Chef Íñigo Isao Sakai Reveals Trick for Perfect Puffed Potatoes
Chef Íñigo Isao Sakai has shared a simplified culinary technique for making traditional French patatas suflé by adhering thin potato slices together and frying them at a single temperature.
Newsnibs Staff
- 2026-09-14
- Updated 12:23 AM UTC
Chef Íñigo Isao Sakai has published a simplified technique for preparing patatas suflé, the French dish consisting of puffed potato spheres.
The traditional preparation requires slicing potatoes two to three millimeters thick and frying them twice, first at 150°C and then at 200°C. Sakai alters this process by sandwiching two one-millimeter potato slices together using egg white and cornstarch as an adhesive, then frying them at 180°C.
To achieve success with his method, Sakai warns against several common errors. These include cutting the potato slices too thick, using excessive amounts of egg white or cornstarch that lead to clumping, failing to dry the slices properly before frying, using insufficient oil, and removing the potatoes from the oil before they are fully cooked.
Patatas suflé first appeared on August 24, 1837, at the Pavillon Henri IV restaurant in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. Chef Jean-Louis-François Collinet invented the dish by accident when a delayed train carrying Queen María Amelia forced him to re-fry partially cooked potatoes.
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash
