Seasonal & Holidays
Detroit Friends Chips are Oprah's Favorite
Seven-year-old company boasts "signature crunch," revitalizes Hope District and makes Oprah say 'yummmmm.'
DETROIT, MI — When Oprah Winfrey asks for some chips, you send her some chips. Detroit potato chip maker Michael Wimberley is glad he did. Oprah featured his Detroit Friends Potato Chips on her annual “Favorite Things” holiday gift list.
"It's a miracle," Wimberley, 53, told The Detroit News. Wimberley, a Detroit native who has no formal culinary training, started his chip company seven years ago in the blighted Hope District and made some "absolutely horrible chips" before perfecting the recipe.
“We had to have our own flavor, own texture and crunch,” he told the newspaper. “We’re not really a kettle chip because we’re thicker than a kettle chip, but we have a signature crunch to our chip and then we slice them thicker so their heartier.”
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The chips still haven't made it to major supermarket shelves — that explains the "miracle" in Winfrey finding them, Wimberley told the newspaper — but are a local favorite at Avalon International Breads, Mudgie's Deli and Nandi’s Knowledge Cafe on Woodward.
» For the complete story, go to The Detroit News
Photo by Jessica Mullen via Flickr Commons
