A Day at the Little Potato Company

My name is Chef Owen and today I am going to be telling you about my visit to the Little Potato Company.  It was an amazing experience!

I was invited to demonstrate my famous Little Potato and Leek Soup for the owner, Angela Santiago and her staff.  I began my first ever cooking demonstration in the well-equipped kitchen of the Little Potato Company.  CTV Edmonton also joined us on this journey and documented the entire demonstration plus my tour of the plant.  One of the highlights of the cooking demonstration was that Angela really liked my soup!  This is a great compliment because I bet Angela eats a lot of potato dishes.   I made two batches of the soup for everyone to enjoy and by the end, it was devoured!  There is nothing better than when people like your food.

After the cooking demonstration was done, I was taken on a tour of the entire Little Potato Company plant by Sandy, the VP of Agriculture & Global Business Development.  In order to go on the tour, I had to put on a big lab coat, hair net, and ear plugs.  I felt like a real member of the staff.   During the first part of the tour, I learned that the company was started by Angela and her dad selling potatoes they grew from their little piece of land.  They even washed the potatoes in the bathtub.  I am not sure if my mom would let me wash potatoes in our bathtub but maybe if it made me some money!  The first stop on the tour was to see all the different types of potatoes including Creamer potatoes like the Blushing Belle variety, fingerling potatoes, and even the brand new potatoes, Something Blue!

From there, we looked at the different types of machines and what they are used for.  I also got to see how the fast the potatoes are sorted by hand.  It is incredible how fast the workers are at picking out the bad ones.  Then they let me have a turn at sorting potatoes.   I sure had trouble keeping up with their pace!  Still, it was fun to try to pick out the bad ones.  I was glad to hear that the potatoes that didn’t make the cut were still used to feed the cattle.  I like that nothing is wasted at the Little Potato Company.

Next, I went to the packaging section and saw how cool those machines were!  Along the way, I also learned an interesting fact; the back of fingerling potato packaging is special light blocking material so no light is allowed to get in to make the potatoes green.

Following the tour, I had a meeting with Angela in her office.  I did not think anything could top cooking for everyone and my own tour of the Little Potato Company, but Angela surprised me with an amazing present full of Little Potato Swag!  I am one lucky Little Chef!