How do you like them pommes (de terre)?

August 28, 2025 by
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Please forgive me for the bad pun on the old saying “how do you like them apples?”, but I just couldn’t resist. But it is for a good reason – the ranking of 10 potato dishes from worst to best, by Andrea McGinniss of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food. This is bound to be controversial, because everyone is going to have an opinion on the GOAT potato dish.

McGinniss begins with the worst dish: boiled new potatoes, which she gives a 2/10, saying “Waxy, thin-skinned, with a stubborn refusal to fall apart in floury surrender, no matter how long you’re boiled for, instead you’re a wet, sloppy disappointment.” I think she has never had freshly dug new potatoes, because that score would definitely go up if she had.

Ultra-fluffy mashed potatoes from Serious Eats by J. Kenji López-Alt

Next come potato soup and Hasselback potatoes. I tend to agree with her assessment of the latter: “The clue’s in the name. Waaay too much hassle!” Following them are potato cakes/scallops and next are jacket potatoes, which do go past the halfway mark in their rating of 6/10.

The top five dishes are all rated by McGinniss at 7.5/10 or above, starting with potato gems (aka tater tots) and hash browns, which she lumps together as one type of potato dish. Coming from Minnesota, land of tater tot hotdish, I say those are fighting words. But I will let it slide this time (that’s Minnesota Nice).

Up next, McGinniss lumps two more potato dishes into one: Potato au gratin and dauphinoise potatoes. The two do share an overdose of butter and garlic, which is why they are ranked fairly high. Now we are down to the top three, which McGinniss says are hot chips (fries), followed by mashed potatoes, and the ultimate winner being roast potatoes.

Even though texturally roast potatoes are more interesting, I think I would rank mashed potatoes higher because you can add gravy and also because they are similar to my all-time favorite potato dish, Duchess potatoes. Also, I would bump tots/hash browns above au gratin. How would you rank these 10 potato dishes?

Category: Antipasto

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6 Comments

  • FuzzyChef  on  August 28, 2025

    No tortilla? No patatas bravas?

  • sanfrannative  on  August 28, 2025

    I am not from the land of the hot dish supper but conflating hashbrowns and tater tots is just plain WRONG!!!

  • shannonstoney  on  August 28, 2025

    I have no problem with boiled new potatoes. This person is very spoiled.

  • KarenGlad  on  August 29, 2025

    A garden fresh potato (your garden or the farm stand) simply boiled…don’t have to do much to enhance the flavour. Ranks number 1 with me too.

  • averythingcooks  on  August 29, 2025

    I agree re: steamed or boiled garden fresh potatoes (maybe with some fresh garden herbs thrown in) being a wonderful treat. We have also make lots of potato soups….delicious “even” without cheese/bacon garnishes! And we love baked potatoes with maybe a little butter and LOTS of fresh ground pepper 🙂 As expected…to each his own I guess.

  • dbuhler  on  August 29, 2025

    I share similar feelings about boiled/steamed new potatoes as the members here…I LOVE them prepared that way. As a current Idahoan…not born and raised, but have lived here for 20 years…I will eat a potato any way it’s prepared! I simply love them! The author of the article has a particular bent towards the fluffy texture (she describes it as floury), but I enjoy all the different textures that are possible with this humble ingredient. It truly is a marvel with its seemingly endless possibilities! My only issue is an undercooked potato, I will not eat them undercooked and I run into this issue when make au gratin potatoes. We definitely have our favorite ways to prepare potatoes, but Ina’s Herbed New Potatoes rank at the very top with even my picky eater gobbling them up and asking for more.

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