Buttery mashed potatoes. Photo, Erik Putz.
In an era of complicated, elaborate ingredients, it is impressive when a chef can take the simplest recipe and elevate it without changing its essence. On a trip to Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to read dozens and dozens of menus from famous chefs.
Among 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 doubt worked with elaborate ingredients and prepared extremely sophisticated dishes, yet one of his most famous has just four simple ingredients: potatoes, butter, milk and salt. The revered dish I speak of is his “purée de pomme.” These are silky, creamy, smooth and luxurious pureed potatoes that will truly knock your socks off.
These mashed potatoes are all about the butter. Photo, iStock.
So what is it that sets this dish apart from your and my mashed potatoes? Perhaps it is that he boiled the potatoes skin-on, then peeled them and ran them through a food mill. Perhaps it’s the way he stirred cold cubed butter into the steaming hot potatoes. Maybe it was the jaw-dropping quantity of butter (2 pounds potatoes to 1 pound butter), or perhaps it’s the vigorous stirring required while incorporating the butter. Whichever it was… his recipe is crazy-fantastic! Best of all — I can assure you that you are comfortable working with each of these ingredients.
Note: Chef Robuchon used a variety of potato called “la ratte.” These potatoes are very en vogue (I’m sure Chef Robuchon has helped with that), and they are equally hard to come by. They are yellow fleshed, waxy in texture and are said to have a nutty flavour. In Canada, our best substitution is large yellow fingerlings or Yukon golds.
Here is the recipe for Chef Joel Robuchon’s Puree de Pomme—and my best attempt at doing it justice.
Puree de Pomme
Ingredients
- 1 kg Yukon gold or golden fingerling potatoes, all of similar size
- 454 g unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
- 1/4 cup milk
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- PLACE unpeeled potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a rapid simmer and cook for 35 to 40 minutes or until tender. Drain and peel. Transfer to a bowl and let potatoes cool slightly.
- TURN potatoes through a food mill on the finest setting, back into the cooking pot. Heat pot over medium heat stirring until heated through and steam begins to come off the bottom of the pot. Add butter in 5 additions, allowing each addition of butter to be almost melted before adding the next until it all has been incorporated.
- STIR in warm milk until combined. Using a whisk, vigorously stir potatoes until fluffy. Season with salt.
- SMOOTH the top of the potatoes with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula.
- TRY to stop licking the spoon.
Makes 5 1/2 cups
Originally published in 2013, updated in 2023.
