That's How It Happened

Joel Robuchon is widely acknowledged as a living genius of potato cuisine. His french fries are the stuff of legend, and his potato puree is widely considered the best in the world. If you want to cheat you can just order some Robuchon Smash from L'Atelier Robuchon in Tokyo (672 yen/pack). The "official recipe" seems to be grossly oversimplified, compared to how Joel must actually cook it in his restaurants. I found genuine reverse engineered recipes from Jeffrey Steingarten, and Stephen Downes, both based on insider knowledge, as well as a copycat recipe from Anthony Bourdain. I also picked up some tips from a "L'Atelier" intern at eGullet. The basics seem clear: the potatoes need to be very waxy; they undergo an initial period of gentle precooking to minimise gumminess; immediately after the final cooking they are combined with as much butter as they can possibly hold without liquefying. There are worrying inconsistencies between proposed methods though. I taste-tested two alternatives tonight to try and clear up the uncertainties.

Method 1 (Steingarten/Bourdain combo style): Peel and slice the potatoes into 1cm thick discs. Place in unsalted water at 175F, and cook for 20 minutes at 160F. Drain and chill immediately, then recook in simmering salted water until done. Mash with a potato ricer then combine with butter, then hot cream.

Method 2 (Downes style) Bake the potatoes with the skins on. Peel and cut into 2cm cubes and boil. Then mash with melted butter alone.

Controversially, the clear winner was the prebaked potato. It was fluffy and creamy and pretty much everything you could want from mashed potato. The Steingarten method produced a mash that was just too rich in fat. Perhaps my mashing technique was inadequate, but I couldn't get the same light texture. I have a lot of faith in Steingarten's dogged approach to kitchen experimentation, but this was a failure. I'm going to do my next batch with the Heston Blumenthal method, which involves preboiling like Steingarten, but then has pureeing through a tamis like Thomas Keller. Perhaps that's the secret of the perfect pomme de terre.

Tags: robuchon, potato