The Potato Museum Blog: Potatoheads Talking

Spud Remark Redeems A Dull Flick

All in the line of duty,  I finally watched an overly long flick called Eating.   It was made in the early 1990's by Henry Jaglom, an English-born indy director much lauded by some as idiosyncratic. ( Evidently he achieved early fame with a faux food film called Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?)

Eating centers on a Southern California birthday party honoring three women of different ages. Untold numbers of mostly thin, svelte women show up for the event, including a young French filmmaker who is doing a documentary on the California American scene or some such.

The women drift hither and thither, admiring others' bodies, loathing their own, and eventually they go before the French gal's camera and whine about food, sex, men, love, mostly the lack thereof, and so on.  The sole voice of sanity is expressed by Frances Bergen,  astonishingly lovely at 70-something.  ( She's  Candice Bergen's mom.)  She plays the lead character's mother and is repeatedly flabbergasted by the absurd notions these pampered neurotic gals have about good old food.

At one point the guests do dive into a big spread on a buffet table, a scene that inexplicably appears after they have all recoiled in horrific clucks from the obligatory birthday cakes. ( One character, God bless her, chows down throughout the film. )

I started doing whatever you call "fast forwarding" in DVD parlance right away--fortunately, I caught this one line:

" I'm still looking for a man who will excite me as much as a baked potato."

Recycle Those Old Mashers

Indian Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico is an annual event attended by over 1000 native artists from around the States, and a few from beyond, as well as buyers seeking the finest in Indian artwork. And us,  who come for superlative browsing, people-watching,  the breakfast burritos--egg, potatoes, cheese and red or green, at The Burrito Company, and frybread observation. ( Yes, they usually have no potatoes.)

   But of particular interest to spud fans is the work of Creek artist Les Berryhill. He became enamored with old wooden potato mashers and came up with the idea of creating beadwork handles for them, and for rolling pins, a new notion for collectors of antique kitchen gear.

Happy Birthday, Monsieur Parmentier

Many thanks to the prolific food history blogger based in Brisbane, Queensland, The Old Foodie, for this entry about Antoine Auguste Parmentier, a potato hero of ours.

"Today, August 17th …

If you haven’t yet met a potato you don’t like, today is a day to celebrate. It was the birthday in 1737 of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the French agriculturalist and apothecary who did more to popularise the potato in Europe than any other single individual in its history."

Please read the rest here. ( It includes recipes...)

During our lengthy research trip across France for our latest book, Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France, we photographed the Parmentier Metro stop in Paris. Unique among subway stops we assume, it includes a mini museum exhibit about him.