When it comes to potatoes, Tasmania punches above its weight producing more than any other state. Reporter Ashleigh Barraclough headed along to Agfest in search for the best potato.
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00:00From tornado potatoes to hot chips, Australians love their spuds, none more so than Tasmanians.
00:10Fried potatoes, any potato on earth, except for the potatoes are in the ground right now.
00:16But what sort of potatoes end up transformed into our favourite foods?
00:21So we use Kennebec for the spiral chips and we hand cut our chips as well, also with Kennebec, because they're just the best potato for frying.
00:30At Agfest in Northern Tasmania, plenty of people have opinions on the best type of potato.
00:36The Kennebec is grown in Tasmania, it's grown around sassafras, you can't get a better chip for roasting, baking or mashing.
00:42It's a Dutch cream because I like the white sea texture.
00:45Kennebec are good for hot chips, they're also good for baking and roasting, so no, they're all round good potato.
00:55I don't know much about potatoes but I know they're delicious when they're fried or smashed with veggies.
01:00Potatoes even have support at the highest echelons of Tasmanian government.
01:05The Premier is a potato farmer from the state's North West.
01:08Despite the spuds being the staple for hundreds of years, new varieties keep coming, which is exciting, it's fantastic.
01:19You know, I like talking spuds but I always stick to my traditional ones.
01:24For a scientific result, the University of Tasmania is testing potato density to find out which are starchy enough to make a nice crispy chip.
01:34This one here is a Russet Burbank potato, and if you put that in there, you can see it just went quunk.
01:41From Kipfler's to Dutch Cream's, choosing Tassie's best potato can be controversial, but most seem to say the Kennebec is the best all-rounder.