Dehradun, May 3 -- Culinary Chronicles

Potatoes have a history in Europe that leads back to the late sixteenth century. Brought to the continent by the Spanish sailors while returning from Latin America.

This humble root vegetable was cultivated there but failed to please the palates. In 1748, the French government declared them unfit for human consumption and they became feed for animals.

Augustin Parmentier, a French army pharmacist who was captured by the Prussian soldiers during the war, was pressured to eat potatoes as it was believed that this ingredient caused leprosy. In prison, he experimented and discovered that these were a rich and delish source of nutrition.

After his release and, on his insistence, the ban on potatoes wa...