You would think that, after spending four and a half hours in the kitchen at church this morning (see the bottom of this post for video) I wouldn’t be in the mood to do anything involved in my home kitchen tonight. You would be wrong.

You see, I’d been planning to make french fries tonight.

I’ve wanted for some time to try making real, good french fries. The consensus seems to be that you soak the fries in ice cold water for a good while, then you fry them twice. The first fry, at a lower temperature, cooks the fries through, giving them a nice fluffy interior, but leaves them somewhat limp. Then you take them out of the oil and let them come to room temperature. You crank the oil up to a higher temperature, and put the fries back in, quickly giving them a beautiful golden-brown finish.

Most of the french fries you’ve ever eaten have been made with a variation on this approach – the difference being that the first fry takes place at a factory somewhere, after which the french fries are frozen and shipped to your supermarket or to the kitchen of your local restaurant. The restaurant finishes the fries off.

But the idea of freshly-cooked, start-to-finish fries from my own kitchen sounds better.

As I say, I’d wanted to try this for some time, and when I was at the grocery store yesterday I found Yukon Gold potatoes on sale, so now seemed like the time. I looked up a good recipe on line and found this one from Emeril Lagasse.

Meanwhile, I’d also been reading about the new Smashburger franchise in Murfreesboro. I haven’t been there yet, but I understand that one of their specialties is fries tossed in garlic, rosemary and olive oil. That sounded like a great way to enjoy my homemade fries, too, so I tossed them in a little rosemary, fresh garlic and olive oil.

I have to say, they came out pretty well.

According to Dave Thomas’ autobiography “Dave’s Way,” the process of bringing frozen fries to room temp before the final cook is known at Wendy’s as “slacking” them. I don’t know if the term is universal or exclusive to Wendy’s. Dave told the story of visiting a Wendy’s once with the man who succeeded Dave as CEO after Dave retired and concentrated on being the chain’s commercial spokesman. Not surprisingly, the manager rushed to greet them soon after they walked in the door – and before they’d gotten their food. The CEO immediately chided the manager for not slacking the fries. The manager sputtered a denial and said that everything in the kitchen was being done according to company policy. But when the manager returned sheepishly a few minutes later, he had discovered that there was a new hire in the kitchen who – as it turns out – had not been slacking the fries. The manager apologized profusely, but then asked the CEO how he could possibly know what was going on in the kitchen. Did he have an inside source?

The CEO replied that he heard the frozen fries hissing and spattering in the oil as soon as he walked into the restaurant. The room-temperature fries slip into the oil with much less noise. Dave used this story to praise the CEO and make the point that a manager has to be aware of every detail. This CEO was so connected with Wendy’s way of doing things that he even knew how a restaurant was supposed to sound, and a different sound indicated a problem.

Anyway, here’s the video from church this morning: