Boiled Potato

At my last restaurant we tested chefs applying for a job by asking them to boil one potato and make a simple omelette using just one egg. Then present them as a dish. More than a few of them failed the first bit.

Presentation was their strong point - you wouldn't believe what they did with those potatoes using knifes, cutters, the heel of their hand and even a melon baller. Great fun.

Do you think you know how to boil a potato? Read on, and see if you would have passed our test.

• Champ
  
  There are as many versions of this Irish potato dish as there are towns in Ulster, which is where champ comes from. This is mine
• Colcannon
  
  For a dish that is rarely cooked these days, colcannon manages to excite a lot of passion among my grandmother's countrymen - who would be my countrymen too, if I wasn't an Aussie
• New Potatoes
  
  It may come as a surprise to find that old and new potatoes are often treated differently by professional chefs when boiling them. The differences are subtle, but important.
• Old Potatoes
  
  Old potatoes are generally just call 'potatoes' these days. They tend to be the only thing available in the shopping malls so it makes sense to do the best with them we can.