history teacher about World War I, during which anti-German sentiment prompted Americans to rename German foods like sauerkraut and hamburger to "liberty cabbage" and "liberty steak", respectively. Many of Rowland's customers were local military troops. In March 2007, Rowland obtained a U.S.
trademark registration for the mark "freedom fries".
Reckitt Benckiser, makers of
French's mustard, was sufficiently concerned to clarify that their brand name was derived from a family name, and to issue a press release affirming its patriotism.
In May
2005, Representative Jones, having arrived at the belief that the United States went to war "with no justification", said of the "freedom fries" episode: "I wish it had never happened."
By
July 2006, the House had quietly changed the name of the food in all of its restaurants back to "French fries" and "French toast".
Historical parallels
In the United States
A politically-motivated euphemism like this is reminiscent of
anti-German sentiment during the
First World War, when
sauerkraut was renamed as
liberty cabbage, dachshunds (wiener dogs) as
liberty pups, frankfurters as
hot dogs (a name that has stuck),
German Spitz as
American Eskimo Dogs,
hamburgers as
liberty steaks or
Salisbury steaks. Even the
German measles were instead called
liberty measles. This similarity is intentional: Rowland described a conversation about these renamed foods during World War I as the inspiration for "freedom fries".
In other countries
- Spain: After the triumph of Francisco Franco, filete imperial ("imperial beef") became a euphemism for filete ruso ("Russian beef"), "ensaladilla nacional" ("national salad") for "ensaladilla rusa" ("Russian salad") and Caperucita Encarnada ("Little Red Riding Hood") for Caperucita Roja (which has the same meaning but loses its hypothetical connotations).
Greece: "Ellinikos kafes" ("Greek coffee") replaced "Turkikos kafes" ("Turkish coffee") on Greek menus after the Turkish-Greek collisions of the 1920s and in Turkey Russian salad became American salad because of the anti-Communist sentiment in the country. Similarly "Constantinople" was renamed to "Istanbul" by the Turks in years following a Greek invasion in the 1920's.
New Zealand: In 1998, while the French government was testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific, French loaves were renamed Kiwi loaves in a number of supermarkets and bakeries. This, however, doesn't appear to have been as extensively reported or publicized as anti-French sentiment in the United States. However, French Fries at a few family restaurants were renamed Kiwi fries, or just "Fries", which was already an established term. The "Fries" tag remains today, though many New Zealanders use the British word "chips".
New Zealand: The kiwifruit gets its name from a marketing strategy, naming it after the kiwi, the national bird of New Zealand, where the fruit was first commercially popularized in 1959 by the New Zealand fruit-and-vegetable export company Turners and Growers. It was previously known as the Chinese gooseberry, but due to the Cold War, the Chinese label seemed unfit for popularization of the fruit in Western countries. Also briefly known as a "melonette", growers gradually adopted the Kiwifruit name and in 1974 it was officially renamed.
United Kingdom: During World War I, the German Shepherd was renamed the Alsatian and German biscuits were renamed Empire biscuits due to strong anti-German sentiment. Similar renaming happened in Czechoslovakia after World War II. Perhaps most famously the name of the royal family was changed by George V in 1917 to Windsor from the German surname Wettin and house name Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
France: During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety went so far as to banish all words associated with royalty. A major example of their work was taking Kings and Queens out of playing cards and replacing them with Committee members. It lasted less than a year. Also, during World War I, the coffee with whipped cream, previously known as Café Viennois (Vienna coffee) was renamed Café Liégeois (Coffee from Liège) due to the state of war with Austria-Hungary. This appellation is still in use today, mainly for ice-creams (chocolat liégeois and café liegeois).
France: A seemingly eternal debate in food history is whether a lobster recipe should be called Lobster Amérique or Lobster Armorique. The arguments often appeal to French culinary nationalism.
Canada: During World War I, the Ontario city of Berlin was renamed Kitchener.
Germany: In 1915, after Italy entered WWI, restaurants in Berlin stopped serving Italian salad.
Iran: During the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2006, several Iranian groups advocated changing the name of Danish pastry to "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Freedom Fries'.
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