Antoine-Augustin Parmentier: The Frenchman Who Made the Potato Popular

In early fall, in Maine’s far northern Aroostook County, schools close for “potato recess.” The break, also called harvest break, sends students out to help bring in one of America’s most beloved crops. The humble potato has come a long way to earn that loyalty. It was not always welcome at the table, especially in France, and the story of how it crossed over is one of the strangest publicity campaigns in food history.

The Not-So-Hot Potato

The Spaniards carried potatoes from the Americas to Europe in the mid-1500s, and the tuber slowly worked its way into Spanish, Italian, German, and Irish cooking. The French refused. They called the potato “hog feed” and believed it caused leprosy. In 1748, the French Parliament made it official: potatoes were banned by law for human consumption.

Enter Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist who served as an army pharmacist during the Seven Years’ War between 1754 and 1763. The Prussians captured him during the conflict and held him as a prisoner of war. His daily rations were potatoes. For years, the supposedly leprosy-causing tuber was his entire diet.

Parmentier left prison healthy, well-fed, and quietly furious about French food law. He returned to his studies in Paris, and by 1772, his entire scientific focus was the potato. That same year, the French government repealed the ban, citing Parmentier’s research. In 1773, the Academy of Besançon awarded him a prize for showing that potatoes were excellent nutrition for patients recovering from dysentery.

Potato Publicity Stunts

Repealing the ban did not change French opinion. The fear ran deep, and Parmentier knew it. He started hosting stylish dinners centered on the potato, inviting celebrities of the day, including Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier. One famous evening, he presented a bouquet of potato flowers to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. The royal family wore the blossoms in public. Still, the country shrugged.

Parmentier needed a stunt that worked on suspicion rather than persuasion. King Louis XVI granted him a large plot of land at Sablons in 1781, and Parmentier turned it into a potato patch. He then hired heavily armed guards to make a show of protecting the field. Anything so well-guarded, the theory went, had to be valuable. The guards had quiet instructions: let thieves get away. If a thief offered a bribe, take it.

Thefts Equal Popularity

The stunt worked. Locals began stealing potatoes for their own gardens. The crop spread, slowly. Then history intervened. The famine of 1785 forced northern France to plant potatoes as emergency food, which kept whole villages alive. Parmentier published a formal paper on potato cultivation in 1789, by royal order. The Revolution broke out a few months later, and the paper was ignored in the chaos.

It took until 1794 for potatoes to truly take hold. That year, Madame Mérigot published the first French potato cookbook. From then on, potatoes were branded as the “food of the revolutionaries.” In 1795, French rebels planted massive potato fields to feed themselves through a long siege of the Paris Commune. The tuber had arrived.

Today French cooking is full of dishes carrying Parmentier’s name. Hachis Parmentier is the French equivalent of shepherd’s pie, with a mashed-potato crust over braised meat. Potage Parmentier is potato and leek soup. Pommes Parmentier are cubed, herbed potatoes roasted golden brown, the recipe below.

What About French Fries?

France and Belgium both claim the invention. The Belgian story dates to the early 1700s, when fishermen along the Meuse River, with no fish to fry during winter freezes, were said to have sliced potatoes into long strips and fried those instead. The French story puts the invention in 1780s Paris. Food historians question both. Cooking oil was extraordinarily expensive in the 18th century, and deep-frying a pile of cheap tubers would have been wasteful enough to draw attention in any contemporary kitchen record, which it does not. The most likely truth is that fries developed gradually across the region, with no single inventor.

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Herbed Potatoes Parmentier Recipe

Ingredients:

• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh parsley
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Place a large baking tray in the oven and preheat to 375°F.
2. Parboil the cubed potatoes in salted water for 5 minutes. Drain, then return them to the warm pan to dry off any remaining water. Dry potatoes crisp better.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter with the olive oil. Stir in the parsley and garlic. Add the cubed potatoes, toss to coat, and cook 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep them from browning unevenly or sticking.
4. Strip the rosemary leaves from the stems and finely chop. Add to the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.
5. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on the hot baking tray. Roast 20 minutes, turn once, then roast 15 more minutes until golden brown and crisp at the edges.

Pommes Parmentier works as a side at Thanksgiving, alongside roast chicken, or under a fried egg for breakfast.

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Amber Kanuckel

Amber Kanuckel is a freelance writer from rural Ohio who loves all things outdoors. She specializes in home, garden, environmental, and green living topics.

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