Jim Parker has a lot to answer for

Though there are some prior examples of cheesy Tater Tot recipes (one, submitted to Taste of Home’s Quick Cooking in 2003 by a reader in Tennessee, involves four different dairy products and a crushed-potato-chip topping), the first mention of proper Tater Tot nachos in any media was in 2006, with the opening Oaks Bottom Public House in Sellwood. The man responsible: Jim Parker, a prolific publican and former journalist who opened the pub with New Old Lompoc owner Jerry Fechter.

The secret history of totchos