Burgers Class

Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

When done well, french fries are truly remarkable—crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. Here, we use a triple-cooking process made famous by British chef Heston Blumenthal. This approach to preparing french fries has set a new standard by which other fries are judged.First, <a href="finding-perfect-french-fry-potatoes">carefully select potatoes</a> and blanch them until they are almost—but not quite—falling apart. This is the most important step to ensure that the fries will have fluffy interiors and crisp exteriors. Then cool and dry the potatoes before “parfrying” them, which forms what’s called a “protocrust.” At this point, it’s possible to chill or freeze the fries so that you can store them until you want to serve them. Finally, fry the partially prepared potatoes until they have a golden-brown color, a remarkably crisp crust, and delicate insides. We’ve made a few tweaks to the triple-cooking technique: First, we provide <a href="finding-perfect-french-fry-potatoes">an easy way to find the ideal potatoes for frying</a>. Next, we brine the potatoes in a solution that includes glucose and baking soda, which elevate the pH slightly, ensuring a deeper golden-brown crust. We do the brining step sous vide, both for convenience and to avoid having the potatoes entirely fall apart before they can be fried.

Thin-Cut French Fries