POTATOES

HISTORICALLY, potatoes have taught us how precarious it is to rely too heavily on one crop, proving once again the urgency of diversity and how susceptible monocultures are to disease. These conditions that led to the Irish Potato Famine are scarily similar: We favor too few food crops. That’s a lesson sitting right in front of us. And it’s not for lack of potato diversity. In fact, there’s an amazing variety of colors, sizes, shapes, and textures of potatoes, as well as inspiring ways to handle them. The recipes here do involve a little technique—humble potatoes thrive with exciting preparation—but technique doesn’t drive the story, flavor does.

While I was in cooking school in Paris, I externed at a restaurant called Le Toit de Passy, a great Michelin-starred place. I worked as a commis on the fish station with a salty old cook who, it seemed to me, had been there forever (he was 26). I was quite a proud cook: I knew I needed to please the hungry crew, so for family meal I made mashed potatoes. Again! Jean Pierre shot me a look that went right through me: “That’s all you know how to do?” In a flash, he grabbed a fistful of flour, a little butter, and set a pan of oil on a burner. In no time, he had folded my potato puree into a soft dough called pâte à choux, then nudged me to plop the mixture into the hot oil. Without the slightest idea of what would happen, I just did it. What did happen was golden puffs of deliciousness, crunchy on the outside, soft and buttery on the inside. Best potato I had ever tasted. Made the whole kitchen smile. He looked at me with a half grin that made me understand that I still had a lot of work to do. For me, this defines a cook’s job: making something out of nothing. In other words, a magician! See Walnut Mashed Potatoes (here).