Atlanta — The Tater Tot held its debutante ball, fittingly, at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. The swooping post-modern structure had itself just debuted in 1954, signaling the country's interest in new forms, new conveniences, new luxuries — all financed with infusions of postwar cash.

The coming-out event wasn't actually a dance in honor of a frozen food, but rather a breakfast at the National Potato Convention being held at the hotel. One attendee — F. Nephi "Neef" Grigg of Ore-Ida Foods in Idaho — had smuggled in a satchel of what would be his greatest invention.

As Grigg recalls in his papers, he "bribed ... the head cook ... and arranged to have the Tater Tots cooked, placed in small saucers and distributed on the breakfast tables for sample treats."

The response?

"They were gobbled up," Grigg wrote.

Half a century later, the gobbling of Tater Tots continues unabated — to the tune of more than 3.6 billion annually. Grigg's solution for using up scrap generated from the processing of frozen french fries has become an iconic American food — snack, side dish, object of adoration. Each successive generation deepens our appreciation.

For baby boomers, the presence of Tater Tots signaled a happy equation in the school cafeteria: Tater Tots + Ketchup = Bliss. For Generation X, they became a ubiquitous comfort food — the stuff of casseroles, fish-stick Fridays and midnight munchies.

Now, a younger generation promotes Tater Tots as hipster bar food.

This generation also has definitively dropped the "tater." Following the example set by "Napoleon Dynamite," the movies' patron saint of awkward youth, these fried snacks have become "tots" in common parlance.

Fill it with foie gras

Once a popular food earns its retro cachet these days, the fine-dining crowd can't be far behind. Don't believe it? Michel Richard — the great chef at Citronelle in Washington — has five little words to shake your soul:

"Tater Tot foie gras ravioli!" the chef exclaims by telephone. "I make the Tater Tot mixture, fill it with foie gras and then sauté it until it crisps. They're wonderful."

Fancy stuff aside, the French-born chef professes a fondness for the freezer-bag variety of this ultimate American bite in all its plainspoken goodness.

"I love Tater Tots like you get in a burger joint," Richard enthuses. "They're crunchy and crispy on the outside, and creamy and moist inside. Mmmmm."

So enamored was Richard of the little potato snacks that developing a technique to duplicate (if not improve) them has become a long and evolving professional project. The very first recipe in his James Beard Award-winning cookbook "Happy in the Kitchen" (Artisan, $45) — an homage called Spuddies — binds potato cubes with gelatin, which melts when fried. Creamy and crisp, but not exactly tot for tat.

So Richard abandoned that technique for a better one that, in fact, echoes the industrial process perfected by Grigg a half-century earlier. He barely steams Yellow Finn potato cubes, then packs them into a mold to cool, letting the expressed potato starch do the binding. He cuts the chilled mixture into bites and fries them twice — once at a moderate temperature to cook them through and then again at a high temperature to crisp the outsides. Creamier, crisper.

Always popular

Sheila Devaney of Chapel Hill says the vegetarian Tater Tot casserole she learned to make while living in Georgia "is always the first thing gone when you bring it to a potluck at work. But if there's any left, it's even better the next day for breakfast."

Not content with casseroles, a growing subculture of home cooks has begun shredding potatoes and hand-forming their own tots.

Devaney considers such efforts ridiculous, if not anathema to the essential appeal of Tater Tots: their ubiquity.

"Why would you ever make your own?" she gasps in disbelief. "Just go to our friends at Ore-Ida. They can hook you up!"

Basic Potato Bites

If you want to freeze these tots, fry them first until they have taken on some color and plumped. Then you can fry them a second time, frozen, until they fully brown and crisp. If you want a little onion flavor, use dehydrated granules rather than fresh onion.

