Potato lovers unite! If you love potatoes, pick up a copy of POPPY COOKS: The Potato Book, 101 Recipes from the Potato Queen by Poppy O’Toole. While everyone loves the creamy mashed potatoes that are traditionally served for Easter dinner and several nights a week, if you want to up your potato game, “The Potato Queen” has you covered.
Renowned TV show host and cookbook author Nigella Lawson called Poppy O’Toole “The High Priestess of the Potato”. O’Toole is an international bestselling author who trained in Michelin-starred restaurants. Her online followers gave her the name “Potato Queen” and “The British Potato Girl”.
O’Toole was working as a Junior Sous Chef in London, England when COVID hit in March 2020. She and her partner (and their snoring Pugs) moved back home to Poppy’s parents’ place where the chef started posting videos on TikTok to help people learn how to cook during the pandemic. Her platform grew to 50,000 followers by August of that year. Her “crispy cube potatoes with steak” hit one million views. During the second lockdown in the UK that November, Poppy created a new video series called 25 Potato Recipes to get you Through the Second Lockdown. Suddenly she had over one million followers. Poppy went “all potatoes” overnight, creating several more videos and cookbooks devoted to potatoes. Today she has over five million followers on her channels and makes regular appearances on UK television as a chef and culinary judge.
The Potato Book features 101 recipes
The Potato Book features 101 recipes within the chapters Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Potatoes, French Fries, Wedges and Hash Browns, 15-Hour Potatoes, World Classics Baked Potatoes & Skins, Potato Salads, Easy Potato Bakes and Extra Crispies.
Mashed up!
While there is a recipe for Classic Mashed Potatoes, you can make mashed potatoes extra special by trying the recipes for Garlic & Thyme Mashed Potatoes, Three-Cheese Mashed Potatoes or Hot Honey & Bacon Mashed Potatoes. Poppy shares her secret for making Classic Roasted Potatoes, Classic French Fries and Classic Skin-On Wedges. Wow your family with a heaping plateful of Loaded Fries or Smashed Potato Nachos. Company-worthy recipes include Caramelized Onion & Cream Cheese Hasselbacks, Wine & Shallot Roast Potatoes, Star-Crossed Garlic Baked Potatoes, Viral Crispy Potato Salad, Christmas Dauphinoise, and the recipe that went viral and earned over one million views—Classic Crispy Cubes.
The recipes are easy to follow and the photos by Ellis Parrinder are so vivid and realistic, it will make you want to run to the kitchen, grab a bag of potatoes, and get cooking Poppy style. You might just become known as the Potato Queen or King in your house!
Excerpted from POPPY COOKS: The Potato Book by Poppy O’Toole. Copyright © 2025 Poppy O’Toole. Photography by Ellis Parrinder. Published by Appetite by Random House ®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
by Laurie Wallace-Lynch
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