The unloved artichoke finally has its moment XANTHE CLAY

JERUSALEM STARS This overlooked root vegetable is showing its versatility at top restaurants

As harvest suppers go, it was hard to beat. In a barn not far from Exeter, candlelight flickered on walls stacked with cider bottles and over long trestle tables laden with platters of tender pork, juices dribbling on to the roast Jerusalem artichokes and butter beans. Locals sat on hay bales, piling their plates, quaffing the amber cider (made by the barn’s owners, Sandford Orchards), and slicing pieces from huge truckles of Quicke’s cheddar.

There was more food to come from the chef, Connor Reed, who also cooks at River Cottage. Notable were the tangy, complex sorbet made of the whey left over from Quicke’s careful cheesemaking, and a pig’s blood and chocolate tart – a technique used for centuries in Italy, where the combination is known as sanguinaccio. It was dark, almost savoury, and was the best, most intensely chocolatey tart I’ve eaten. But the stars that night were the Jerusalem artichokes.

In fact, for all that the harvest supper was straight out of Thomas Hardy, in restaurants the JA is having a bit of a moment. Cora Pearl in London has them with cow’s curd agnolotti and truffle, Cardiff ’s new restaurant Heaneys (whose chef is Tommy Heaney, the Northern Irishman with a bleached blond quiff on Great British Menu) serves them up as crisp skins with local goat’s cheese and smoked beetroot, while in Yorkshire, The Black Swan at Oldstead ( Tripadvisor’s favourite restaurant in the world, no less) has them puréed with scallop and spruce.

Quite right too. Although Jerusalem artichokes are unrelated to the globe artichoke, the name comes from the similarity of flavour, combined with a corruption of “girasol”, the French for “sunflower”, a plant that is cousin to JAS. But while carrots, potatoes, parsnips, swedes and even celeriac get plenty of attention over the chillier months, JAS are overlooked.

It’s true, too many can make diners fart a little, due to the inulin they contain. But inulin is said to be very good for your gut, being a prebiotic fibre.

Anyway, beans and cabbages are wind-inducing, too, and while it’s wise not to schedule any long car journeys the day after a Jerusalem artichoke blow-out (as it were), I promise you, it’s worth it.