A chef who went viral on TikTok thanks to her “best ever” potato recipe failed to impress viewers, who called her technique an “energy nightmare”.
Poppy O’Toole, better known as Poppy Cooks, is a British chef with 10 years of experience who went viral by sharing potato recipes on the social media platform, amassing millions of fans in the process.
The Michelin-starred chef appeared on This Morning, showing hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary how to perfect one of her recipes, called Potato Parvat.
She explained that her star’s recipe, which she renamed “15 Hour Potatoes” because of her cooking and resting time, went viral on social media.
But viewers watching at home worried about the three hours a potato would need in the oven amid soaring energy costs and wondered how to put it in the fridge straight from the oven.
Poppy O’Toole, better known as Poppy Cooks, is a British chef with 10 years of experience who went viral by sharing potato recipes on TikTok and viewing the recipe on This Morning Today
Some people called Poppy’s recipe an “energy nightmare” after it was revealed that it took 3 hours to bake and 12 to cool
Poppy showed how to recreate the recipe at home, starting with slicing the videos into thin slices.
“I use a mandolin, but you can use a knife,” she said, adding that you should slice the potatoes “as thin, almost as crisp.”
Once the potatoes were chopped, I poured them into a bowl full of double cream and sliced garlic to soak up the cream.
You can add different things to pop it in. You can put various herbs, spices and anything you like. And then you’re just going to mix them all together.
“It thickens for about five minutes so that it’s nice and thick and creamy,” she said, as she stirred the pot.
“Once it’s cool enough to handle, we start layering it,” she added, taking the mixture into a tin mold.
“The whole premise of this is that it’s put in the oven for 3 hours, but it’s on very low heat for 3 hours,” she told Alison and Dermott.
Then she showed how she assembled the tin with the creamy potatoes, one by one.
For the recipe, Bobby bakes the potatoes in the oven for 3 hours before placing them in the refrigerator for 12 hours
“I like to do it one by one, very professionally, you can do it on special occasions,” she said.
There’s another route people can take, Bobby added, saying, “You can tip everything, but make sure everything is flat when you do it, and it’s much easier.”
Once the tin was layered, Poppy advised viewers to cover the potatoes in baking paper before placing them in another tin and placing them in the oven, to bake for three hours at 130 degrees.
“The heat will keep it set,” she said, before moving on to the rest of the recipe.
“Suppose you do all of that,” she said, “it goes into the fridge for 12 hours, and you’ll cover it all up.”
She recommends using parchment paper to cover the potatoes, explaining that it will keep condensation at bay, which makes the potatoes soggy.
Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary were impressed with Bobby’s recommendations, with Alison saying the potatoes tasted very good
After letting it rest in the fridge for 12 hours, I cut the poppy cut into a potato loaf and deep fried the sections for a minute and a half.
After the 12 hours had passed, Bobby said to slice the potatoes into slices like a loaf, before deep-frying them for a minute and a half each, to give them their “crunchy, golden taste.”
She said to deep fry them each for a minute and a half, until golden on both sides.
‘This is the ultimate hash brown,’ she told Alison and Dermott.
Poppy also opened up about her meteoric rise to fame, saying, “It’s a very classic recipe, in fact, called Potato Parvat, I just decided to change the name and call it the 15 Hour Potato.”
I’ve been a chef for 10 years or so and decided to start doing TikToks when I lost my job due to lockdown, the second lockdown in November 2020.
“Variations on this recipe have garnered over a million views,” she added.
Alison emphasized Poppy’s recipe, saying, “I watch a lot of TikTok, I love TikTok, I make a lot of recipes and sometimes they don’t taste that great,” she said.
She added, “But, honey, this tastes so icy, it’s actually so crunchy.”
Some viewers said the recipe took a long time to complete, while others wondered if it was safe to take the hot fries out of the oven straight into the fridge.
“I did a compilation video and said at the top of it: “Hi and welcome to TikTok,” Poppy said, adding, “And it got a million followers overnight.
“I think people really liked that potato was TikTok, like they found their people, it basically made it very cultural,” she joked.
She added that she wasn’t fazed by the fame, telling Dermot and Allison, “I just roll with it, and have fries with my buddies.”
But viewers watching at home weren’t convinced by Bobby’s method, with some saying the fries took too long to get ready.
Someone joked, “By the time they’re cooking, I probably won’t eat them.”
Another said, “Partially boil and deep fry potatoes…done the job in a fraction of the time.”
Others wondered if taking hot fries out of the oven straight into the fridge was a good idea.
Who puts a red hot dish straight out of the oven into the fridge? One viewer said this recipe is an energy nightmare.
Another joked, “Take it straight out of the oven and put it in the fridge.” Correct me if I’m wrong. Is this a bacteria alert right away?
