This is Why Potatoes Taste Better in Restaurants

Why do potatoes taste better in restaurants? Because chefs use the right potato for the right job. I'm going to show you all the basics of what you need to know to choose the right potato. First potato that we're going to start with, the UK's favorite potatoes, Jersey Royals. These are the undisputed king for boiling or steaming. They're harvested in a place called Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. They're sort of really dense. They've only got 10 to 12% starch. They're going to be rubbish for crisping up or doing anything fried, but incredibly buttery, incredibly rich. They've got a really, really firm texture and they're super, super waxy. Okay, so give them a good wash. So this is the way I've always poached them, in a mixture of water and chicken stock. If you've got a stock cube, this is absolutely fine. Just submerge them in chicken stock, bring them to the boil. And then once they're up there, you're going to simmer them. And crucially, you're going to take them off the heat and let them sit in the chicken stock for about 15 minutes after the cooking process. So I've just got some butter in here and this is just coming to the boil now. I'm just going to let it basically tick over really, really slowly. It's got a very low starch content in these waxy potatoes. And if you can't get Jersey Royals in the US or even seasonally in the UK, best thing that you can use instead is something like a Yukon Gold. Anything waxy is best cooked, poached, boiled, steamed. If you were to fry these, they would go black because there's too much sugar and not enough starch in the potato to get crisp. They are beautiful actually, aren't they? Okay, so the jerseys are now nicely cooked. You can just tell that by putting your knife in there. And now this is the best little tip for doing boiled potatoes. Turn the heat off because it's a very waxy potato. It means it's going to absorb more flavor. So my top tip when boiling potatoes or poaching them or anything is once you've removed them from the heat, add in a few aromats if you want. It'll add an extra little bit of flavor and then just let them cool down. So you're basically leaving for 10 to 20 minutes just to cool down in there. Whilst they cool, they're going to absorb whatever liquid they're in. Okay, so 10 minutes later, add a splash of that chicken stock into a pan. Tiny, tiny little bit of butter. Knocked. And then just add your jerseys into this. And if you add the butter and the chicken stock, it's going to emulsify. And we're just going to bring that down. Okay, so we've got this awesome little glaze that's formed. Add in some chives. And this is, for me, the best version of a boiled potato you can possibly get. Even if you are just doing a simple boiled potato, give it some love. Give it an extra 20 minutes. It will make an absolute world of difference. Look at those beauties. Waxy Jersey Royals. Perfect for boiling, poaching, or using in soups. Next up is the Desiree. This has got a couple of different names. I've always known it as Desiree. I think they did a little rebrand where they called it the Red Rooster or something like that. But essentially it's a red potato. So they're a crossbreed between a few different varieties. And what they were trying to do, essentially, was to make a variety of potato that was really creamy. So this has got a very, very low starch content. Rubbish for roasting. And it's got a very high sort of sugar and moisture content. So what we're doing here is we're actually trying to get rid of some of that moisture. By baking on a bed of salt, what we get is a reduction of all that water. And what you get left with is just this epic, awesome sweetness. And creaminess because of the lack of starch in there. So low starch potatoes like the Desiree also absorb. They can absorb more water or liquid. So it's gonna be great for mash because essentially when we've finished baking them, we're gonna add butter and milk and it'll give us this perfect, light, creamy, fluffy mash. So into an oven, 180 for about 45 minutes. Okay, so our Desirees have been really nicely cooked. Cut them in half and just let them steam slightly. And then just push the potato through this sieve. What you want is the sweetness from the waxy potato and you want it to absorb all of the liquid that you're gonna put in to give it the creaminess. But you don't want to activate that sort of gluey texture and consistency that you can sometimes get. Waxy potatoes like Desiree are also really good for stews. This potato is actually used a lot in like Jamaican and African food too because they do a lot of like stewed meat with vegetables. But the waxy a potato is, the more it actually holds its shape and breaks down. This is perfect as well for soups, stews, anything like that. Butter into your pan. My rough guide when making premium mashed potato is pretty