Gordon Ramsay’s french fries are Maris Piper potatoes boiled in salted water, fried at 140°C until cooked through, cooled, then fried again at 180°C until golden and crisp. Three cooks, not two. The result is soft and fluffy inside with a crunch that shatters when you bite.
The recipe is from Bread Street Kitchen, where Ramsay says “we’re famous for our chips at Bread Street, and having tried many different methods, we can confirm that it is definitely worth cooking them three times for the best results.” Every competitor online says double-fry. Ramsay specifically says three.
The step most people skip is washing the starch off under cold running water until the water runs clear. Not soaking for 30 minutes in a bowl. Active washing under the tap. The starch is what makes fries stick together and go limp. Remove it and the surface dries out properly, which is what gives you that glass-like shell.
Gordon Ramsay’s Triple-Cooked French Fries
Course: SideCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium6
servings15
minutes30
minutes320
kcal45
minutesTriple-cooked chips from Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen cookbook. Maris Piper potatoes boiled then fried twice at two different temperatures. He says “the finished chip is soft in the middle, super crunchy on the outside and a delicious golden colour all over.” Served with homemade mayonnaise. Approximately 320 kcal per serving.
Ingredients
2kg (4½ lb) chipping potatoes, such as Maris Piper or Agria
Sea salt
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Directions
- Cut and wash: Peel the potatoes and cut into large wedges or thick batons. Wash the starch off under cold running water until the water runs clear.
- Boil: Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the chips and cook for 10 to 12 minutes until soft when pierced with a knife but still intact. Drain and leave to cool completely on kitchen paper.
- First fry at 140°C: Heat vegetable oil in a deep-fat fryer or large saucepan to 140°C. Fry the chips in small batches for 8 minutes. This step cooks them through without crisping or colouring. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Cool again.
- Second fry at 180°C: Reheat the oil to 180°C. Test: a cube of bread dropped in should sizzle and turn golden in 30 seconds. Fry the chips in small batches for 8 to 10 minutes until golden and crispy. Drain well and season with sea salt. Serve immediately.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay cook them three times instead of two?
Every chip recipe online says double-fry: once to cook, once to crisp. Ramsay adds a boiling step before the oil. The boil cooks the potato all the way through so the interior is completely fluffy before it ever touches fat.
That matters because the first fry at 140°C is not for colour. Ramsay says “the oil doesn’t need to be really hot at this stage, as this step is to cook the chips through rather than crisp and colour them.” It dries the surface and seals the outside. The second fry at 180°C then does nothing but crisp.
If you skip the boil and go straight to oil, the first fry has to do two jobs at once: cook the inside and dry the outside. That’s why most homemade fries end up either raw in the middle or overcooked and dark on the edges. Three stages means each step only does one thing.
Why wash the starch instead of just soaking?
Soaking in a bowl loosens the starch. Washing under running water removes it. Ramsay says “wash the starch off the chips under cold running water until the water runs clear.” That’s active washing, not passive sitting.
The difference shows up in the fry. Starch left on the surface absorbs oil and turns the outside chewy instead of crisp. It also makes the chips stick to each other in the fryer. Once the water runs clear, the surface is clean potato with nothing between it and the hot oil.
Which potato should you use?
Ramsay names Maris Piper or Agria in Bread Street Kitchen. Both are floury varieties with high starch inside and a dry texture that fries well. In Ultimate Home Cooking he explains the full guide: “floury potatoes such as King Edwards are best for frying and roasting.”
Waxy potatoes like Charlottes hold their shape but never get properly crispy because the moisture stays trapped inside. If you see “salad potatoes” or “new potatoes” at the supermarket, skip them for fries. You want the ones that crumble when you boil them too long. In the video he says “if they cut evenly, they’re going to cook evenly, and more importantly, they all become nice and crispy.”
What oil temperature and why two different ones?
140°C for the first fry, 180°C for the second. The gap between them is the whole technique.
At 140°C the oil is warm enough to slowly dry the chip surface and finish cooking the centre, but not hot enough to brown anything. Ramsay says this step takes 8 minutes. The chips come out pale and soft, which looks wrong but is exactly right.
At 180°C the oil is hot enough to instantly crisp the dried surface into a golden shell. Test it with the bread cube trick: “a cube of bread dropped in the oil sizzles and turns golden in 30 seconds.” Eight to ten minutes at this temperature and you get that colour and crunch.
What should you serve with french fries?
In Bread Street Kitchen, Ramsay serves them with homemade mayonnaise in three flavours: tarragon for something subtle, harissa for something aromatic, sriracha for something with heat. They’re the natural side for his burger or alongside a steak with his peppercorn sauce for a proper steak frites.
In Fast Food he says “for me, it has to be a little malt vinegar and a generous sprinkling of salt, not forgetting a large mound of mushy peas.” His mushy peas use frozen peas crushed with butter, shallots and mint. His fish and chips uses these same fries with a ginger beer batter cod. For the oven-baked version with smoked paprika and no deep-frying, try his oven chips or stuff them inside crusty bread for his chip butty.
