A staple of school lunches and the stuff of weeknight dinners, jacket potatoes were always functional but rarely fun.
And, while no one doubted that they provided fuel, few would’ve said they were a source of pleasure – until now.
The humble baked potato, complete with its equally modest cheese and beans topping, has not only had a makeover but is enjoying a renaissance fuelled by – you guessed it! – the TikTok generation.
But Gen Z aren’t the only ones to blame or, if you’re a believer, thank, for either the new look potato or the renewed interest in it.
Earlier this year, the jacket potato hit the headlines when celebrity chef Tom Kerridge included one priced at £19.50 on the menu at The Coach, his gastropub in Marlow.
Michelin-trained chef and self-proclaimed ‘potato queen’ Poppy O’Toole took her ‘garlic bread’ jacket on ITV’s This Morning
Hollowed out and filled with melted raclette and Parma ham, this wasn’t just any old potato – but charging the best part of £20 for what has always been a reassuringly cheap meal left many people dismayed.
Still, it’s possible that Kerridge’s particular combination of genius and gall inspired the TikTokers who have seriously upped the ante in terms of toppings.
From self-described ‘potato queen’ Poppy O’Toole (@poppycooks), a Michelin-trained chef who is also one of the judges on BBC‘s Young MasterChef, to the US-based Brit Ebby Moyer (@ebbymoyer) who is determined to get Americans to see baked potatoes as more than just a side dish, there’s no shortage of spud ambassadors online.
And while TikTok sensation Spudman (@spudarmy) helpfully debunked the myth that the best baked potatoes are those that are cooked in foil, chefs like Poppy and Ebby have gone even further when it comes to combining flavours and textures.
TikTok sensation and spud enthusiast Poppy O’Toole – known to her 4,400,000 followers simply as ‘Potato Queen’ – aptly started her career peeling potatoes in a pub.
As a Michelin-trained chef with ten years’ experience working in professional kitchens, it’s no surprise that Poppy wasn’t prepared to let traditional jacket potato toppings remain centre stage.
Just as the chefs behind fine dining restaurants challenge themselves to come up with creative twists on well known dishes, Poppy has reinvented the baked potato by combining it with one of the UK’s best-loved breakfasts: the Full English.
An ‘absolute beauty’: Poppy O’Toole’s Full English baked potato contains a layer of sausage meat, topped with beans, mushrooms and a fried egg, and then covered with cheese and wrapped in bacon (March 10, 2024)
In a TikTok video that’s been viewed almost 500,000 times Poppy showed fans how to prepare the perfect Full English spud, dubbing the final product ‘so wrong but so, so right’.
The voiceover begins: ‘Last night I had a dream about a baked potato so I had to make it. It was a Full English baked potato.’
The 30-year-old chef, who is also a judge on BBC’s Young MasterChef, starts by adding a layer of sausage meat to a hollowed-out baked potato.
She tops it with beans, mushrooms and a fried egg before covering it with cheese and wrapping it in bacon.
When it comes out of the oven Poppy cuts the potato in half to reveal the cross section – which looks remarkably like a regular Full English served on a plate – and declares it as ‘an absolute beauty’.
And, with its 35,000 likes, Poppy’s tribute to one of Britain’s most beloved meals clearly went down a treat.
But the innovative chef has also looked further afield for inspiration.
In a video that’s been viewed just under 175,000 times, the potato queen pioneers the ‘pizza potato’, which is ‘stuffed with cheesy, tomatoey deliciousness’ and topped with small pieces of pepperoni.
‘Pizza potato’: Poppy O’Toole made a pizza potato (pictured) with cheese, tomato sauce and pepperoni pieces
Poppy’s decision to give New Yorkers’ favourite pizza the baked potato treatment was a hit with her fanbase, scoring 11,000 likes.
Another of the chef’s viral baked potatoes is her ‘star-crossed garlic jacket potato’, which she made for This Morning hosts Josie Gibson and Dermot O’Leary live on the show.
Likening it to ‘garlic bread’, Poppy demonstrated how to make the ‘formidable potato’ for 6,400,000 TikTok viewers.
