How to make the perfect mashed potatoes: the Michelin chef’s recipe

A year ago, a girl studying at a Michelin-starred restaurant was in despair: because of the pandemic, she lost her place. Then Poppy took to social media: She started with churros and fries recipes, but the first hit was McDonald’s potato pancakes, which garnered 40,000 views. Now Poppy’s TikTok page has 2.7 million followers, and the girl has also released her own cookbook.

Recently, the “Queen of Potatoes” revealed the secret to perfect mashed potatoes – soft, fluffy and airy. According to Poppy, she studied the properties of starch and protein for 25 years – that’s what allowed her to develop an impeccable recipe (which, by the way, gained almost 50 million likes). No wonder: the O’Toole method is very simple – you just need to pay attention to a few nuances.

Poppy advises choosing the most starchy varieties – for example, Maris Piper. However, the starch content can be determined without knowing the variety simply during the cooking process – the flesh of a raw vegetable should be slightly yellowish, and the potato should not crunch under a knife.

O’Toole recommends cutting the potatoes into one-inch slices, placing them in cold salted water (important!) and boiling them until the slices begin to fall off the knife. After that, drain the water and leave the potatoes for five minutes to evaporate the remaining moisture.

Then add cold butter and milk or cream to the potatoes – they will give the dish a velvety texture. In this case, the milk should be warmed up, as this improves the mixing process – the liquid is better absorbed by the potatoes, and it will not be so sticky.

When chopping potatoes, Poppy advises to always use a perforated potato masher and never a wooden potato masher. And finally, the final touch is to rub the mash through a sieve. “You end up with a creamy, fluffy and absolutely fabulous dish”, promises the “queen of the potato”.