Mashed potatoes are essentially an edible expression of minimalism. In a home, a room with a couch, a chair, and a table can look empty and bland or clean and modern. At the fundamental level, mashed potatoes constitute four ingredients: potatoes, cream, butter, and salt. But in cooking, as in life, simplicity can be deceiving. Use a substandard ingredient in a classic mashed potato dish, and you risk a stodgy, tasteless mess. When you have so few elements in a dish, each one needs to be as close to perfect as possible for the whole to work.
