Is there anything better than chowing down on fresh, salty potato chips after a big day in the mountains? Most would agree that no, in fact, there is not.
Like many Jackson Hole residents, when Cooper Kahlenberg moved to the valley in 2007, he thought he would just spend a few years here riding his snowboard, working in restaurants, and enjoying carefree life in the mountains before moving on to a more long-term plan.
Fourteen years later, he’s still hooked on life in the Tetons, but he has embarked upon a new adventure — one filled with potatoes, salt and truffle butter. Kahlenberg launched JacksonHole Chip Company in 2020, but it’s not because of a lifelong love for potato chips. In fact, it’s a bit of the opposite.
Burned out on restaurant work and wondering where he should steer his career one night after a late shift, a friend joked: “If I could do anything,I’d open a potato chip company. Think about all the potatoes right over the hill in Idaho.”Kahlenberg’s response:“Yeah, I don’t even like potato chips all that much.”
Still, the idea stuck with him, and he kept coming back to it. “I thinkI wasn’t really into potato chips because there weren’t any good ones,” he says. “I figured, ‘why don’tI make stuff I like and see if other people are into it?’
After a friend put that idea in my head, it made me wonder if I could try to make this category better.”Freshness is a key component of JH Chips, and Kahlenberg tries to keep preservatives out of his recipes and focus on natural and local ingredients. They might not last for years on the shelf, but that’s all right with us.
You can order the chips online, and Kahlenberg says he has a few specialty stores in town lined up to stock them this year. Jackson Hole Chip Company sells six different chip flavors: classics like sea salt, BBQ, and salt and vinegar, as well as jalapeño cheddar, truffle butter, and Funk (a tart and tangier version of BBQ). Jalapeño cheddar is Kahlenberg’s favorite, but he says people just can’t get enough of the truffle butter chips.“ The farmers market has been a really great place to get to know people and see firsthand what people like and don’t like.
