Ryan Chilcoathe	- Download MP3-

Our story starts with a potato, freshly scrubbed and ready for the oven.

You can zap it in the microwave, but nothing beats a potato baked the old-fashioned way, in a conventional oven. While it bakes, you can get your toppings together and tend to household chores. In about an hour, a russet potato will bake up light and fluffy.

Once it’s tender, it’s ready for toppings. Here’s where things get interesting.

There are the two mainstays: butter and sour cream. These are good, subtle choices when the potato is part of a meal.

When the potato itself is the meal, there are many more options. Taking your cue from restaurant menus, you can choose cheese, onions, bacon bits, chili, broccoli or barbecue to elevate a plain potato into a savory spud.

For real creativity, we asked four local chefs to give us their ideas for tasty toppers.

There’s nothing plain about these potatoes. The chefs’ unconventional choices incorporate meats, herbs and unexpected flavorings ranging from flank steak to sage leaves to black-bean salsa.

Our story ends with a potato, tastefully topped and ready for the table.