History
No one knows precisely where or when fish and chips came together. Chips (pommes frites) had arrived in Britain from France in the eighteenth century. The first mention in 1854 was when a leading chef included 'thin cut potatoes cooked in oil' in his recipe book, Shilling Cookery. Around this time fish warehouses sold fried fish and bread, with mention of them in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist published in 1830. There are claims to the first 'chippie' (fish and chip shop) from Lancashire in the North and London in the South of England. Whoever it may have been, the trade grew to feed a rapidly expanding population, reaching a staggering 35,000 shops in the 1930's. Fish and chips helped feed the masses during the First World War and were one of only a few foods not rationed in the Second.
It is uncertain when the first fish-and-chip shop opened in New Zealand, but according to food historian Tony Simpson, it was long before the First World War. The northern England working-class meal of deep-fried battered fish and potato chips has been a firm favourite of New Zealanders. Friday night was fish and chips night for many, especially Catholics who, until 1965, were prohibited from eating meat on Fridays. Kiwis eat approximately 7 million servings of chips a week and 58,000 tonnes of chips each year are sold year through fish & chip shops. That's approximately 40 million one-person servings of fish & chips - or over 9 servings of fish & chips each year for every man woman and child in New Zealand!