who invented tater tots

Tater tots were invented in 1953 by Ore-Ida co-founders F. Nephi Grigg and Golden Grigg as a way to use leftover potato scraps from making frozen french fries.

Quick Scoop

• The Grigg brothers ran a frozen food company on the Oregon–Idaho border, which they named Ore-Ida.

• While cutting potatoes into fries, they had lots of leftover slivers and wanted to turn this waste into a sellable product.

• They chopped the scraps, mixed in a bit of flour and seasoning, extruded the mixture into small logs, and cut them into bite‑size pieces—what became tater tots.

A Name For The New Snack

• The name “Tater Tots” was trademarked by Ore-Ida and is still a brand name, though it’s often used generically.

• According to company lore, the winning name “Tater Tots” came from an employee or local housewife, Clora Lay Orton, during a naming contest at Ore-Ida.

From Scraps To Icon

• Nephi Grigg reportedly brought a bag of the new product to the 1954 National Potato Convention in Miami Beach, where they were enthusiastically received and helped launch tater tots nationwide.

• Today, similar products are sold worldwide under names like potato gems, potato royals, and spud puppies, but Ore-Ida’s tater tots remain the classic American version.

TL;DR: Tater tots were invented by brothers F. Nephi and Golden Grigg of Ore-Ida in 1953 as a clever way to transform potato scraps into a crispy new potato snack.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.