Make Michelin Star Chef-Approved Mashed Potatoes Using This Unconventional Method

Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has a worldwide empire of fine dining restaurants. His flagship restaurant, Jean-Gorges, in New York City, has two Michelin stars. So when the chef demonstrates his recipe for mashed potatoes, we pay attention. His technique involves butter, more butter, a ricer, and an Instant Pot.

It all starts with the pressure cooker. Chef cooks chunks of Yukon Gold potatoes (our favorite potato for mashing) for six minutes with some water. He's not opposed to using a standard pot, but the Instant Pot is faster and retains more flavor. Then it's just a matter of running the cooked potatoes through a ricer, adding butter and cream, and mixing. He prefers the taste of cultured butter, which is butter that has been allowed to ferment slightly. Add salt and pepper to taste, and before serving, add more butter on top. It makes for an elegant, creamy, buttery mash. It's very similar to Daily Meal's version of buttery mashed potatoes.

You can certainly boil potatoes the usual way in a pot until they get soft. It's the way they've been made for years, and it still results in tasty potatoes. However, using a pressure cooker, such as an Instant Pot, has some advantages.

First and second are time and attention. An Instant Pot you can set to six minutes and leave until it beeps. That's time you could spend prepping other parts of your meal rather than constantly checking to see if your potatoes are ready yet. Third is texture. Using pressure and steam to cook the spuds lets you get them to the point of just about to fall apart without them becoming a waterlogged, mushy mess. They take on less water, so they have more room to absorb cream. Fourth is flavor. The sealed environment of a pressure cooker keeps the natural flavors all in the potato. Potatoes aren't the only thing you can cook; check out our list of other foods you'd be surprised you can make in one to get you cooking.