The World’s Most Decadent Mashed Potatoes!
The late Chef Joe Robuchon was known to make the world’s most decadent mashed potatoes, and here’s why!
Jöel Robuchon’s purée de pomme is known as the most famous mashed potatoes recipe in the world, according to Food 52. Despite his passing in 2018, Robuchon’s legacy lives on through the famous dish, purée de pomme.
The great Chef and Cookbook Author Patricia Wells presented Chef Robuchon’s cuisine in this terrific collection of recipes – including his legendary mashed potatoes!
Chef Robuchon once said this:
“The mashed potatoes, it’s true, made my reputation. I owe everything to these mashed potatoes.”
So, how much butter does it take to turn regular spuds into a creamy delicacy? We are about to find out!
Making Joel Robuchon’s Decadent Mashed Potatoes – With Patricia Wells!
I love this cookbook – it’s filled with incredible dishes – but today we are all about the potato!
There are very few ingredients for this dish – and it’s all about the ratio!
2 pounds potatoes
1 pound butter
1-1/4 cups milk
sea salt to taste
That’s it, and no that’s not a typo – a whole pound of butter! Let me explain with Alex’s terrific camerawork and prompting:
Get Your Potatoes Into Boiling Water!
The first step is to rinse your potatoes and get them boiling!
Chef liked to slow boil his potatoes with the skins on – you will peel them afterwards…he felt the skins gave the potato a richer flavor during cooking. You should be able to put a knife easily through a potato to ensure they are cooked…about 20 minutes or so.
The Chef’s “Two-To-One” Ratio!
Here’s the reason these are such decadent potatoes!
Chef Robuchon’s creamy mashed potatoes contain an crazy amount of butter.
It’s a two parts potato to one part butter ratio!
Yes, you read that right; the recipe is a 2:1 ratio of pure, comforting heaven. A full pound of butter is used for the two pounds of potatoes in the recipe!
When the potato are done, drain them and let them cool – then remove the skins. Meanwhile, melt your butter…I like to do it slowly in a pan but you can microwave it as well.
Once the potatoes are peeled, put them in a pan, smash them a bit, then pour your melted butter into the pot:
Mashed them up a bit so bring the two ingredients together…
Now, put your milk into a sauce pan and slowly warm it…I added a bit of heavy cream as well because why not?
Once warm, you simply pour the milk in to the potato/butter mixture…and it sure seemed to me like a LOT of liquid was being added!
Potato Soup!
I was immediately shocked at how the warm milk/cream mixture turned my dish into soup!
I took a deep breath and told myself that Patricia Wells and Joel Robuchon must know what they are doing, so I slowly began to stir it together by hand for a minute, then grabbed a handheld blender and used that on low as well – and do you know what happened?
A Perfect Puree!
Little did I know just how “thirsty” these potatoes were!
After two minutes of blending, they were velvety smooth – a perfect puree!
Robuchon’s “purée de pomme” exemplifies his love of flavor, and highlights his legacy as a chef.
With just four ingredients — potatoes, butter, milk, and salt — he created an incredibly rich, luxurious, silky dish that was completely unlike any mashed potatoes the world had seen before!
Alex got to do the first taste test – check out her reaction!
As you saw, Alex approved of this recipe – because they really were incredible!
According to The Guardian newspaper, critics have described eating Robuchon’s potatoes as an “emotional” experience.
These potatoes are to die for: a full, rich potato flavor but the milk/cream/butter providing a mouth-watering richness…I used just a bit of salt, not wanting to distract from the flavor…using just the right amount of salt actually helps the potatoes pop even more!
This picture came from a potato binge that Alex and I had in Paris one week…where we ate potatoes four different ways – click here to see them all!
This was week #32 of my “52 In 22” cooking challenge – but it wasn’t my first attempt at a potato dish:
Remember when I made “potato chip eggs?”
Click here for the recipe – and to see why I had to make it twice!
I have had a blast doing my “52 In 22” cooking challenge, as I’ve tried to make dishes that were completely new to me, like this one:
This “Veal Prince Orloff” was inspired by “Downton Abbey” AND Mary Tyler Moore as well!
Click here to see why:
I have also had a great time making food from different cultures, like this traditional Italian Gravy:
Not only “gravy” but “Gangsters” too!
See this traditional Italian family recipe by clicking on my story here:
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Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
“More butter, more cream, more salt!” Sounds like a winner! Wish I had some right now! 🙂
It’s still the funniest thing we joke about with both Derek and Ross – but he’s a fine dining Chef and you never hold back!
Hey! I expect a rerun of this during the holidays!!!
It’s worth a remake, that’s for sure!