Food

Chef Todd Ginsberg’s Latke Secrets Revealed!

Secret Ingredient: General Muir Chef Todd Ginsberg says it’s all about the potato. Image by Andrew Thomas Lee

By Michael Kaminer December 20, 2016

We pried potato pancake preferences from a few of our favorite chefs around the country — and compiled them into a tell-all to help you make the best latkes of your life.

Image by Anya Ulinich

Chef Todd Ginsberg

Restaurant The General Muir, Atlanta

Secret ingredient?
The secret ingredient is the most obvious ingredient. It’s all about the potato. It’s important to let the star ingredient shine. All you need is a little egg and flour to help bind. The raw onion is there for flavor, and it also keeps the latke moist.

Type of oil?
The two best fats for making latkes are animal based. Clarified butter is delish. Schmaltz is a secret weapon for sure!

What’s the one thing home cooks should not do?
Don’t flip the potatoes too early. Wait for them to brown; this way they hold together better for the flip and you can maximize flavor and textures.

Preferred potato?
Kennebec is the best. No sugar and high starch — makes for a great lightly golden and crunchy latke.

*Applesauce, sour cream or other?**
Both. Together. Side by side. Some smoked fish wouldn’t hurt as well.

Main components of your recipe?
Potato, flour, egg, onion, salt and pepper.

Best latkes you ever had?
At Hanumas, a blend of Christmas and Hanukkah party that wonderful friends throw each year. Four of five people are responsible for making the latkes. Two hundred to 300 will be made over the course of an hour or so — it’s a latke party. They were perfect latkes, better than I remember from my childhood. Love them!

More Chefs Share Their Secrets

Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected]

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO