Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (, , ; 12 August 1737 – 13 December 1813) was a French

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

and agronomist, best remembered as a vocal promoter of the potato as a food source for humans in France and throughout Europe. His many other contributions to nutrition and health included establishing the first mandatory smallpox vaccination campaign (under

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

beginning in 1805, when he was Inspector-General of the Health Service) and pioneering the extraction of

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

from

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

s. Parmentier also founded a school of

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

making and studied methods of conserving food, including refrigeration.

Life and career

While serving as an army pharmacist for France in the Seven Years' War, he was captured by the Prussians, and in prison in Prussia was faced with eating

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

, known to the French only as hog feed. The potato had been introduced from South America to Europe by the Spaniards at the beginning of the 16th century. It was introduced to the rest of Europe by 1640, but (outside Spain and Ireland) was usually used only for animal feed. King

Frederick II of Prussia Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

had required peasants to cultivate the plants under severe penalties and had provided them cuttings. In 1748 France had actually forbidden the cultivation of the potato (on the grounds that it was thought to cause leprosy among other things), and this law remained on the books in Parmentier's time, until 1772. From his return to Paris in 1763 he pursued his pioneering studies in nutritional chemistry. His prison experience came to mind in 1772 when he proposed (in a contest sponsored by the Academy of Besançon) use of the potato as a source of nourishment for dysenteric patients. He won the prize on behalf of the potato in 1773. Due largely to Parmentier's efforts, the Paris Faculty of Medicine declared potatoes edible in 1772. Still, resistance continued, and Parmentier was prevented from using his test garden at the Invalides hospital, where he was pharmacist, by the religious community that owned the land, whose complaints resulted in the suppression of Parmentier's post at the Invalides. In 1779, Parmentier was appointed to teach at the Free School of Bakery to help stabilize Paris' food supply by making bread in a more cost-efficient fashion. In that same year, he published ''Manière de faire le pain de pommes de terre, sans mélange de farine'', in which he described how one can make potato bread that still has all the characteristics of wheat bread.Spary, Emma. ''Feeding France: New Sciences of Food, 1760–1815''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. In 1800,

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

appointed him the first army pharmacist. He succeeded

Pierre Bayen Pierre Bayen (7 February 1725–14 February 1798) was a French chemist. He analyzed water drunk by the Kingdom of France, and he wrongly suggested that using pewter glasses rendered the water toxic. He became a member of the French Academy of ...

: he continued his fight to place pharmacy on the same level as medicine and surgery.

Potato publicity stunts

Parmentier then began a series of publicity stunts for which he remains notable today, hosting dinners at which potato dishes featured prominently and guests included Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier. He gave bouquets of potato blossoms to the king and queen, and surrounded his potato patch at Sablons with armed guards during the day to suggest valuable goods, withdrawing them at night so people could steal the potatoes (the same story exists in Germany about Frederick the Great). These 54 '' arpents'' of impoverished ground near

Neuilly Neuilly (, ) is a common place name in France, deriving from the male given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well ...

, west of Paris, had been allotted him by order of Louis XVI in 1787.

Acceptance of the potato

In 1771, Parmentier won an essay contest in which all the judges voted the potato as the best substitute for ordinary flour. This was before a time when France needed a replacement for wheat, so Parmentier continued to face criticism and lack of acknowledgment for his work. The first step in the acceptance of the potato in French society was a year of bad harvests, 1785, when the scorned potatoes staved off famine in the north of France. In 1789, Parmentier published ''Treatise on the Culture and Use of the Potato, Sweet Potato, and Jerusalem Artichoke'' (''Traité sur la culture et les usages des Pommes de terre, de la Patate, et du Topinambour''), "printed by order of the king", giving royal backing to potato eating, albeit on the eve of the French Revolution, leaving it up to the Republicans to accept it.www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/blog/
/ref> In 1794,

Madame Mérigot Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

published ''La Cuisinière Républicaine'' (''The emaleRepublican Cook''), the first potato

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

, promoting potatoes as food for the common people. PL Parmentier

Parmentier's agronomic interests covered a wide range of opportunities to ameliorate the human lot through technical improvements; he published his observations touching on bread-baking, cheese-making, grain storage, the use of

cornmeal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

(maize) and chestnut flour, mushroom culture, mineral waters, wine-making, improved sea biscuits, and a host of other topics of interest to the

Physiocrat Physiocracy (; from the Greek for "government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists who believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the value of "land agricultur ...

Dishes named after Parmentier

Starting in the 1870s, many dishes including potatoes were named in honor of Parmentier: ''potage, velouté,'' or ''crème Parmentier'', a potato and leek soup; ''

hachis Parmentier Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lam ...

'', a cottage or shepherd's pie; ''

brandade de morue Brandade is an emulsion of salt cod, olive oil, and usually potatoes. It is eaten in the winter with bread or potatoes. In French it is sometimes called ''brandade de morue'' and in Spanish it can be called ''brandada de bacalao'' ('morue' and ' ...

parmentier'', salt cod mashed with olive oil and potatoes; ''pommes'' or ''garniture Parmentier'', cubed potatoes fried in butter; ''purée Parmentier'', mashed potatoes; ''salade Parmentier'', potato salad.

Death and legacy

Parmentier died on 13 December 1813, aged 76. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, in a plot ringed by potato plants, and his name is given to a long avenue in the 10th and 11th arrondissements (and

a station , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor, creative director, and writer. He appeared in a number of Japanese TV dramas, including ''Mei-chan no Shitsuji'', ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'' and ''Zettai Kareshi''. Additionally, he was well kn ...

on line 3 of the Paris Métro). At Montdidier, his bronze statue surveys ''Place Parmentier'' from its high socle, while below in full marble relief, seed potatoes are distributed to a grateful peasant.Antoine-Augustin Parmentier
Hervé & Joëlle Grosjean Another monumental statue of Parmentier, by French sculptor Adrien Étienne Gaudez, is erected in the square of the town hall of

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

References

External links

''L'Histoire en-ligne''
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier
''L'Encyclopédie de l'Agora''
Antoine-Augustin_Parmentier

"Antoine-Augustin Parmentier"
Illustrated virtual exhibition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parmentier 1737 births 1813 deaths People from Montdidier, Somme French pharmacists French agronomists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 18th-century agronomists 19th-century agronomists Recipients of the Legion of Honour History of the potato