VIDEO. Chips, chocolate, ketchup… Discover the real history of these products

“Ketchup comes from ketsiap which in Chinese means fish brine. This Chinese kestiap was first adapted in Malaysia then it was the English colonizers in the 18th century who took the sauce, adapted it and called it ketchup” explain Aitor Alfonso, author of “The Hunger for History”. For ketchup to resemble the one we know today, we had to wait for the action of Henry Heinz, a German immigrant living in Atlanta, in the United States, who incorporated tomato sauce and sugar into the sauce. This recipe quickly attracted the general public, it became “a bestseller of global sauces”.

Mariani wine, ancestor of Coca-Cola

Did you know that Coca-Cola has Corsican origins? In 1863, Angelo Mariani, a Corsican inventor, “had the idea of ​​mixing red wine with extracts of coca leaves, this plant from the Andes whose active ingredient is cocaine” describe Aitor Alfonso. This particular drink “invigorating”, “Mariani wine”, seduced at the time Émile Zola and Alexandre Dumas who “were really addicted to it”. On the other side of the Atlantic, a pharmacist based in Atlanta, once again, decides to sell Mariani wine in his store. But prohibition falls: he is no longer authorized to sell alcohol. He then chose to substitute sugary soda for the wine. Coca-Cola was born.

Concerning fries, they enjoyed incredible success in the 19th century thanks to Jean-Frédéric Krieger, known under the name “Mr Fritz”, “a Bavarian who discovered rotisseries and fries in Paris” and which will democratize fries in Belgium. “Everyone loves fries. But no one likes making fries at home. And so, obviously, the industry invented the potato chip as a substitute object” specifies Aïtor Alfonso. The origins of chocolate date back to the Aztecs of Mexico. At the time, it was a “very bitter foamy drink. It is said that the emperor of the Aztec empire drank several liters a day from fine gold cups. Some time later, the Spanish introduced it to Europe and gradually, with the arrival of sugar in the 16th century, it lost its bitterness. “We first invented chocolate in liquid form then in tablet form to be able to transport it, sell it and industrialize it” comments Aitor Alfonso.