Of all the haute cuisine in legendary chef Joel Robuchon’s repertoire, he was best known for his signature potato puree dish, which is essentially mashed potatoes. He was as serious about spuds as he was about everything — and Robuchon’s secret to elevating the dish came from a significant heap of butter. His potato dish became so notable it earned him a Michelin star. But it wasn’t just his potatoes that earned him accolades. His revolutionary “Atelier” restaurants offering intimate counter seating around the world made Robouchon a Michelin star collector. He held the record for most stars ever for years and as of this year, he held 31 stars. To make his signature dish, you only need four ingredients — potatoes (Yukon gold will do,) milk, butter and salt. You boil the potatoes until they’re tender, according to a Saveur recipe. Then you peel them hot — that’s the key — and use a food mill to puree them until they’re silky smooth. Eventually you whisk in boiled milk and fold in cubes of ice cold butter to get the potatoes fluffy. Watch a YouTube chef’s take on Robuchon’s classic mashed potato recipe below. Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Contact us at letters@time.com.<doc-sep>OF ALL his culinary creations, his most famous was the lowly mashed potato. Joël Robuchon’s ‘potato puree’ is the dish — in his own words — that made his name in the industry. “These mashed potatoes, it’s true, made my reputation,” he famously said during a demonstration of how to make the almost liquid dish. “I owe everything to these mashed potatoes. Maybe it’s a little bit of nostalgia, Proust’s madeleines. Everyone has in his memory the mashed potatoes of his mother, the mashed potatoes of his grandmother.” The French Michelin-starred “chef of the century”, who once threw a plate of food at Gordon Ramsay, has died at 73. His career was one of superlatives. He was named among the best craftsmen in France in 1976, crowned cook of the century in 1990 and chosen to be one of the cooks at the “dinner of the century”. Robuchon was as serious about his potato puree as he was about any other of his dishes. But it was the potato puree that became so notable in his career, it earnt him a Michelin star. While Robuchon was no stranger to fancy food — truffles and caviar were among his favourites — his dishes often were described as simple because he preached the use of only three or four ingredients. His goal was always to show off, not mask, their flavours. Lathered in butter, the secret to his mashed potatoes was also about using just four ingredients. According to Time, to make his signature dish, you’ll need potatoes (Australian Dutch Creams or Golden Delight will do,) milk, butter and salt. Firstly, you boil the potatoes until they’re tender. The key to the dish is then peeling the potato while it’s hot and using a food mill to puree them until they’re silky smooth. Then, once the consistency is just right, whisk in hot milk and fold in cubes of ice cold butter to get the potatoes fluffy. Here’s the full recipe from The Complete Robuchon: Preparation: 15 minutes Cooking: 35 minutes Serves: 6 Ingredients: 1kg potatoes scrubbed but unpeeled Coarse salt 250g butter, diced and kept well chilled until use 250ml whole milk Salt and pepper Method: 1. Put the potatoes in a saucepan with 2 litres of cold water and 1 tablespoon of coarse salt. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until a knife slips in the potatoes easily and cleanly, about 25 minutes. 2. Drain the potatoes and peel them while hot. Put them through a food mill fitted with its finest disk and into a large saucepan. Turn the heat to medium and dry the potato flesh out a bit by turning it vigorously with a spatula for about 5 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, rinse a small saucepan and pour out the excess water but do not wipe it dry. Add the milk and bring to a boil. 4. Turn the heat under the potatoes to low and incorporate the well-chilled butter bit by bit, stirring it in energetically for a smooth, creamy finish. Pour in the very hot milk in a thin stream, still over a low heat, still stirring briskly. Keep stirring until all the milk is absorbed. Turn off the heat and taste for salt and pepper. 5. For an even lighter, finer puree, put it through a very fine sieve before serving.