Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Chef Todd Ginsberg’s Latke Secrets Revealed!

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]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.