There is a collective memory that almost all the French share – eating in the school cafeteria. Unlike in the US, kids either eat there or go home for lunch, there is no brown bagging. And, when the French start talking about nostalgic foods from their childhood, one dish always comes up: Hachis Parmentier. It’s the French version of a Shepherd’s Pie and named for Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the man credited for bringing the potato to the French dinner table.
Centuries ago, the potato was thought to be inedible; it was only used for hog feed. In fact, before Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was taken prisoner by Prussia during France’s Seven Year War (1756- 1763) the French parliament prohibited growing potatoes because they were thought to cause leprosy. During this imprisonment he ate potatoes and noted no ill side effects. He used this experience as the foundation for a proposal as using the potato as a source of nourishment for dysenteric patients. Due to this study, the Paris Faculty of Medicine declared the potato suitable for human consumption in 1772.
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier had a hard time convincing everyone that potatoes were edible, so he went to great lengths to convince the population otherwise. For example, he hosted elaborate dinners which prominently featured potato dishes, gave the King and Queen bouquets of potato blossoms, and armed his potato patch with guards to suggest valuable goods, but told the guards to allow civilians to “steal” the goods. That’s cleaver.
Hachis Parmentier: some like it, some love it, but now every young French adult has some story to tell thanks to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier. I mean, who can go wrong with meat covered in mashed potatoes? I might just make some tonight.
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