I have had the pleasure of working with many excellent cooks throughout my career, and I watched a version of these potatoes being cooked over a giant fire-licked plancha by the Argentinian chef Francis Mallmann. I had travelled to Ballymaloe food festival with three other chefs and we came up with a cunning plan to wake up at 4am, turn up at Francis’s prep station and offer to peel potatoes. He welcomed us and I ended up cooking with him the following year for Guy Ritchie and David Beckham (bothvery lovely; first time ever I name-dropped, but it felt OK).
Now the important bit: the potatoes were boiled until very soft, cooled slightly, then hand-squashed into a flat patty and thrown on to a massive iron plate positioned over a fire. They were cooked for more than an hour with tons of butter (and I mean kilograms) chucked at them. The resulting potatoes developed very thick crispy bottoms but were fluffy on top.
