Are Frozen French Fries Chef-Approved?

It’s undebatable. Everybody loves a hot plate of crispy French fries. Because they are a favorite comfort food, these golden sticks are one of the most frequently ordered items on the menu–making consistency and availability important aspects when cooking and serving.

Despite their simplicity, perfect, crave-worthy fries are a time- and labor-intensive dish to prepare. Potatoes must be washed, cut, rinsed of excess starch, sometimes brined overnight for flavor, dried, oil-blanched to cook the interior, and then cooled before frying again for that crispy exterior. Yep, that’s a lot of steps before you can serve them to your customers. 

Of course, you can always cut down the steps where you cook the fries at different temperatures to make them more ‘home-style’, but they won’t be able to reach the height of the perfect, crispy ones your customers crave. This is because you’ll need to fluff up the potato starch nicely at a lower temperature, and a higher temperature for the exterior to get crispy. Cooling the potatoes in between steps is key, too.

Because of these very time-, labor-, and space-consuming processes, chefs find frozen fries more practical and cost-effective. Besides, since potatoes are a seasonal crop, frozen fries are a convenient way to ensure your kitchen can serve delicious fries (that taste perfect every time!) to hungry customers all year round. This option also allows chefs to allocate resources to perfecting their house specialties.

Simplot Fries offers an array of frozen fries from plain classic cuts to savory unique cuts. Our extensive range of brands caters to fries served for dine-in, delivery, takeouts, and drive-thrus, ensuring they stay crisp and delicious on your customer’s plate. Explore and learn about our brands here: French fries