EYEWITNESS
Officially the world’s priciest potato, La Bonnotte is the pride of Île de Noirmoutier, a French island known for its salt marshes. But is it worth the money?
Potatoes don’t usually come with much fanfare, but on the Île de Noirmoutier, off the Atlantic coast of France, the spuds are special. Thanks to the island’s gentle microclimate and soil fertilised by seaweed, the ‘primeur’ (first crop), harvested between mid-March and the end of July, is eagerly welcomed by locals, visitors and chefs. When I arrive at L’Étier restaurant, near the island’s main town of Noirmoutier-en-Île, chef Patrice Millasseau has prepared a feast of potato dishes. There’s smooth mashed potato, deep-fried pommes dauphines, his signature potato stuffed with snail in herb butter, and even a glass of his potato milkshake flavoured with the island’s saffron. Every creation has the sweet, nutty flavour of the potatoes at its base, and each one is delicious.
Each of the island’s potato varieties is harvested at a different time during the season; they include La Sirtéma, with its golden, papery skin and sweet, floury flesh, and La Lady Christl — long, golden and very versatile. “I make lots of recipes with the island’s potatoes because they have a texture you don’t find elsewhere,” says Patrice. When I tuck in to a potato cake made with La Sirtéma, I’m astonished at how light it is. “More patissiers should use it instead of flour,” says Patrice.
However, it’s La Bonnotte that has the best reputation. “It tastes of the terroir, which means it has a hint of the sea,” says Patrice. All across the island, La Bonnotte’s arrival is considered a reason for celebration. Its harvest period starts in early May and lasts just two or three weeks. The whole thing is kicked off by the Fête de la Bonnotte, a daylong celebration, where visitors can join the harvest, follow a bike trail around the island’s salt marshes and whitewashed villages and then, in the evening, take part in the festival feast, held in the courtyard of the Noirmoutier agriculture co-operative building. “It’s like you see in Asterix books,” says Jessica Tessier, the co-operative’s president. “We put out long tables, where everyone eats the potatoes with local sardines. We drink wine, people play accordions and everyone sings sea shanties.”
Unlike other potatoes, which grow from the seed potato then separate in the soil, La Bonnotte stay connected by a stalk, meaning they must be hand-picked. “When mechanisation started in the 1960s, the islanders abandoned production,” says Jessica. But in 1995, to mark the co-
