France
The pomme de terre was introduced to France at the beginning of the 17th century, but it wasn’t until the late 1700s when it became popular, after a dedicated campaign by royal apothecary, Antoine-Augustine Parmentier. He was convinced that potatoes had the potential to become a nutritious staple of the French diet so he set about convincing his countrymen.
It was Parmentier who was responsible for potato flowers becoming a fashion accessory among the aristocracy after he presented a bouquet to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. And he hosted lavish dinner parties, with potatoes for every course: from potato soup to potato cakes and cookies.
He also planted potatoes on a plot of land just outside Paris and had Royal guards posted around the field throughout the day. The local peasants surmised that this new crop must be valuable and when the guards left in the evening many of the tubers were “liberated” to be grown in garden plots.
Potato cultivation took off, rising from 1.5 million tonnes in 1803 to 11.8 million in 1865 and reaching a peak of 14 million tonnes in 1960. By 2006 it had declined to 4.5 million tonnes, with 1.5 million tonnes being exported.
Potatoes still play an important part in the French diet, with a wide range of delicious potato based dishes contributing to their consumption of around 30kg each of fresh potatoes and another 25kg of processed products.
Why not try our French-style recipes:
