Daniel Boulud's Hachis Parmentier

Recipe by: Daniel Boulud
Headnote and adaptation by: Leslie Brenner

Usually in France, the dish known as hachis parmentier is a workaday affair — a layer of sautéed ground beef in a baking dish, topped with mashed potatoes, then the whole thing browned in the oven. That’s why when I read that Daniel Boulud, New York City’s superstar French chef, has a thing for it, I was dying to hear how he approaches the dish. Fortunately, he was happy to share his take on it with me. This recipe is adapted from his.

Boulud’s recipe calls for boneless rib-eye, resulting in a super-flavorful dish, suitable for a special occasion, and of course a great bottle of red. The extravagant cut makes the dish expensive to make, so I also tested it using chuck, a much less pricey cut. It was good — and I do recommend that if you’re keeping to a budget — though it’s considerably less special.

It’s important that the braised meat be thick enough that…