Taking in the sun while selling spuds

Carmel Dyer isn’t a big fan of winter and she doesn’t have to be as

she’s enjoying her 54th consecutive summer. The native Australian,

who owns and operates the Australian Battered Potatoes booth at the

Orange County Fair, says she constantly has to “wear my sunscreen and

a hat.”

Dyer has homes in Sydney and Carlsbad, but spends 70% of her time

in the San Diego County city. This summer marks her 17th Orange

County Fair, where she puts in extremely long hours over the 3 1/2

weeks. But she enjoys her job.

On Thursday, City Editor James Meier enjoyed some sun over at the

fair to ask Dyer more about her business and the tasty spuds.

So what exactly are Australian battered potatoes?

In Australia, we call them potato scallops. Over here, we changed

the name to Australian battered potatoes because potato scallops are

like your au gratin potatoes. The battered potatoes are totally made

up. But the ranch and the cheese are totally Americanized. In

Australia, we use ketchup and malt vinegar and you get them at Fish

and Chip shops.

What convinced you to change the name?

People didn’t understand what they were. After giving samples for

five years, we finally changed the name and never looked back. And

every time we have a bad story about too much cholesterol, we get

busier.

On senior citizen day, they just love them. They’ve been waiting

all year for them.

How long have you been doing this?

This is my 17th year, but we started with meat pies. We did meat

pies for five years [at the Orange County Fair].

Now, do you have this booth at many other fairs?

We do the Del Mar Fair [that just completed before the Orange

County Fair].

You must be tired after that.

It’s OK. You just get through that one and then you start on the

next one and you get the help.

We go onto Minnesota after this one and we also do one in Sydney,

Australia [in summer down under], but there, we do hot dog on a

stick, cheese on a stick and lemonade. So we do Australian stuff here

and American stuff there. We’re totally Americanized over there. We

take all of equipment, our batter, everything.... We sell a lot more

cheese on a stick than hot dogs. We have five lemonade carts and

three food stands at our fair in Sydney, which is the biggest event

we have in the country.

Depending on the weather, we sell more lemonade when it’s warmer

and more food if it’s cooler.

We also do a lot of off-season events in Australia. I don’t do as

much there as I used to. My sister and nieces and nephews do a lot of

it.

How often do you end up eating them?

I had one the other day. There was a TV camera and they asked me

to try one and I hadn’t tried one for ages. It was really good. I can

only eat like one. They’re too filling. That’s what’s good about

them. Two or three people can share the plate. Really, you don’t want

to have the whole plate.

The seniors want the whole one. You didn’t think so with the

seniors.

What led you from an education in child care to battered potatoes?

Unemployment. Couldn’t get a job in child care and went to our

fair in Sydney and got a job there.

So did you come up with this setup yourself?

Yeah, this is my third stand. I’ve made a lot of changes and this

is basically as perfect as I’d want to get it. Everything is

custom-built. We have every imaginable piece of equipment that we can

have to make things easier for our help and more efficient. And if we

don’t have it, I’ll get it. I’m always looking for something new that

will make it a little more efficient.

How did you get started in the business?

Obviously, I got started when I worked in Australia for an

American here who has the giant slide and they invited me to come

work here. I had worked in the fair industry for various people for

10 years and then I decided I’d go out on my own. I knew it was time

to move on.

Now, this may sound like a trick question, but what’s your

favorite food?

In-N-Out Burgers.

Any final thoughts?

It’s important to me the kids that I work with -- I’m a fairly

tough boss -- learn something that they can carry on when they go and

work for someone else.

To me, if they come out here and they’re not the way I want them

to be, it doesn’t matter, but as long as they learn something and

make themselves more employable when they go on, that’s what’s

important to me.