They`re not scarce, they`re not imported, they`re not expensive and they don`t disappear from the market for months at a time. But suddenly, in spite of themselves, potatoes are hot.
Just ask Mary Baker, owner of Tapawingo Farms in Monroe, Wis. ”They better be! I`m planting three times as many potatoes this year as last. Someone`s going to have to eat all of them,” Baker says with a laugh, knowing full well that there will be plenty of takers for her potato crop. Last year, Chicago-area restaurateurs clamored for her organically grown tubers, which she delivers to the city twice weekly. There weren`t enough to go around.
This year, with increased acreage, Baker hopes to keep the restaurant larders filled.
”It`s going to be a big year for potatoes. I think it`s tied into the advent or the reincarnation of Midwestern cuisine. There`s a resurgence of interest in heartier, homey foods. Potatoes fit right in,” Baker speculates. She could, in fact, be right on the mark, albeit just a little too provincial in her thinking. Potatoes aren`t just a Midwestern phenomenon. The renowned Four Seasons restaurant in New York has added the ”power potato” to its menu. Baked, then lightly grilled and drizzled with olive oil (extra-virgin, of course), it sells as an appetizer for $8.50 a pop. It is one of the biggest lunch-time sellers.
Even the humble mashed potato has new-found cachet. If diners and hash houses once were the only restaurants that saw fit to serve them, they now have white-tablecloth competition. Jean Joho, chef of the posh Everest Room in Chicago, serves mashed potatoes. Admittedly, his versions are hardly homespun: Some nights find them whipped to ethereal lightness and flavored with extra-virgin olive oil; other times they come amply endowed with a confetti of minced truffles.
A good complement
Says the French-born Joho, ”Potatoes are a good complement to the kinds of food I`m doing here. I have two to three different potatoes on the menu every night. Customers love them. They`re familiar to them, comforting.”
The potatoes themselves may be familiar, but the ways Joho prepares them are anything but. Fish fillets are wrapped in a crispy cloak of fried potatoes; lobster is layered with potatoes in a terrine; soup is given substance with pureed potatoes, finessed with smoked herring and a dab of caviar. These are upscale potatoes.
French chefs, Joho among them, traditionally have had a more acute eye for the culinary possibilities of potatoes than their American counterparts. Bistros and brasseries all over France serve potatoes-or pommes de terre, as the French call them-in gratins, as pommes dauphinois and as pommes frites.
Nancy McCarthy, director of consumer relations for the Colorado-based Potato Board, credits the potato boom to the continuing French influence on the American dining scene.
”French bistro cooking is big here and potatoes are right smack in the middle of that type of cuisine. They`re very fashionable right now.”
The French are second only to the Belgians in total potato consumption. Respectively, they consume a walloping 440 and 420 pounds per person per year- easily more than a pound a day. Though Americans lag way behind at roughly 124 pounds, we still consumed more potatoes last year than any other vegetable. And, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the 124-pound figure is the highest in the last decade.
But these numbers aren`t necessarily indicative of the upscaling of the potato. Instead, they simply reflect our love for fast foods and crunchy snacks. The majority of spuds are eaten in the form of french fries and potato chips. Roughly half again as many potatoes are eaten in some processed form as they are fresh. Nevertheless, McCarthy predicts that potato consumption will continue to be strong this year, with fresh potatoes showing the greatest gains.
Potato`s health benefits
But Americans are looking for health benefits, too. Potatoes finally have brushed aside the lingering reputation for being fattening and starchy: They have no cholesterol and almost no fat, are low in sodium, have goodly amounts of B vitamins, vitamin C and even some fiber. Power potatoes, indeed.
As for calories, potatoes tally in on the low end, contrary to what we may have been led to believe. They average 325 calories per pound, or about 115 per medium-sized potato. What has tarnished their reputation is the sour cream that is mounded over them, the deep fat in which they are fried or the butter used to saute them.
OK, so what if potatoes are being served in trendy restaurants and are good for you, to boot? That`s still not quite enough to account for their stratospheric popularity. A couple of other traits are sure to cement their new-found celebrity status.
Potatoes are versatile and convenient. ”Potatoes lend themselves to many different lifestyles,” McCarthy says. ”If yours is a pot roast family, then you put the potatoes in the oven with the roast. But if you`re starving at the end of the day, after work and exercise, you can cook a potato in the microwave in less than 10 minutes. They`re very adaptable and fit into a lot of different circumstances, both timewise and tastewise.”
Amid all this potato enthusiasm, several new varieties of potatoes are showing up in supermarkets and specialty food stores. Perhaps the most obvious newcomer is the purple potato, which is a hybrid of an old Peruvian variety.
A red potato is called red because its skin is red, not the flesh. A purple potato, on the other hand, is blue-violet, inside and out. ”It`s a novelty item,” says McCarthy. ”Though it tastes good, many people have a psychological thing about blue foods.” Chef Joho has lost interest in purple potatoes, as quickly as his customers have. ”I don`t use them anymore.”
James McNair, author of ”Potatoes” (Chronicle Books, $10.95), admits that although purple potatoes have a limited potential, ”they can be used to great effect in some dishes. I`ve used them to make a pure ed soup. Some people like to mix them with sweet potatoes and white potatoes in a gratin.” Yellow-fleshed potatoes
The real budding stars are the yellow-fleshed potatoes. According to McCarthy, these smaller potatoes with firm, pale yellow flesh are the norm in Europe. But yellow potatoes never have been planted in significant numbers here. About 10 years ago, they were rediscovered in northern Canada. Since then, they have made inroads here. Though they aren`t likely to unseat russets as the most popular tubers, they are attracting a lot of attention.
Premier among the gold potatoes is a variety called Yukon Gold, a humble spud from Michigan. The Robb Report, a magazine that bills itself as the
”magazine of connoisseurs” and normally devotes its glossy pages to yachts, furs and fine arts, recently wrote about Yukon Golds. So have Cosmopolitan and Business Week magazines. Perhaps the YGs` biggest claim to fame is that, with a moist texture and golden color, they look as though they`ve been drenched in butter. It`s all an illusion, though: There are no more calories in the buttery-tasting gold potatoes than in other potatoes.
Mary Baker of Tapawingo Farms plans to plant the original, unhybridized Yukon Gold potatoes this year. Her enthusiasm for them is unbridled. ”If I could have only one potato, it would be a gold potato. They can be used for everything, from mashed potatoes to salads. They can be fried or baked. And they have a wonderful flavor.”
So potatoes seem a wholesome and sensible nominee for the ”Food of the Year.” McCarthy of the Potato Board speculates on the sociological reasons for potatoes` appeal. ”People are going back to traditional values and to eating at home more. Potatoes are right there because they are a traditional food with contemporary applications.”
But maybe one needn`t dig quite so deep for the reason. Maybe it`s just the plain and simple fact that potatoes taste good-make that downright great.
