Only on myLot : the authentic Robuchon’s mashed potatoes
By topffer
@topffer (42156)
France
August 20, 2018 6:28am CST
Joel Robuchon died earlier this month in Geneva. He was one of the most famous chef cook that France ever had, totalizing at his death 31 Michelin stars in his various restaurants, and having been named in 1990 «best cook of the century». Robuchon was buried in his native city of Poitiers. I was talking yesterday to a friend in Poitiers and we chatted a moment about Robuchon. She went to the funeral where 500 chef cooks were present. It was not the good day to book a table in a top restaurant. Personally I never went in one of his restaurants, but I learned that he was serving in all of them around the world the same mashed potatoes, and that it had been a key to his success. And I was given the secret recipe of Robuchon’s mashed potatoes. I thought that it was an open secret, but looking this morning online, I do not find anywhere the same recipe, only some Robuchon like mashed potatoes, usually with way too much butter in them.
First you need rattes potatoes. It has a little taste of nut and a smooth texture, and is part of the secret. It is a very old French variety and I do not know if it is easily available out of France, but without them you will never make authentic Robuchon’s mashed potatoes.
Second, you need 250g of butter for 1kg of rattes. It is a very large quantity for a puree that made me say «Wow !» as I add only about 50g of butter/kg when I prepare mashed potatoes. But I was stupefied this morning when I read many Robuchon like recipes recommending 1 pound of butter for 2 pounds of potatoes. Be serious, is it a recipe of mashed butter or of mashed potatoes 
!?
And finally you need 25 cl of milk and a tea spoon of coarse sea salt.
I will not make you the insult to explain you how you should prepare mashed potatoes, but, just in case, I will remind you that the butter has to be added in any mashed potatoes recipe COLD and SOLID and mixed with the potatoes on the fire. All those adding melted butter for a puree dish are criminals deserving to be kept away of a kitchen for the rest of their life.
!?
And finally you need 25 cl of milk and a tea spoon of coarse sea salt.
I will not make you the insult to explain you how you should prepare mashed potatoes, but, just in case, I will remind you that the butter has to be added in any mashed potatoes recipe COLD and SOLID and mixed with the potatoes on the fire. All those adding melted butter for a puree dish are criminals deserving to be kept away of a kitchen for the rest of their life.10 people like this
8 responses
@vandana7 (98830)
• India
20 Aug 18
Looks like you are a good cook. I don't like mashed potatoes. I don't like any western food...lol. I need lots and lots and lots of spices and tamarind. You know what? We make tomato chutney. I add tamarind even in that. I mix it with butter and apply on bread toast, and it tastes heavenly. It tastes good even with boiled potatoes. But that much of mashed potatoes...I think it would be so tasteless.
4 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
20 Aug 18
@vandana7 I do not discuss about tastes, they vary from a country to another, and diversity is good. I am quite sure Indian restaurants here are putting less spices in their dishes than in India. It is the case for Arabic restaurants, the dishes are a lot less spiced than in Northern Africa, and they often put the chili sauces apart as many people would not be able to eat them here.
.3 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
20 Aug 18
If you add spices to these potatoes, you will lose the nut flavor of the potato which makes its interest. Indeed, if you do not like mashed potatoes, it is not a recipe for you. I like some chutneys, and I recently bought a tomato chutney from Italy that was pretty good.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (157555)
• United States
20 Aug 18
Probably have to go to a gourmet store here to get the right potatoes. I love mashed potatoes. Is the milk warmed before adding?
2 people like this
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
25 Aug 18
I like my butter, but that's a lot of butter - I mean A LOT! I don't know if I can get those potatoes here - I don't ever recall seeing that name on the potato signs. I read that it is similar to a fingerling potato (which I know I can get), but I don't know that it's a good substitute for the Ratte. Do people actually melt butter for mashed potatoes 
? I don't have time . . . I just mash cold butter pieces in with the hot potatoes (in a bowl, not in the pan on the stove). I could be put away for the amount of butter I use in our mashed potatoes (it's no Robuchon recipe amount!). 
1 person likes this
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
7 Sep 18
@topffer I don't think the fingerlings I am thinking of taste "nutty" - perhaps not much different from our ordinary russets except maybe they are tad sweeter? With 3 big potatoes, I don't use anymore than maybe a couple tablespoon slices of butter. Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes to me - nothing that special even at a restaurant unless there's some special herb or added something to it other than the typical ingredients. I don't mind mine a bit chunky 
.
.1 person likes this
.@topffer (42156)
• France
25 Aug 18
The amount of butter is also unusual for me. I have not tried the recipe yet, but I want to give it a try. Mashing cold butter pieces with the potatoes is the way to go. At the end Robuchon was using a sieve. It is long to do, and the rattes are easily mashed, so I do not believe it to be important to get a very smooth puree, except in a 3 stars restaurant.
The fingerling looks like the ratte. If it tastes a bit like hazelnut/walnut, it will be perfect.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
2 Sep 18
I've never heard of Chef Robuchon or his mashed potatoes, Top. I am always sorry when anyone passes away.
I looked and found suppliers for the Ratte potato here in the US. Seed potatoes cost USD $4.99/ lb for them! That's incredibly expensive for seed potatoes!
There is even an entry for them in the Seed Savers Exchange which labels these as an American heirloom potato!
Seed potatoes cost USD $4.99/ lb for them! That's incredibly expensive for seed potatoes!
There is even an entry for them in the Seed Savers Exchange which labels these as an American heirloom potato! 1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
2 Sep 18
It is a French potato originating from the Lyon area in Central France. It appeared in agricultural books circa 1870, but it was existing before and nobody knows its age. It can have been brought early to USA and be considered like an "heirloom" by some people, although it is not a very old heirloom, the big sellers of seed potatoes started to sell it after WWI in France.
