Baked potato’s popularity continues year after year.
In the photo, a renewed baked potato dish with smoked salmon filling. Wind Lindgren
Baked potato is a real classic of home cooking, which is certainly prepared in almost every home kitchen. Traditional home cooking is worth it, the sales figures for Picnic’s baked potato also speak for it. You won’t find baked potatoes on the menu of many restaurants, but you can at Picnic, and for a reason – even though the potato has been on the menu since the chain was founded, its sales have not decreased, on the contrary, they are growing steadily every year.
This year, Picnic restaurants will sell around 1.2 million baked potatoes. Quite a number, then.
Part of the popularity of the baked potato is probably in the cream sauce containing parsley and garlic, which is part of every potato serving, regardless of other toppings. The recipe for the famous sauce has been searched for on internet forums for years, but the chain has not agreed to reveal the exact recipe.
– We have sometimes tried other sauces, but then we decided that it is not worth changing the sauce, because we would not win anything with it, says Picnic’s kitchen manager Mic Vettenranta.
Could the secret of the sauce finally be revealed?
– We still keep it a secret, Vettenranta laughs.
However, the kitchen manager agrees to talk about the potato itself. He says that Picnic’s potatoes come from farms in Western Finland. Varieties may vary slightly depending on availability. Vettenranta emphasizes raw material orientation. The product must be in order for the doses to be successful.
The preparation of baked potatoes in itself does not require special tricks.
– The potatoes are in the convection oven for an hour at a suitable temperature. The texture of a perfect baked potato is suitably soft, it shouldn’t be sticky, but it shouldn’t be mashed either. The recipe is made so that it is easy to implement in every restaurant, Vettenranta says.
Seasons more and more visible
This fall, the restaurant chain’s baked potato concept has undergone a renewal, when ready-made portion options have been added to the menu, which Vettenranta has developed according to the seasons. Until now, the customer has chosen the fillings himself. That possibility has not been eliminated even now, because in a chain like Picnic it is not good to make too big changes at once.
– However, we wanted to make it possible for the customer to have pre-thought-out doses, in which case the dose will definitely work, and you don’t have to put in the effort yourself. The feedback has been mostly very positive.
Baked potatoes are also very easy to prepare at home. Try a delicious recipe developed by a chef Risto Mikkola.
Baked potatoes
2 large potatoes/person
coarse sea salt
1. Brush the potatoes carefully with a brush and dry the surface with a paper towel.
2. Prick the potatoes with a fork. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet lined with coarse sea salt and cook them at 225 degrees for a good hour.
Smoked salmon filling:
500 g warm smoked salmon
2 red onions, chopped
3 pickles, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped dill
500 g sour cream
salt
black pepper
sugar
100 g of salmon roe for decoration
1. Mix all the ingredients together and season. Allow to season in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
2. Drain the stock from the rot and spoon over the stuffed baked potatoes.