Chip Evolution | Culture RC Passaage

Have you ever wondered how a moment of kitchen frustration could reshape an entire industry? What transforms a chef’s spiteful creation into a billion-dollar market phenomenon? These moderate difficulty RC passages explore the fascinating journey from culinary accident to commercial empire, challenging readers to distinguish between individual innovation and broader economic forces.

Read these RC passage(s) in Social Sciences and answer the question(s) that follows. You can choose the GMAT style Reading Passage and the question or the GRE RC variant and answer the GRE-style question. Even better, you could solve both.

GMAT Reading Passage | Medium | ~180 Words

In 1853, railway magnate Marcus Wellington repeatedly returned his fried potatoes at Harrison’s Lake House restaurant in Saratoga Springs, complaining they were too thick. Frustrated chef Giovanni Caruso responded by slicing potatoes paper-thin and frying them to an intentionally inedible crisp. Wellington’s unexpected delight with this culinary retaliation launched what became known as “Saratoga Chips.”

While historians acknowledge that Caruso neither invented nor perfected the technique—earlier recipes existed, and contemporary cook Elena Rodriguez had established a similar reputation locally—his confrontation with Wellington catalyzed the chip’s commercial trajectory. The snack remained restaurant-exclusive until entrepreneur William Torres developed mass production methods in the 1920s. Torres’s innovation lay not merely in scaling manufacturing, but in recognizing that consistent quality control and strategic marketing could transform a regional novelty into a national commodity.

This evolution from kitchen accident to industrial staple illustrates how consumer products often achieve market dominance through fortuitous circumstances rather than systematic research and development. The chip industry’s current $12 billion valuation represents the compound effect of serendipitous discovery, entrepreneurial vision, and technological advancement converging around a fundamentally simple concept.

Question Type: Inference | Question Difficulty: Medium-High

Based on the passage, which of the following can most reasonably be inferred about the relationship between innovation and market success in consumer products?

1. Systematic research methods are less reliable than accidental discoveries in creating commercially viable products
2. Individual inventors typically receive disproportionate credit for innovations that result from broader market conditions
3. The most successful consumer products emerge from deliberate attempts to solve specific customer complaints
4. Market dominance in consumer products tend to result from factors beyond the original innovation, including timing and execution
5. Regional specialties achieve national success only when entrepreneurs recognize their potential and invest in mass production systems

GRE RC Practice | Moderate Difficulty | ~140 Words

The commercialization of potato chips exemplifies how culinary innovations propagated from elite establishments to mass markets during America’s industrial transformation. Originally confined to upscale resort restaurants in the 1850s, these crispy delicacies commanded premium prices as novelty items for affluent patrons. Early entrepreneurs encountered formidable obstacles in scaling production: traditional cooking methods proved inadequate for consistent quality, while preservation techniques remained rudimentary. The breakthrough came with wax-paper packaging in the 1920s, which could arrest deterioration during transport and facilitated marketing strategies emphasizing freshness.

This evolution reflects broader patterns in American food industrialization, wherein artisanal products underwent systematic refinement to achieve commercial viability. Mass production transformed chips from regional curiosities into ubiquitous commodities, with the industry’s maturation during the mid-twentieth century coinciding with suburbanization and changing dietary habits that established processed snacks as integral components of contemporary food culture.

Question Type: Vocab-in-Context | Question Difficulty: Medium

In the context of the passage, the word “commanded” most nearly means

1. gave orders for
2. took control of
3. brought about naturally
4. held authority over
5. secured through effort