What is sure is that it is a perfect potato for a garden : it is a tasty potato with a nut flavor, expensive in shops because they are fragile and need to be hand picked. If you have a garden, I think that it is a good investment.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
2 Sep 18
@DaddyEvil You can buy 1 lb to test/taste them and produce your own seed potatoes if the test is positive.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137142)
• United States
2 Sep 18
@topffer I'd need about 20 lbs of seeding potatoes to make enough to last us over the winter. I can buy 20 lbs of white seed potatoes for about $4 here. If I could buy 20 lbs of the Ratte potatoes (They are sold by the lb, by 50 lbs or by 100 lbs.) I'd have to pay $100. And that doesn't guarantee there'd be enough eyes to cut them up like I do white seed potatoes.
1 person likes this
@YrNemo (20261)
•
22 Aug 18
hmm, we add the cold butter in small blobs, into the slightly mashed potatoes, and continue with the mixing/mashing. BUT, we don't add that much of butter. Let see, the butter I add to the potato would be 1/4 to 1/5 only. (You are right, that type of ratte potato does taste beautiful. We bought them a few times (by accident), and were so surprised.)
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Aug 18
The quality of the ingredients in a dish is important. If Robuchon has chosen rattes (I am just the scribe here), he had certainly a good reason. Good potatoes, plain milk, non pasteurized butter... Like my grandmother was saying "there are only good things in it, it cannot taste bad."
The quantity of butter makes the dish feel even better at brain level. It is a trick of chef : a dish with more fat than usual seems better.
The quantity of butter makes the dish feel even better at brain level. It is a trick of chef : a dish with more fat than usual seems better.1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
24 Aug 18
@YrNemo My mother was saying that she was taking weight despite of eating nothing. I had once a terrible tooth ache. As my dentist and doctor were in the same city than my parents and I was in another one, I waited the weekend to see them. During the week I could eat only soups and yogurts and I had lost 8 kg, falling at something like 60 kgs. The doctor was the family doctor, the same than my mother, and when I told him that I had lost 8 kg during the week, he laughed and said : "It confirms that those telling that they take weight while eating nothing are liars."
Your daughter could perhaps have been a very good chef if you had not stop her experiments.
Your daughter could perhaps have been a very good chef if you had not stop her experiments.1 person likes this
@YrNemo (20261)
•
24 Aug 18
@topffer hmm, made me think of a time when my daughter putting too much of butter in her cookies. Her theory was, the cookies should taste better. We ended up throwing those straight into the bin! (Your post also made me think of a couple who complained to us bitterly of how difficult it was, for them, to not putting on extra weight! They said they ate mainly veggies. We were invited a few times to their place for some impromptu dinner. All the veggie dishes were served with LOTS OF BUTTER in them. Not mentioning yet the rich creamy desserts...)
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
20 Aug 18
So the 'secret' (purpotedly) is in the potato variety and the amount of butter (which butter and salted or unsalted is not specified). Half as much butter as potatoes does sound WAY over the top! Even a quarter as much butter as potato seems excessive. The amounts of salt, pepper and any other spices, such as nutmeg, are not noted, I see, though I'm sure that M. Robuchon would have been as particular about these as about the other ingredients. This is always the way when a cook divulges a 'secret' recipe: the real secret is often so small and inconsiderable ingredient that it is carefully not mentioned.
Well, Ratte potatoes are available from a few supermarkets here (Waitrose, of course) and cost from £5 per 1500g (3 packs) to £2.35 per 500g. We can also buy seed from various suppliers and, if I had the land and the ability to dig it, I might try some, though I'm sure that my soill is not like French soil and the potatoes would lack that nutty taste - a combination of chestnuts and hazelnut, as one site put it.
I am now wondering whether, if I made mashed potato with the addition of a little chestnut purée and some hazelnut oil, I could emulate the taste and texture of Purée des Pommes de Terre Robuchon. I think I must try it - I have hazelnut oil and a pack of chestnuts in the cupboard and some rather nice yellow fleshed (var.:Georgina) potatoes.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
20 Aug 18
1/4 of butter is a lot of butter, and I was surprised by the amount, but the source is reliable. She spoke only of adding coarse sea salt. Maybe adding any other spice would kill the flavor of the potatoes ? I will ask next time. The butter is unsalted, there is quite no use of salted butter in French cuisine, except for caramel.
Some rattes are more valued than others, like rattes du Touquet, but globally they taste the same. They are expensive because they need to be hand picked, being too delicate for a machine, so it is a perfect variety for a private garden.
I love hazelnut and walnut oils in a salad, but I cannot tell what it would give in a puree. You would have to put less butter, for sure.
. She spoke only of adding coarse sea salt. Maybe adding any other spice would kill the flavor of the potatoes ? I will ask next time. The butter is unsalted, there is quite no use of salted butter in French cuisine, except for caramel.
Some rattes are more valued than others, like rattes du Touquet, but globally they taste the same. They are expensive because they need to be hand picked, being too delicate for a machine, so it is a perfect variety for a private garden.
I love hazelnut and walnut oils in a salad, but I cannot tell what it would give in a puree. You would have to put less butter, for sure.1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (58140)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
20 Aug 18
It wasn't that big of a secret after all. Was it?
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
20 Aug 18
You think so ? I found many attempts online, but nobody found the right recipe. To tell the truth, he was not making any secret of his recipes and wrote several books, and I thought that he had published this one too, but no, maybe because it is too simple.
