A Simple Baked Potato, With a Luxurious Twist

Caviar purists suggest that the ideal way to enjoy a hit of the briny roe is atop something starchy and a little rich. A blini, plucked from a passing cocktail tray, will do. But so will the humble potato. The New York-based private chef Yann Nury, 41, describes it, in fact, as “the ideal receptacle for a noble product.” And unlike a bite-size canapé, a caviar-adorned jacket potato is both luxurious and comforting.

To make his version, Nury, who previously worked for Daniel Boulud, uses the Yukon Gold variety. The standard choice for a baked potato is a floury type, like the ubiquitous Russet. But the Yukon Gold’s slightly dense texture — what Nury calls its “natural creaminess” — allows you to reduce the amount of fat you add later, he says. Perfect, he explains, because you want “to keep the purity of the potato flavor.”

Nury roasts the potatoes until they’re tawny, then slices them open, carefully scooping out the flesh and folding tangy crème fraîche, olive oil, lemon zest and chives through it. Then, he spoons the mixture back into the crisp potato skins. His recipe calls for an extra potato to use for the filling, so that each of the three finished ones will be indulgently plump once restuffed. After a second round in the oven, the potatoes are topped with a dollop of caviar, preserved lemon, more chives, dill or fennel fronds.

“I love starting with ingredients or dishes that are unchallenging and familiar, and bringing special touches to them,” Nury says. He’d never had a baked potato until moving from France to America in his twenties, but “crème fraîche is what I grew up with,” he says. He prefers it to the thinner, more predictable sour cream and balances its richness with Espelette pepper, a mild chili grown in southwest France that he describes as a “flavor enhancer” rather than dominatingly spicy. “A potato is a potato and steak should be a steak,” he says. “My job as a cook is to elevate these flavors.”

Nury is known for his technical prowess, but this simple potato recipe has been surprisingly popular with diners. “It’s the signature dish of one of my favorite clients at her residences in Paris and New York,” he says.Credit…David Chow