Proud Belgians have hit back after a leading French newspaper claimed that frites – the world-famous chips served with Belgium’s national dish of mussels – were invented in France.

Le Figaro printed the story under the headline “No, French fries are not Belgian” on Wednesday, which was particularly provocative because August 1 is also the International Day of the Belgian Frites.

Historian Pierre Leclercq insisted that modern day frites was first served on the streets of Paris to theatre-goers in the revolutionary era. Cookbooks date the recipe to 1855, he said.

Frites are though to have been fried in Belgium since the 17th Century. Legend has it that American soldiers serving in World War One incorrectly named Belgian frites “French fries” and the name stuck.

Mr Leclerq said, “However the Belgians do not like it, the fries of today are fundamentally Parisian.”

Frites are taken extremely seriously in Belgium, where long queues regularly snake from the 4,500 fry shops or frietkoten that dot the country’s squares and cobbled streets.

Bernard Lefèvre is the president of Navefri-Unafri, the national association for frietkoten.

“We are used to the French looking down on us,” he told The Telegraph, “Belgium is always considered the little brother. They mock us but they do it with sympathy.”