This isn’t your typical mashed potatoes recipe. Dominique Crenn’s pommes purée (puréed potatoes) rests on a leek “fondue” and features a garnish of crispy fried leeks. Additional flavor comes from the beurre blanc (French white butter sauce) and leek powder.

Dominique Crenn’s Pommes Purée Recipe

[Dominique Crenn](https://www.masterclass.com/classes/dominique-crenn-teaches-modern-vegetarian-cooking) is an award-winning chef and advocate for sustainability and equity in the culinary world. Growing up in the Brittany region in northwest France, Chef Crenn spent many hours working in her grandmother’s potato fields, foraging for mushrooms with her father and brother, and partaking in her family’s Sunday dinners. Her father’s best friend, a restaurant critic in Brittany, sometimes brought her along on his tasting trips. These experiences sparked her imagination and taught Chef Crenn to think of cooking as a form of storytelling. All of these memories, as well as the familial and communal love they evoked, would become touchstones in her cooking.

Pommes purée (“potato purée”) is the French term for “mashed potatoes.” (Another spelling is “[pomme purée](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/gordon-ramsays-recipe-for-pomme-potato-puree).”) Most chefs make this classic side dish by first boiling potatoes—La Ratte fingerling potatoes are popular in France; Yukon Golds are a good substitute—then passing them through a potato ricer or food mill to achieve a texture that is fluffy, not gluey. Heavy cream or whole milk provides richness, while aromatics like chives, white pepper, and even whole roasted garlic cloves add bite to the riced potatoes.
For this recipe, Chef Crenn draws on her memories of family dinners to elevate the humble potato into a showstopper in its own right, and the secret is good salted butter. In most of France, unsalted butter is the default choice, but salted butter is favored in Chef Crenn’s home region of Brittany, where a meal might begin with a toast: “Au bon beurre salé!” (“Here’s to good salted butter!”)

![Dominique Crenn’s Pommes Purée Recipe](//images.ctfassets.net/3s5io6mnxfqz/7d1KM4RgNwjDTHaoNP3cxW/8dec99d773833df29cf7fa3a03b6a9db/Hale_Crenn_FoodShoot_202.jpg)
This isn’t your typical mashed potatoes recipe. Dominique Crenn’s pommes purée (puréed potatoes) rests on a leek “fondue” and features a garnish of crispy fried leeks. Additional flavor comes from the beurre blanc (French white butter sauce) and leek powder.

<a href='https://www.masterclass.com/classes/dominique-crenn-teaches-modern-vegetarian-cooking' target='_self' class='mc-text--link' data-mc-segment-trigger='true' data-mc-segment-event-type='Article Page Click' data-event-obj='{"textTag":"p","href":"https://www.masterclass.com/classes/dominique-crenn-teaches-modern-vegetarian-cooking","linkCopy":"Dominique Crenn","category":null}'>Dominique Crenn</a> is an award-winning chef and advocate for sustainability and equity in the culinary world. Growing up in the Brittany region in northwest France, Chef Crenn spent many hours working in her grandmother’s potato fields, foraging for mushrooms with her father and brother, and partaking in her family’s Sunday dinners. Her father’s best friend, a restaurant critic in Brittany, sometimes brought her along on his tasting trips. These experiences sparked her imagination and taught Chef Crenn to think of cooking as a form of storytelling. All of these memories, as well as the familial and communal love they evoked, would become touchstones in her cooking.

About Dominique Crenn 

Pommes purée (“potato purée”) is the French term for “mashed potatoes.” (Another spelling is “<a href='https://www.masterclass.com/articles/gordon-ramsays-recipe-for-pomme-potato-puree' target='_self' class='mc-text--link' data-mc-segment-trigger='true' data-mc-segment-event-type='Article Page Click' data-event-obj='{"textTag":"p","href":"https://www.masterclass.com/articles/gordon-ramsays-recipe-for-pomme-potato-puree","linkCopy":"pomme purée","category":null}'>pomme purée</a>.”) Most chefs make this classic side dish by first boiling potatoes—La Ratte fingerling potatoes are popular in France; Yukon Golds are a good substitute—then passing them through a potato ricer or food mill to achieve a texture that is fluffy, not gluey. Heavy cream or whole milk provides richness, while aromatics like chives, white pepper, and even whole roasted garlic cloves add bite to the riced potatoes.

What Is Pommes Purée?

For this recipe, Chef Crenn draws on her memories of family dinners to elevate the humble potato into a showstopper in its own right, and the secret is good salted butter. In most of France, unsalted butter is the default choice, but salted butter is favored in Chef Crenn’s home region of Brittany, where a meal might begin with a toast: “Au bon beurre salé!” (“Here’s to good salted butter!”)<img class="mc-mt-8" style='width: 100%;' src="//images.ctfassets.net/3s5io6mnxfqz/7d1KM4RgNwjDTHaoNP3cxW/8dec99d773833df29cf7fa3a03b6a9db/Hale_Crenn_FoodShoot_202.jpg" alt="Dominique Crenn’s Pommes Purée Recipe" />

About Dominique Crenn’s Pommes Purée Recipe

Dominique Crenn’s Pommes Purée With Leeks and Beurre Blanc Recipe

This isn’t your typical mashed potatoes recipe. Dominique Crenn’s pommes purée (puréed potatoes) rests on a leek “fondue” and features a garnish of crispy fried leeks. Additional flavor comes from the beurre blanc (French white butter sauce) and leek powder.

This isn’t your typical mashed potatoes recipe. Dominique Crenn’s pommes purée (puréed potatoes) rests on a leek “fondue” and features a garnish of crispy fried leeks. Additional flavor comes from the beurre blanc (French white butter sauce) and leek powder.
