Potatoes Montgolfier
his dish is happily christened in honor of the inventor of the balloon, as the story of its origin attests.
A dining car chef one day was frying potatoes in deep fat just as the train rolled into a station. As it happened the chef was a dual personality—master of the sauce pans and porter, all in one. So he took the half-cooked potatoes out of the hot lard, donned his porter's uniform, seized the ever-ready whiskbroom and darted into the chair car.
When he returned the potatoes were put back in the pan. Imagine the amazement of this peripatetic cook when he saw the bewitched pommes de terre swell out for all the world like a balloon when the gas is turned on. Thus was a new dainty added to the world's culinary repertoire.
A note of distinction is added to this dish by the ingenuity of the Congress chef. While the potatoes are attaining a generous rotundity, a dainty nest of thin potato ribbons is woven and in this they are carried to the dining room and served.
Lies through their mouths
Or I mistake mankind."
—Dr. Wolcot