Michelin Star Mashed Potatoes – Worth It?
I stumbled upon this video from Chef Jean-Pierre on Facebook, and it stopped me dead in my scroll. Mountains of salt. Lakes of butter. A potato sifter the size of a drum kit. He called it the most velvety mashed potatoes ever made.
Now, I love a bit of mash — the midweek, shove-it-all-in-a-pan kind — but this looked like a Michelin-starred version of a duvet. So I had to find out if it was worth the fuss (and the butter bill).
The Chef Jean-Pierre Method
His process is surprisingly simple — it’s the quantities that make your heart skip a beat. The potatoes go into cold water (key word: cold) with a snowstorm of salt. He even says, “don’t be afraid, the salt won’t penetrate the skins.”
He’s right, mostly. Boiling them in salted water with the skins on doesn’t actually make them taste salty inside, but it does season the surface and helps them cook more evenly. It’s like giving your spuds a salty hot tub before the mashathon.
Once soft enough that a knife slides in easily, he peels off the skins and pushes the potatoes through a ricer — standard enough. But then, he takes it up a notch: through a huge fine sieve with a dough scraper until it’s basically potato silk.
Finally comes the dangerous bit — butter. About 340 g to 900 g of potatoes. That’s not a typo. Then he adds hot milk (never cold; cold milk shocks the starch and makes it gluey) until it all blends into what can only be described as spreadable luxury.
The Midweek Mash Special
Just to compare, I made my usual midweek mash too. No Michelin utensils, no gym-sized sieve. Just a pan, a masher, and my standard technique.
A kilo of peeled Maris Pipers, boiled in salted water (nothing mental), mashed with butter, milk, a pinch of pepper, and — because I’ve been on a bit of an umami kick lately — a little teaspoon of MSG stirred through at the end.
That MSG thing? Game changer. It made both mashes taste even better. It gave my midweek version a savoury depth, and somehow made the Michelin one taste slightly saltier — like someone had turned the flavour dial up a notch. You can read more about that in my MSG on Everything post.
The Results
The Michelin-style mash was incredibly smooth. Like, “you could pipe it through a nozzle and frost a cake with it” smooth. The salt levels, despite what it looked like going in, weren’t overpowering — the butter completely mellowed it out.
It was rich, creamy, and perfect for the kind of meal where you only need a dollop because it’s so intense. The midweek mash tasted great on its own, but after a spoon of the Michelin one, it suddenly felt plain — like mashed potato’s comfort-food cousin next to its fine-dining sibling.
So, which wins? Honestly, both have their place. The Michelin one for a posh dinner or roast you want to impress with. The midweek one for any Tuesday when you just want dinner on the table before EastEnders.
Salt Science (without the lab coat)
A few takeaways:
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Cold water helps the potatoes cook evenly so you don’t end up with mush outside and raw inside.
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Salting the water seasons the surface and keeps the skins from bursting.
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Hot milk makes the mash silky instead of stodgy.
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Butter … well, it just makes life better.
Final Thoughts
The Michelin version really is next-level — rich enough that a small portion feels indulgent. The normal version? Still the mash I’ll go back to every week. But next time I fancy feeling posh, I know where to find the butter.