much a third of the weight should be butter and milk to the weight of the finished potato. Okay, so melt your butter and your milk, add your potato, and then add your butter and milk to the potato. So I'm not gonna work it at this stage because we're gonna pass it one more time. Just mixing it now with butter and potato, make sure the butter's all melted. So one more time through the drum sieve, and this'll just give you the creamiest mash. The reason these Desiree are so good is because they absorb liquid really well. You can put cream and milk in so that it really complements it. Finish it on the stove just to get it to the consistency you like. Some like it soft, some like it really wet, some like it a bit firmer. Add a little bit of cold milk in just to let it down slightly. And then as you work it, you can see that the remaining starch, you gotta be careful with it at this stage so you don't wanna overwork it too much. And just working it together just at the end just really helps with that. There we go, perfect mashed potato. And the trademark to perfect mash is you want a ripple that holds its shape. It's all about getting it the right consistency. You don't want it too wet, but you don't want it too thick either. The perfect ripple should hold its consistency and really nicely dangle. And you shouldn't have to do anything at all. You should just let it fall. Bosh, perfect mash, Desiree potato. Super beautiful, smooth, what a treat. Okay, so next one is agria. And this is gonna be the perfect chip potato. So what you're looking for when you're doing chips or fries, or to be honest, anything that you wanna get really crispy is a low sugar content and a high amylose content. One of the important things about agria is it's actually got a very low water content. It means that when you fry this, the low water content and the high amylose makes it almost, basically makes it really like glass-like crisp. So while we're thinking about getting things crispy, there is, although this is a low starch content potato, there is still starch that remains inside. And removing the starch and removing the sugars helps get crisp without any sort of excessive browning. So whenever you're making fries, it's always best to slice your potatoes and thoroughly rinse them in cold water. Okay, so to make your French fries, just chop down, try and keep it nice and even. So this potato is actually a German spud. Fairly new if you think about it. It's developed in 1985 commercially. See what ever cut into something like a russet Burbank, which is what they use for McDonald's chips, it's white. But this has been bred so it's already like a little bit golden. So you imagine when you fry that a couple of times, this is gonna give you the most golden and crisp chip of all time. Okay, so I got some boiling water. Just add some salt. It's just for flavor. And then add your potatoes in. So to make really good fries, just blanch these. We're not trying to do like a triple-cut chick, but we are trying to remove some of the starch and slightly cook them. Because then when they fry, they're gonna be nice and fluffy if they're already pre-cooked. Okay, so once your potatoes are almost cooked, but still have a nice shape to them, take them into a bowl. Don't drain them off too thoroughly. So you want some of the residual water in there. We're gonna use potato starch, which is just extracted from potatoes. It is literally just basically the crispy stuff. And you just coat them gently in there and then give them a good mix. You'll get what looks like this really nice ruffled exterior to your fries. And it also just helps add an extra layer of crisp. And then place them onto a tray. Make sure they're nice and separated. And then just let them steam dry. Basically what you've done there is taken out the first layer of moisture. So you're gonna be able to crisp these up really nicely, now allowing even more moisture to evaporate out of the potatoes before you fry them. Okay, so our potatoes are nice and dry now. Just gonna add some beef fat into that fryer. First fry at 160. Wanna fry them for about four minutes. Look at these bad boys. They look perfect, don't they? They're ultra crispy, but they don't have their golden color yet. Now as these bad boys cool down, they're gonna get even drier. So our oil's back up to 190 now. Chips are really nice and cool. Right, in for their final fry. Okay, here we have it. Golden, crisp, fry perfection. So always fine salt to get in all those little nooks and crannies. Oh! Golden, agria fry perfection. Okay, so King Edward. Probably one of the most widely consumed in the UK. To be honest, I actually am not a massive fan. However, it is really good for one thing, which is a baked potato. On a tray with lots of olive oil, and I absolutely cover them in a coarse rock salt. Ultimately what you want from a potato when you're doing a baked potato is, you want a