TikTok chef demonstrates roast potato recipe on This Morning

A chef who has gone viral on TikTok thanks to her ‘best ever’ potato recipe failed to convince viewers who branded her method an ‘energy nightmare’. 

Poppy O’Toole, known as Poppy Cooks, is a British chef with 10 years of experience who has gone viral by sharing potato recipes on the social media platform, gathering millions of fans in the process. 

Appearing on This Morning, the Michelin star chef showed hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary how to perfect one of her recipes, called a potato parvat.

She explained that her star recipe, which she’s renamed the ’15 hour potatoes’ because of their cooking and resting time, had gone viral on social media. 

But viewers watching at home were concerned about the three hours the potatoes needed in the oven amid rising energy costs and also questioned her method of putting them in the fridge straight from the oven.

 Some people called Poppy’s recipe ‘an energy nightmare’ after she revealed it took 3 hours to bake and 12 to cool down 

Poppy demonstrated how to recreate the recipe at home, starting by thinly slicing videos.  

‘I use a mandolin, but you can use a knife,’ she said, adding that you should slice the potatoes ‘almost thin like a crisp.’

Once the potatoes were sliced, she poured them in a pot filled with double cream and sliced garlic to infuse the cream.  

‘You can add different things to infuse into. You can put different herbs, seasonings, anything that you like. And then you’re just going to mix them all in together,’ she explained. 

‘Thickened up for about five minutes or so so that it’s nice and thick and creamy,’ she said, stirring the pot. 

‘Once it’s cold enough to handle, we start layering,’ she added, taking the mixture to a tin. 

‘The whole premise of this is that it goes in the oven for 3 hours, but it’s on very low heat for 3h,’ she told Alison and Dermot. 

She then demonstrated how she layered the tin with the creamy potatoes, going one by one.  

For the recipe, Poppy bakes the potatoes in the oven for 3 hours before putting them in the fridge for 12hours 

‘I like to do it one by one by one, very professional, you can do this for special occasions,’ she said. 

But there is another route people can take, Poppy added, saying: ‘you can tip it all in, but make sure it’s all flat when you’re doing it, and it’s much easier.

Once the tin was layered to the brim, Poppy advised viewers to cover the potatoes in baking parchment before topping them with another tin and popping them into the oven, to bake for three hours at 130 degrees. 

‘The heat is going to keep it holding together,’ she said, before going on with the rest of the recipe. 

‘So let’s say you’ve done all that, it goes into the fridge for 12h, you’re going to cover it completely,’ she said. 

She recommended using parchment to cover the potatoes, explaining that it will keep condensation at bay, which would make the potatoes soggy. 

Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary were impressed with Poppy’s recommendations, with Alison saying the potatoes tasted very nice 

After leaving them to rest in the fridge for 12hours, Poppy sliced the potato loaf and deep fris the sections for one and a half minute 

After the 12 hours, Poppy said to slice the potatoes like a loaf, before deep frying them for one minute and a half each, to give them their ‘golden crispy deliciousness.’  

She said to deep fry them for one minute and a half each, until they are golden on both sides.  

‘This is the ultimate hash brown,’ she said to Alison and Dermot. 

Poppy also opened up about her meteoric rise to fame, saying: ‘It’s a very classic recipe, actually, it’s called a potato parvat, I just decided to change the name and called it a 15h potato.

‘I’ve been a chef for 10 years or so and I decided to start doing TikToks when I lost my job because of lockdown, the second lockdown of November 2020. 

‘Variations of this recipe have had over million of views’ she added. 

Alison vouched for Poppy’s recipe, saying: ‘I watch a lot of TikTok, I love TikTok, and I do a lot of the recipes and sometimes they don’t taste that great,’ she said. 

‘But, hey baby, this taste very, very ice, in fact it’s very carby,’ she added. 

 

Some viewers said that the recipe took too long to complete, while others questioned whether it is safe to pop hot potatoes from the oven straight into the fridge 

‘I did a compilation video and I spoke over the top of it: “hello and welcome to potato TikTok,’ Poppy recounted, adding: ‘and it got me a million followers overnight.

‘I think people really liked that it was potato TikTok, like they found their people, I made it very culty basically,’ she joked. 

She added she was not fazed by the fame, telling Dermot and Alison: ‘I’m just rolling with it, eating potatoes with my mates.’

But viewers watching at home were not convinced with Poppy’s method, with some saying the potatoes took too long to get ready. 

‘By the time they cook I’d probably wouldn’t eat them,’ one joked. 

 ‘Part boil a spud and deep fry it… Job done in a fraction of the time,’ another said. 

Others questioned whether it was a good idea to pop the hot potatoes from the oven straight into the fridge. 

‘Who puts a red hot dish straight out of the oven into the fridge? This recipe is an energy nightmare,’ a viewer said.   

Another joked: ‘Take it straight out the oven and put in the fridge. Correct me if I’m wrong that’s a bacteria alert straight away?’