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Water yam (Dioscorea alata), also known as winged yam, is one of the most economically significant yam species, serving as a staple food crop in tropical and subtropical regions. Its widespread cultivation is due to its favorable agronomic characteristics, including high yield, improved tuber storability, and significant nutritional and health benefits. Despite these advantages, water yam often remains underutilized due to consumer biases towards its traditional food product quality, particularly for pounded yam preparations. In this study, we evaluated fifty-eight improved genotypes of water yams grown across three locations to assess their potential to produce superior food qualities comparable to the widely consumed white yams (D. rotundata). Seven white yams, including popular landraces, were used to set thresholds for desirable food quality. Through standardized analysis, yam samples were assessed for their biochemical composition and culinary and sensory texture attributes. The results revealed varying ranges of dry matter (DM), starch, sugar, protein, crude fiber (CF), fat, and amylose, spanning from 20.35 to 35.95 g/100 g, 42.81 to 83.31 g/100 g, 4.76 to 6.95 g/100 g, 4.33 to 6.62 g/100 g, 1.55 to 3.89 g/100 g, 0.32 to 0.53 g/100 g, and 29.27 to 38.52 g/100 g, respectively. The mean values (±SD) were found to be 29.85 ± 4.0 g/100 g (DM), 67.90 ± 44g/100 g (starch), 5.82 ± 0.64 g/100 g (sugar), 6.31 ± 1.31 g/100 g (protein), 2.14 ± 0.57 g/100 g (crude fiber), 0.44 ± 0.08 (fat), and 33 ± 16.43 g/100 g (amylose). Significant effects (p < 0.001) of the planting environments and genotypes on the biochemical composition of the yam samples were …