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One Classy Latke
A chef reveals his secret
for gourmet potato pancakes.
By Melissa Castleman
T
here are some things that
should never change, and I
rank the Caesar salad, the
vodka martini and the
potato latke among them.
What do these three items have in
common? People are always trying to
fuss with them. They shouldn't.
Grilled shrimp does not a better
Caesar make. Chocolate martinis?
Something to be tried once, if you
must, but never again. And poor,
poor potato pancakes. Well-inten-
tioned cooks in modern times have
corrupted the classic recipe to no
end, mixing in everything from
cooked apples to fancy herbs to
sugar-sweet yams where none
belong. How can a pancake made
simply of potatoes, onions and salt
and fried in a mound of butter get
any better? -
Michael Mishkin, the fresh-faced
27-year-old chef-owner at Eleve in
Phoenix, has a convincing answer.
He serves it up nightly at his hip,
sophisticated little restaurant — the
sort of neighborhood place you wish
just opened up near you. Detroiters
have to endure a cramped airplane
flight and a thumbnail-sized bag of
snack mix in order to experience
(SA,
Mishkin's fare. But his Potato-Leek
Griddle Cakes With Smoked Salmon
alone can almost justify the trip.
SIZE MATTERS
Mishkin's basic pancake is not
unlike your mother's, and therein
lies the beauty of it. Sure, leeks
stand in for the usual white or yel-
low onion, but they are sweeter and
more gently flavored than fat onions,
not to mention easier on the cook's
tear ducts. We'll deduct no points
there.
For two people, Mishkin starts out
with two russet potatoes and one
leek. What he does next is what puts
his pancakes so solidly on their own,
otherworldly plane. The secret is in
the slicing.
"There are lots of different ways of
making latkes," he says. "My mom
always made them with shredded
potatoes and onions. Some people
make them with potato flour. But I
always julienne the potatoes and
leeks into strips about two- to three-
inches long and probably 1/16th-of-
an-inch wide."
In other words, he creates unusual-
ly long, thin matchsticks, which lend
ONE CLASSY LATKE on page 6
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11/22
2002
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Telegraph at Maple
Whimsical latke plate, $28.50, available at
Sherwood Studios, West Bloom field.
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