Potato has had pride of place in the "meat and two veg" trinity on Australian dinner plates for decades.
But with the rising popularity of vegetarianism and veganism and growing concerns over food security, more and more minds and mouths are turning to alternative ingredients.
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That cheese is made from what?
It looks like cheese, it feels like cheese but what is it.
Riding this wave, an Australian inventor in Melbourne has found a way to make the humble spud into what he calls a "man made, eco-friendly, sustainable superfood."
"The product is called chato - cheese potato. It looks like cheese and melts like cheese, but it is nothing but potato," said Andrew Dyhin from PotatoMagic.
![A cheese toastie - made from 100 per cent potato.](/web/20161014223403im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/0/t/p/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs0qhz.png/1476259271094.jpg)
In the secret method Mr Dhylin has developed over 12 years of painstaking research, potatoes are peeled and processed with no added ingredients into a basic product that promises to offer a viable alternative to dairy.
The "chato" can be melted or sliced like a cheese, cut into cubes and served as a salad, or mixed with water and additional ingredients to make any consistency of liquid including dips, aoli and custard.
There are even plans to use chato to make snacks like potato straws and produce a shelf stable product that can last from four months to four years.
Oh, and you can make ice cream with it...
![PotatoMagic turns the humble spud into blocks of 'chato' that can be made into just about anything.](/web/20161014223403im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/0/t/p/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs0qhz.png/1476259271094.jpg)
"The ice cream that comes out of the churn using the chato is to die for. I make a fantastic coconut cream custard myself," Mr Dhylin said.
"You can add whatever you want to it to make different flavours. You can bake with is to thicken your cakes and keep them moist. It tastes like potato or not at all, just depends what you do with it."
Mr Dhylin is now pushing his potato product into a commercialisation phase and attract investors, and reckons we could see a pilot production plant within twelve months.
And while he's proud of the work he's doing, he said the bigger issues at play are food security and the environment, and chato could help feed the future population of Australia and the world.
"Food security is a very important issue and we need to look at products that have more yield per hectare, like potatoes. And also how we use that yield. Something like 25 per cent of all potato that is grown doesn't make it to the plate, mostly because it's not pretty enough for the shelves," Mr Dhylin said.
"We need to find alternatives to animals and intensive agricultural practises. With chato we can take any potato, especially the ones that will just be thrown away, and make something that's delicious and versatile. We can make the most of what we have."