Which Spanish saint does Paul Ilegems cite as having cooked the first French fries?

Paul Ilegems cites Saint Teresa of Ávila as having cooked the first French fries.

The claim belongs to the Spanish-origin theory of fries, not an established biography of Teresa. Paul Ilegems, a Belgian fries historian and curator associated with Bruges’ Frietmuseum, argues that Spain was an early European gateway for potatoes arriving from the Americas. He connects Teresa’s period and Spain’s Mediterranean tradition of frying foods with the possibility that fried potatoes appeared there first.

This is one theory in a long-running origin debate. Potatoes originated in South America, while the earliest written European references and the development of the familiar stick-shaped fry involve several countries and centuries. Belgium and France both claim important roles in popularizing modern fries, so Teresa is not universally accepted as the inventor.

The common mix-up is treating Ilegems’ attribution as proven fact. The quiz asks whom he cites, making Saint Teresa the specific answer; it does not ask which country definitively invented fries.