Potatoes are a cornerstone of any great comfort food dish, with their versatility providing a spud for every occasion. As the colder months draw closer, we often turn to hearty meals to warm us up.
Mashed potatoes can be served with everything from sausages to pies, giving the centrepiece a smooth bed to rest on. But if you’re looking to elevate your potato game, there’s one type of potato that you should be using. Food content creator Shef Phoenix recreated a Michelin starred mash potato dish created by legendary chef Joel Robuchon.
Unsurprisingly, it’s all to do with the type of potato you use. In a TikTok video from the beginning of the month, Shef said: “The first key difference with this mash is the type of potatoes used.
“This is a La Ratte potato.”
The mash is made with a generous amount of butter and milk, making up half of the total weight of the dish. To give it its smooth texture, the potatoes, once boiled, are passed through a ricer then cooked on a low heat to remove any excess moisture. Then they’re passed through a sieve.
Shef said: “Annoyingly that might be the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. I wanted to say it sucks. But it’s good.”
The video has been viewed over a massive 1.1million times, receiving 125,200 likes and 284 comments. Tantaburs commented: “The more I learn about food the more I understand that the secret is just loads of butter.”
Paul agreed: “I know this tasted good because it’s about 25% butter and butter makes everything better.”
Phil said, “Whenever I watch the recipes from the top Chef I realise that they use ungodly amounts of butter, salt and olive oil,” while Ianto wrote, “Call me controversial but in mash potato the actual potato should make up more than half of it haha. I actually like mash that isn’t like soup…”
While another said: “With the amount of butter there was no way it would taste bad.”
Robuchon died back in 2018, but his culinary legacy lived on. The Guardian wrote of his mash potato recipe: “Still, few dishes have kept a ‘the best in the world’ title quite as consistently as this silken creamy mash. Best eaten in tiny helpings.”
So if you’re wondering how you can make Michelin star-worthy mash at home, this is what you’ll need.
Ingredients
- 1kg La ratte potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled
- Coarse salt
- 250g butter, diced
- 250ml whole milk
- Salt and pepper
Method
Put the potatoes in a saucepan with two litres of cold water and one tablespoon of coarse salt. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until a knife pierces in the potatoes easily and cleanly, about 25 minutes.
Drain the potatoes and peel them. Put them through a potato ricer into a large saucepan.
Turn the heat to medium and dry the potato flesh out a bit by mixing it vigorously with a spatula. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat under the potatoes to low and incorporate the butter bit by bit, stirring it in for a smooth finish. Pour in the very hot milk, still over a low heat, still stirring briskly.
Keep stirring until all the milk has absorbed. Turn off the heat and taste for salt and pepper.
For an even lighter, finer purée, put it through a very fine sieve before serving.