3-4 large baking potatoes, peeled

1 heaping teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon granulated onion (optional)

2-3 tablespoons cornstarch

Vegetable oil, for frying

Shred the potatoes into a large mixing bowl using the shredder attachment on your food processor. You should end up with 4-5 cups of potato shreds. Fill the bowl with water and rinse, changing the water 3-4 times until it runs clear. Drain the shreds. Fit your food processor with a blade and pulse the shreds, in small batches, to chop them. Place the chopped bits on a sheet pan in a pile and add the salt and optional onion, and work this seasoning in with your fingers. Spread the bits out on the sheet pan and let rest for 5 minutes. Tip out any juices that have collected in the pan. Squeeze the bits, in handfuls, over the sink to rid them of additional moisture. Spread the cornstarch over the potatoes and work it in with your fingers. A handful of the mixture should hold its shape when squeezed in your hand.

Line a sheet pan with wax paper. Form the tots with gentle pressure in your hands (you'll get the hang of it quickly). Line them on the sheet pan. When finished, place the pan in the freezer and freeze for 30 minutes, just until the surface has hardened.

Fry the tots submerged in oil heated to 375 degrees. If they stick to the bottom at first, let them brown before gently scraping them free with a steel spatula. Remove when golden brown — about 4 minutes.Makes 8 servings (6 tots apiece).

Variation: Goat tots. These fantastic bites ooze soft, tangy goat cheese. Prepare the cheese by rolling ½ teaspoon portions of it into balls between your palms. Form the tots around these balls and proceed as directed above. One 4-ounce log will suffice.

TTC (Tater Tot Casserole)

Sheila Devaney of Chapel Hill so loves this Tater Tot casserole, she calls it TTC and eats leftovers for breakfast.

2 cups shredded cheese (your choice), divided

8 ounces sour cream

1 (14-ounce) can cream of potato soup

1 (32-ounce) package Tater Tots (frozen)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend 1 cup cheese with the sour cream and soup in a large mixing bowl. Toss in the tots. Spread in a greased 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Makes 15 servings.

Tater Tot Hot Dish

This is the basic casserole recipe that Ore-Ida suggests and millions of Midwesterners know by heart.

1 pound ground hamburger meat

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 (32-ounce) bag Tater Tots (frozen)

2 cups shredded cheese (your choice)

Brown hamburger meat; drain fat. Add cream of mushroom soup and stir together continuously. Let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Place mixture in the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Lay Tater Tots neatly on top of mixture. Place in preheated oven at 350 degrees and bake 45-60 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese; melt it in the oven. Makes 6 to 7 servings.

Sweet Potato Cakes

When Cox News Service staff writer John Kessler was chef at a small restaurant in Colorado, he used to serve these easy, unique cakes as a side dish to pork and duck. Regular customers often asked for extras.

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled

4 green onions, chopped

1 egg

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Shred the sweet potatoes with your food processor into a large mixing bowl. Add the green onions, egg, flour, salt and pepper and mix well. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Form 16 cakes on the wax paper. Place in freezer for at least 2 hours, until frozen solid.

Heat a half-inch of oil to 375 degrees in a high-sided skillet. Submerge the frozen cakes in hot oil until they are well-browned and lightly crisped, turning once. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately. Makes 8 servings.

Bacon-wrapped Tater Tots

Funny, tasty, disarming for food snobs. Think of the canapés served at Elly May Clampett's wedding. Center-cut Oscar Mayer bacon is just the right size.

40 Tater Tots

20 slices bacon (not too long), cut in half

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Allow tots to thaw on counter for 15 to 20 minutes, or defrost in microwave for 1 minute, until spearable with a toothpick.

Wrap each tot tautly with a half-slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place the tots standing upright on a baking sheet (make sure the sheet has sides to hold the rendered bacon fat). Cook for 10 minutes. Remove and place the tots on their bacon-wrapped sides. Cook for 5 minutes and turn over to cook on the other side for 5 minutes, until crisp. Blot on paper towels and serve. Makes 20 servings (2 tots apiece).