Today is #PotatoDay in ! Here’s the grave of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier in @PereLachaise1. A pharmacist who promoted the nutritional value of the potato, he hosted parties for the likes of Benjamin Franklin and also initiated the first vaccination programme against smallpox.

Potatoes were actually banned by the French in the belief that they caused leprosy. Spuds line his grave and people place them as tokens of remembrance on the mantle of his tomb. There are recipes and even a train station named after him! https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-potatoes-parmentier.amp

As a nutritionist he observed that potatoes had a higher drop yield than wheat and could grow in all sorts of soils. Famine no longer had to be a fact of life.

I might give this a go, it’s the French version of a Shepherds Pie. https://www.tasteatlas.com/hachis-parmentier