If you’re a member of the online community (and

who isn’t these days?), you’ve probably read about
French chef Joël Robuchon’s magic French fry
recipe. The idea is simple: rather than double-frying
French fries (once cool, once hot), just do the whole
process in a single go by putting the potatoes in cold
oil, putting the pot on a burner, and letting it go. The
potatoes slowly cook through from the outside and,
over the course of an hour or so, end up golden
brown and crisp.
The problem, however, is that with regular fries,
the gelatinized starch has a chance to recrystallize in
between frying sessions, allowing the fries to become
much more structurally sound and crisp. The
Robuchon recipe, easy as it is, doesn’t produce fries
that are anywhere near as crisp as blanched-then-
double-fried potatoes. Like all things in life, it’s a
trade-off. Robuchon’s method gets a 2 in effort and
an 8 in flavor, while the blanch-double-fry method is
more like a 7 in effort and a 9½ in flavor. Truth be
told, I often opt for the lazy approach.