Top Pastry Chef Rachel Binder’s Latke Secrets
The most common mistake is adding too many ingredients, according to pastry chef Rachel Binder. Image by Courtesy of Padoca Bakery
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
Rachel Binder
Restaurant
Pastry chef formerly of Maialino, Savoy and Union Square Cafe, whose holiday treats are sold at Padoca Bakery, New York
Secret ingredient?
The secret is grating the potatoes by hand.
Type of oil used for frying?
Vegetable oil. The trick is to put a piece of carrot in the oil to prevent splattering.
What’s the one thing home cooks should not do?
I think the most common mistake is adding too many ingredients. Keep it simple.
Preferred potato?
Yukon Gold, but I do love sweet potato latkes.
Applesauce, sour cream or other?
Both!
Main components of your recipe?
Potatoes, eggs, salt and pepper.
Best latkes you ever had?
My cousin Sue made the best potato latkes I’ve ever had.
More Chefs’ Latke Secrets
Michael Kaminer is a contributing editor at the Forward. Contact him at kaminer@forward.com
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
