Joel Robuchon's Best Mashed Potato Recipe In The World

With just 4 substances, Joel Robuchon’s deluxe puree de pomme definitely provides the wow element.

Mashed potato recipes: Irish mashed potatoes with chives and butter on top

Buttery mashed potatoes. Photograph, Erik Putz.

In an era of complex, elaborate elements, it is amazing when a chef can take the simplest recipe and elevate it without the need of changing its essence. On a excursion to Las Vegas, I had the chance to read dozens and dozens of menus from famed chefs.

Between them was the late chef Joel Robuchon, a highly decorated French chef who was named ‘Chef of the Century’ by guide Gault Millau in 1989. With a title like that, Robuchon has no question labored with elaborate ingredients and ready very complex dishes, however a single of his most well known has just four simple ingredients: potatoes, butter, milk and salt. The revered dish I discuss of is his “purée de pomme.” These are silky, creamy, smooth and luxurious pureed potatoes that will certainly knock your socks off.

These mashed potatoes are all about the butter. Image, iStock.

So what is it that sets this dish apart from your and my mashed potatoes? Probably it is that he boiled the potatoes pores and skin-on, then peeled them and ran them by way of a food mill. Possibly it’s the way he stirred cold cubed butter into the steaming incredibly hot potatoes. Perhaps it was the jaw-dropping quantity of butter (2 lbs potatoes to 1 pound butter), or perhaps it’s the vigorous stirring necessary though incorporating the butter. Whichever it was… his recipe is mad-wonderful! Very best of all — I can guarantee you that you are comfy operating with each and every of these substances.

Be aware: Chef Robuchon utilised a variety of potato termed “la ratte.” These potatoes are extremely en vogue (I’m sure Chef Robuchon has served with that), and they are similarly difficult to occur by. They are yellow fleshed, waxy in texture and are claimed to have a nutty flavour. In Canada, our finest substitution is large yellow fingerlings or Yukon golds.

Right here is the recipe for Chef Joel Robuchon’s Puree de Pomme—and my finest attempt at accomplishing it justice.

Puree de Pomme

Ingredients

1 kg Yukon gold or golden fingerling potatoes, all of similar dimensions
454 g unsalted butter, chilly, lower into small cubes
1/4 cup milk
Salt to taste

Instructions

Spot unpeeled potatoes in a pot and include with water. Carry to a boil, then minimize heat to a rapid simmer and cook for 35 to 40 minutes or till tender. Drain and peel. Transfer to a bowl and enable potatoes awesome slightly.
Change potatoes as a result of a foodstuff mill on the best location, back into the cooking pot. Heat pot over medium heat stirring right until heated as a result of and steam starts to come off the base of the pot. Insert butter in 5 additions, allowing just about every addition of butter to be just about melted right before introducing the upcoming right up until it all has been included.
STIR in heat milk right up until blended. Applying a whisk, vigorously stir potatoes until fluffy. Season with salt.
Clean the major of the potatoes with the again of a spoon or an offset spatula.
Consider to prevent licking the spoon.

Will make 5 1/2 cups

Initially published in 2013, up to date in 2023.