The Spanish brought potatoes to Europe from the New World, their place of origin, in the late 16th century, but they were treated with suspicion by refined tables.
However, workhouses and prisons found them a cheap ingredient for gruel. Antoine Parmentier, an officer in the French army, was introduced to potatoes when he was a prisoner of Prussia during the Seven Years War. A free man again, he championed the tuber in France and, in about 1780, succeeded in having Louis XVI serve them in court.
Then he proceeded to “popularise†the tuber by having a large paddock of them patrolled by guards who were instructed to not notice marauders. The interest and acquisitiveness of the peasants thus aroused, they stole the potatoes and planted them in their own gardens.
Still today, a dish of pommes de terre in France probably will have the word parmentier in its name. By contrast, “spud†derives from the English name of the spade used to dig them up.
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