Koffmans Fries

[theplayingmantis]

On my recent gourmand/epicurean tour of the cotswolds, a few foodie places had koffman fries on the menu.

nice from memory, but google suggests they are a brand of frozen frites from a famous chef. is this correct? and is there reputation in the trade so good that some of the cotswolds best non starred eateries are unashamedly pushing them?

maybe one for Tony.

[21TonyK]

Mr Koffmanns name and face now appears on a whole range of prepared potato products. It started several years back with just graded potatoes by "use", the hand and flowers did "Koffmanns Potato Soup". For a while I used them and they were ok but I'd rather specify the variety of spud I want.

It was useful to be able to just tell others to order "red" or "blue" and only use the "green" for baking but to honest having to work with chefs who dont understand the basics was wearing.

Promoting the type of frozen chip you use really doesnt inspire confidence.

Edited by 21TonyK on Tuesday 5th August 12:45

[theplayingmantis]

thanks i cant recall if it was bamford places, noest or eades/goffs places

[NordicCrankShaft]

As Tony already said, the quality of the Koffman fries has dropped doff in recent years. The potatoes even more so, used to order sacks of them but then the quality declined hugely and the sacks would be made up of 90% of potatoes the size of large new potatoes, not particularly useful from a product or a labour point of view.

I noticed on one of the recent Clarkson farm episodes, they were promoting local potatoes for their pub, then there is a shot where they're in the cellar due to the beer fans going down and you can see the blue Koffman fries boxes stacked up. Sneaky boys.

[theplayingmantis]

it was Eades places, the reliably excellent halfway at kineton and not as good ime horse and groom at bourton on the hill.

both are widely lauded. assume a time saving mechanism?

[21TonyK]

theplayingmantis said:

assume a time saving mechanism?

This and also meeting peoples expectations. Its sometimes mentioned on "chip threads". My experience is that the majority of people think of a chip as someting crunchy on the outside with soft potato in the middle. Not a typical chipshop style chip. To get the crunchy outside/fuffy inside then you are looking at multiple processes and stages of cooking which in volume is not trivial.

So the answer is either serve is simple to prepare and cook chip which some would no doubt leave scathing reviews of. Or serve something people wont complain about, pre-prepared and frozen which is what 99% of places do.

I guess promoting your chips as "Koffmanns" is better than "Bidfood Essentials".