fluffy interior. So these guys have a very low water content and quite a high starch content. So they are actually quite good for roasting, but they are far inferior to an agria for a number of reasons. What will happen when you bake this potato is it's got a thin skin, which will get crispy, and that salt will just add an extra layer of texture to that. And what you ultimately want from it is a really fluffy interior. Okay, so these bad boys go in the oven. 160 degrees, and then at the end, crank it up to 220 degrees, and I'm going to show you my ultimate hack for delicious jackets. Jackets are at about 35 minutes. And what I always do with my jackets is break them open, but just partially. So just place your spoon in and create a nice little hole for them. Lightly fluff it up, and that's why this potato is so perfect for it. Knob of butter in each one, and then just return to the oven to finish crisping up. So you'll get a crispy, fluffy, buttery, just everything you want from a jacket potato. 10 minutes, 220. Got that last little crisp up. It's king edges. It's got such thin skins. Gone really, really nice and crisp. So a nice little roche of creme fraiche with a massive hump of caviar. This is a traditional way to serve them in Bolton. As we say up north, it's not a proper tatty unless it's got caviar on it. Fred Dibner's favorite dish. And a couple of chives. Boom. Look at those little beauties. So last one I wanted to do is because it'd be criminal to do a video about potatoes without talking about this bad boy, the Yukon Gold. We actually have quite a funny relationship with the Yukon Gold because our butcher, Mark Gilmore's grandfather, invented it. They were trying to essentially create the best variety of waxy potato there is. And they came up with this. And they are fantastic. Very low in starch, which actually really helps because starch, essentially, when your potatoes are too starchy, they'll break apart a little bit during cooking. A fondant potato is, I mean, in French, it means melting potato. So you want to cook them for a good amount of time. And they'll hold their shape and they'll absorb any liquid. Always start in a little bit of oil. Some people turn their fondant potatoes as well. So they'll have it really beautifully turned. I actually really like the skin. The skin also keeps the potato held together. So I think it's much better to cook a fondant potato with the skin on. Okay, so once you've got this beautiful golden color, flip them over, and we're going to do the other side as well. And with fondants, it's really important that you actually take the color a little bit too far because some of the color will come off when you cook it in stock. To our fondants, we're going to add a little bit of butter. Then we ladle in our chicken stock. Now, there's a nice little hack here. What we want to do is actually just try and preserve that color as much as we can. Don't ladle the stock directly onto the potatoes. Slightly off to the side. So if you tried to do fondants with a different type of potato, what would most likely happen is they fall apart very easily. So if I was to do this with a King Edward, it would be one of the most wishy-washy, pathetic fondants you could possibly have. The whole thing of a fondant needs to melt. And what you'll have with this is a beautiful melting consistency, and it'll hold its shape perfectly. So just make a little cartouche. Boopity-boopity-boopity-boop! Why do so many people comment about me using cartouche? Anyway, this is the job that a cartouche is literally designed to do. It's perfect. What I want is the stock to evaporate. I want to braise something at the same time. So the stock will reduce, but this is a permeable barrier for it to reduce, and it means the potato will cook all the way through quicker. This is like a partially permeable layer which will steam the potatoes whilst letting the stock reduce properly. So that'll take away for about 10 to 15 minutes. Okay, so our potatoes, just still a little bit firm in the middle, but we've still got all this liquid to reduce around them, so they're doing really nicely. At this stage, I'm just going to add in two little crushed cloves of garlic and a little sprig of rosemary. Okay, so cartouche is off. Potatoes are really nicely colored up. You can use beef stock and you'll get a bit more of a dark color. I mean, this potato is literally cooked so softly. It's basically like butter. The texture of a Yukon Gold, so perfectly put together. It's not shrank that much at all. It holds its shape so, so, so nicely whilst absorbing all of that liquid. Other potatoes would just fall apart, but not the Yukon Gold. Compare this to what we saw with the King Edward. It's so, so waxy, dense inside, and it's just sucked up all of that moisture, and it's still really nice and buttery and yellow. You just know this is going to be the most elite potato flavor. Oh!