The FruitGuys

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier probably celebrated with a big dinner at Le Cirque when he landed the King Louis XVI account. Back in 1775 Parmentier was the innovative huckster behind the “Got Potato?” campaign. When the Spanish conquistadores came back from Peru with the potato it was treated with scorn and relegated to ...livestock. But the Powers That Be saw a valuable market opportunity for the potato to become an alternative to wheat. Wheat for making bread had become a precarious vertical market, susceptible to price fixing and famine. The Prussian King Frederick II ordered his reluctant peasants to grow and eat potatoes—or have their noses cut off. But it was savvy Parmentier's marketing ploy to have a field planted with potatoes surrounded by guards that provoked interest in the tuber. The guards had been authorized to let the peasants steal the chic potato (which had been re-branded under the wonderful name pomme de terre or “earth apple”). The French became the early adopters and propagators of the delicious potato cuisine we now love so well...Read More