Roast potatoes shouldn’t be complicated. We’re talking two ingredients, plus some salt and maybe herbs if you’re feeling fancy. It’s just shoving some parboiled potatoes in a hot oven, right? Yet I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve had a decent roast potato in a pub or restaurant.

Bad ones are to be found all over the place. I don’t just mean school dinners, mass-catering, hospital-canteen potatoes here. The most carefully prepared Sunday roasts at charming establishments feature beautiful melting meat and thoughtfully cooked veg, all sitting alongside miserable roasties. Clammy. Dark brown. Soft (but not in a good way). A waste of a good potato.

No one doesn’t like a roast potato; they’re practically our national dish. Done right, they’re transcendental. Glassy. Golden. Crunchy. Yielding. Full of flavour. The ultimate contrast of textures. They’re the potato equivalent of a crisp winter’s morning, the first cold lager of the summer. Near-sensory overload at first bite, shocking and exciting and invigorating, then after just a moment, absolute bliss. So why do we keep getting them........

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