A deep-fried Mars bar is a Mars-brand chocolate bar covered in batter then deep fried in oil. The dish originated at a chip shop in Scotland as a novelty item. Since various mass media began reporting on the practice in the mid-1990s – often as a critical commentary on the healthfulness of the urban Scottish diet – the popularity of the dish has spread.
The dish is prepared using standard commercial Mars bars. The chocolate bar is typically chilled before battering, to prevent it from excessively melting as it is fried. It is coated in flour batter of the type commonly used for deep-frying fish, sausages, and other similar foods, then immersed in boiling fat or oil, until the batter is cooked.
The creation of the dish is attributed to John Davie, who invented it in 1992 in The Haven Chip Bar (now The Carron) in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen on Scotland’s northeast coast. It received rapidly escalating media attention after Aberdeen Evening Express writer Alastair Dalton reported on 23 August 1995, “HOT chocolate has become this summer’s sizzler in Stonehaven chip shop. Mars Bars, deep-fried in batter, are being snapped up by sweet-toothed teenagers. The craze started when the school holidays began and has quickly taken hold says Ingram Mowatt, owner of The Haven, Allardice Terrace. “The article included a quote from Mars spokesperson who said this was the most unusual way they had come across of enjoying a Mars bar. The following day the story was picked up and run in the Daily Record in an article titled “Mars supper, please”. Scottish broadsheets The Herald and The Scotsman ran the story the following day and the UK broadsheets the day after, each adding their own cultural slant. On the fifth day, Keith Chegwin performed taste tests on The Big Breakfast TV programme and the story was covered by the BBC World Service.
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