Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

I never saw or heard of a Jerusalem artichoke until I went to school in Paris. In French the word is quite unique and funny to my ears: topinambour! They would appear sporadically in places like Hediard and Fauchon (the ivory tower food halls on the Place Madeleine in Paris). Then one day, all hell broke loose and the stalls were filled with piles of these gorgeous tubers.

While it’s nothing like an artichoke (it is sometimes called a sunchoke), the Jerusalem artichoke is an