A Short History of the Potato

Life without the potato is almost unthinkable (no mash, no chips...) but in fact it is a relative newcomer to Europe and North America. Now one of our culinary staples, it very nearly didn’t become established at all.

Potatoes have been cultivated in Peru since at least 200bc but it wasn’t until the early sixteenth century that Spanish Conquistadors took them to Europe, where they were regarded, alongside tomatoes and aubergines, as the work of the devil. They were also believed to be poisonous, which is not so surprising when you consider that they belong to the same family as deadly nightshade.