Standouts are a gentle potato soup, garnished with black-radish slices and crispy kale, and pork-filled potato dumplings in a frothy smoked-cheese mousse.

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Carlo Crisci, who runs two-star Michelin restaurant Le Cerf, north of Lausanne, cooked a cold fondue of small cheese balls in a hot potato soup for a special event.

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It didn't help that we were smack in the middle of the Depression and Prohibition. (Talk about a double whammy-first, you lose your job, then you can't even get a drink.) I remember a lot of potato soup at home, along with canned peas, canned pears, canned everything.

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Good thing he never got around to governing Peru, a country with 2, 500 soup recipes, more than 3, 000 different types of potato and 2, 000 species of fish.

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Best bets: heirloom squash and chestnut soup, coriander-seared duck breast with roasted parsnip and sweet potato sauce, pan-seared trout with sweet pea and corn pancakes.

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One typical dish is cazuela, a light-broth soup with chicken, Chilean pumpkin, a bit of corn on the cob, potato, carrots and onions.

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