When Julia Child visited the State Fair of Texas in 1996 to sample Fletcher’s famous corny dogs and judge the cake contest, she also swooned over the titular dish at Jack’s French Frys during her tour of Fair Park. Jack Pyland IV, who was working the booths that October afternoon, recalls The French Chef star making a few accurate guesses as to how the thin-cut fries were forged. Still today, Pyland IV is loath to divulge all the secrets of the food stand started 80 years ago by his father, Jack Pyland III. But as was the case back in 1945, he says: “The trick is getting them across the counter as quickly as possible.”
Even if the elder Pyland was tightlipped about his time as a navy cook during World War II, he did bring home an expertise when it came to preparing deep-fried potato slices—a dish on the cusp of ubiquity in the post-war boom that led to the fast-food industry. His son, now the steward of the family recipe, ensures that the fries are still prepared the same way today. For Jack’s French Frys’ two stands in the Cotton Bowl plaza, each fair season requires around 5,600 pounds of high-starch Idaho potatoes that are peeled and sliced with equipment purchased at auction from Battleship Texas in Galveston.
Within 30 minutes of being cut, the fries are washed and soaked in a secret blend of spices. Like a weatherman discerning the direction of the wind, Pyland IV then appraises the moisture of each day’s batch to determine the temperature of his fryers. After a classic double-fry method, him and his team of cooks quickly transfer the contents into cups or buckets, and deliver them into the hands of fairgoers anxious to brave the finger-singeing results doused in salt and vinegar, or served plain with ketchup.
Jack’s French Frys can now boast that it’s the State Fair’s third-oldest food vendor behind Fletcher’s—a feat built on the tireless work ethic of its founder. When he wasn’t working the Midway (once open from Memorial Day to Labor Day), or his 19 stands during his peak at the State Fair, Pyland III also sold his fries at the Dallas Sportatorium, where he occasionally filled in for absent professional wrestlers. Additionally, the serial entrepreneur owned a nursery, a Christmas tree farm, a construction business, a hotel, a flight school, a fireworks stand, a dance hall, and a “White Christmas” service that blew artificial snow on lawns. “One day my dad would be broke, and the next day, he’d have a wad of cash in his pocket,” Pyland IV says.
He was more than happy to pass down the fiscal lessons he learned to his children and employees. For instance, Pyland IV and his siblings remember having to collect enough glass bottles to recycle to afford a movie ticket in their youth. Or for one-time employee Scott Ward, who was hired at Jack’s to cut potatoes well before he was old enough to sell alcohol. On the first day of the 2025 fair, he indulged in a cup of hot fries, just like he has for the last 50 years. The longevity of Jack’s appeal for festivalgoers and the employees that keep it running is a tradition Pyland IV hopes to pass down to his own son when the time comes to step down. But for now, the 77-year-old scion insists “retirement is not in my DNA.”
“And if my dad were alive to see the stand’s 80th anniversary today,” Pyland IV says, “he’d probably tell me to get to work and shut up.”
