Mash 'em, bake 'em, roast 'em, boil 'em – there’s an endless list of things you can do with a potato and an almost endless list of varieties of potatoes.

I do have a favourite potato dish and it’s goes by the name of gratin dauphinoise, a traditional French potato dish thought to originate from the late 18th Century. I would use a red skinned potato, something like a Desiree and you will need about a kilo to make enough to feed six people.

Pre-heat your oven to 150C. Warm 600ml double cream over a low heat, add 4 cloves crushed garlic and a big sprig of thyme, season with salt and pepper. Peel your potatoes and cut into thin slices about 3mm thick, we use a special mandolin in the hotel, but you can cut by hand. Liberally butter an 18cm by 28cm gratin dish, and start to layer your sliced potatoes into the dish, season each layer with salt and pepper, when you have filled half your dish, strain some of the warmed cream over the top of the potatoes, then add more potatoes to the dish, the bottom layers don’t have to be too neat, but make sure your top couple of layers are really neat. Cover with the remainder of the cream – it should be swimming in cream but it should look wet. Sprinkle a few fresh thyme leaves over the top and grate about 100g of cheddar cheese over. Bake for about one hour, it will be a lovely golden colour and tender when removed from the oven.