<doc-sep>Chef Joël Robuchon, who died on Monday at 73, is known for a lot of things. Robuchon brought French fine dining to the masses, making it accessible to the global diner without sacrificing an ounce of precision or quality, and over the course of his career, his restaurants earned 31 Michelin stars—more than any chef in history. He also introduced the world to a potato dish so heavenly, so absurdly buttery, that it changed the world forever: his signature pomme purée. The dish, which celebrates the simplicity for which Robuchon was known, is nothing short of iconic. The chef first made his signature dish at the Paris restaurant Jamin in the 1980s, effectively changing the game. (As Jane Sigal wrote in Food & Wine in 2006, "Haute restaurants didn't serve lowly potatoes in the '80s.") Served at L'ATELIER de Joël Robuchon locations around the globe, the silky mashed potatoes mesmerized generations of chefs and home cooks alike. Robuchon's potatoes are the sort of dish that everyone makes their own. Rich Torrisi had his version—which calls for three sticks of butter—and Anthony Bourdain had his, one of our favorite iterations of the classic. Bourdain called his version, "Mashed Potatoes, Sort of Robuchon-Style," and we published it in 2016. If you're unintimidated by the prospect of using six sticks of butter, you'll find Bourdain's riff to be quite beautiful. You can also go the purist route. The key to the traditional pomme purée, explained Steve Benjamin, former executive chef at L’ATELIER de Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas, is La Ratte fingerling potatoes. "The La Rattes are very firm and cook evenly," Benjamin said. "They also have a very particular chestnut-like flavor.” The butter helps, too. In fact, a third of Robuchon's pomme purée is butter. After the potatoes are simmered, they're passed through a food mill and whisked with milk and cold French butter. The outcome is transcendent.<doc-sep>Deemed the “chef of the century,” Joël Robuchon died on August 6 at the age of 73. The celebrated French chef, who earned more Michelin stars than anyone else in the world, has left behind a legacy of excellent restaurants, as well as countless gorgeous recipes. Robuchon’s ethos of simplicity makes these French-inflected recipes classics that we return to again and again, and we’ll be celebrating his life by making them all this week.<doc-sep>
French celebrity chef Joel Robuchon was known for his mashed potatoes, and with only four ingredients, you too can make the dish. The 73-year-old died Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, according to CNN. He was reportedly battling cancer. "His 32 Michelin stars shine bright in the constellation of world gastronomy," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement published by the publication. "In Paris or Las Vegas, New York, London, Hong Kong, Bangkok or Shanghai, gourmets rushed to the chef's many restaurants to taste his famous mashed potato puree, as well as his truffle tart and cauliflower cream with caviar or his langoustine ravioli." The Michelin Guide started giving stars to restaurants in 1926, according to its website. The system of zero, one, two and three stars was established in 1931. "I owe everything to these mashed potatoes," the French chef said, according to The Washington Post Monday. "Maybe it's a little bit of nostalgia, Proust's madeleines. Everyone has in his memory the mashed potatoes of his mother, the mashed potatoes of his grandmother." "I never try to marry more than three flavors in one dish," Robuchon told Business Insider in 2014. "I like walking into a kitchen and knowing that the dishes are identifiable and the ingredients within them are easy to detect. My role as a chef is respecting the produce. Why should I change and mask the original flavors of the produce that I'm utilizing?" That's true of his mashed potatoes recipe from his cookbook, The Complete Robuchon (via The Guardian). You only need potatoes (such as Ratte or Yukon gold), butter, milk and salt. The key is the two-to-one ratio for the potatoes and butter. So, if you're using two pounds of potatoes, add one pound of butter, like in the recipe on Saveur. You boil the potatoes in an eight-quart pot of salted water until they're tender, which should take about 25 minutes. Drain and let them cool slightly while you boil a quarter cup milk. Then you peel the potatoes and put them through a food mill into a four-quart saucepan over medium-low heat. Turn them for about two to three minutes with a rubber spatula until they're drier and fluffier. On low heat, stir in the butter (cubed and chilled) until you have a creamy mixture. Finally, whisk in the milk and add salt for flavor. For a twist on the recipe, you can try American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain's version. It uses less butter (1 half pounds for four pounds of potatoes) and heavy cream instead of milk.