A key step, she explains, is to ‘cut it into a star shape’, so, rather than cutting it in to quarters, cut it into sixths.
Next, Poppy cooks garlic with butter and parsley and makes the filling, using either feta cheese or cream cheese.
Once the cooked spud has been stuffed with the filling, she pours over ‘that garlicky, buttery, delicious parsley-ness’ for an ‘absolutely gorgeous’ potato.
Another innovative take on the baked potato comes from British amateur chef Ebby Moyer, who is based in the US.
Shocked that ‘Americans only ever see a baked potato as a side’ – and not a meal in and of itself – Ebby, who has one million followers on TikTok, has set herself the task of raising the status of the jacket across the pond.
US-based Brit Ebby Moyer left some American viewers ‘lost’ when she shared her recipe for a tuna mayo and cheese baked potato topped with ketchup (pictured)
And, claiming that ‘it only ever comes with bacon sour cream and chives’ stateside, she laments that Americans are ‘missing out on the world of jacket potatoes’.
In a video that has been viewed 15,800,000 times, Ebby demonstrates how to make a ‘super delicious budget friendly meal’ out of a classic spud.
While her tuna mayo and cheese jacket was never going to blow Brits’ minds – even if it does contain ‘mature cheddar’ and is topped with ketchup – some TikTokers admitted Ebby had lost them when she brought out the tuna mix.
But the influencer’s attempt to bring the baked potato to wider audience does not stop there.
Rather, her pièce de résistance is her ‘Baked potato flight’, an impressive platter of potatoes with toppings ranging from ‘classic British flavours’ to American ones.
With 10,800,000 views, the potato flight appears to have inspired TikTok users and, given the tasty combinations and colourful display, it certainly has the power to reinvent the humble jacket.
Appealing to her American fans, Ebby introduces a jacket topped with Buffalo chicken and cheese, and finished with a drizzle of buffalo sauce, some blue cheese and a sprinkle of green onions.
The next one gives another nod to her new home. Ebby tells viewers that the ‘fancy’ jacket containing goat’s cheese, millionaire’s bacon and chilli pepper jelly ‘has been living in my head for weeks’.
Food influencer Ebby Moyer’s ‘baked potato flight’ features a ‘fancy’ jacket with goat’s cheese, millionaire’s bacon and chilli pepper jelly (second from left)
Especially popular in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, millionaire’s bacon, Ebby explains, is candied bacon prepared with spices such as cloves, chilli powder and cinnamon.
The last jacket is creatively topped with ‘gooey egg yolks, a touch of chilli crunch and green onions’.
And, as a subsequent video shows Ebby’s imaginative jackets are a success, with her American husband claiming he would eat the Buffalo chicken variety ‘for lunch everyday’.
Hailing from Orange County, California, certified culinary scientist and author Jessica Gavin (@jessicaygavin) is another food influencer doing her bit to bring about a jacket potato renaissance.
L-r: Jessica Gavin’s barbecue style jacket (pictured) is made with chicken tossed in sweet and tangy barbecue sauce and then topped with crispy bacon and green onions; For something spicy, Jessica combines sour cream, roasted green chillis, cheddar cheese and tasty Buffalo chicken (pictured)
Jessica, who has 32,400 followers on TikTok and more than triple that number on Instagram, urges viewers to ‘indulge your tastebuds’ in the caption to her video dedicated to tasty toppings.
With the clip, which has had 24,500 views, the influencer aims to do away with the belief that baked potatoes are ‘kind of boring’ by serving up two stacked ‘delicious’ jackets.
The first, Jessica explains, is barbecue style and made with chicken tossed in sweet and tangy barbecue sauce.
Topped with some crispy bacon and a sprinkle of green onions, the finished product is an attractive, protein-rich, tasty main meal.
Second on the menu is ‘something spicy’. Jessica starts by adding some sour cream to a potato before adding roasted green chillis, cheddar cheese and spicy Buffalo chicken.
Jessica’s jackets, with their American-style flavours and colourful combinations, are a far cry from the baked potatoes Brits were brought up with.
Thanks to the culinary scientist’s creativity, her new twists on the classic show just what can be achieved with a simple spud.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .