Julia Child's Best Potato Casserole Is A Mix Of 2 European Dishes

She was a 6'2" former high school basketball player. She designed shark repellant while working for the U.S. government in an intelligence agency that preceded the CIA. She was a buoyant, irrepressible personality with a voice like a warbler singing through a beakful of marbles. And she was one of the most significant cooking personalities of the 20th century. Julia Child brought fine cuisine to kitchens all across America, through her (co-written) cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and her TV show "The French Chef," making what could be intimidating and overwhelming accessible and even fun.

But Child was far from just a smiling face on the television. She was a deeply committed, thoroughly learned chef who tested and retested every single recipe to make sure it was as good as it could possibly be — so no matter how fussy her recipes may seem to a modern eye, you can be sure it'll be worth your while. Case in point: her recipe for shredded potato gratin, a sort of hybrid between two European potato dishes, au gratin and rösti. The former is a dish consisting of potatoes sliced and smothered in cream and cheese before being baked; the latter is a dish from Switzerland consisting of fried grated potatoes not dissimilar to American hash browns — one of the best potato recipes. Together, they make beautiful, savory, cheesy magic.

In the words of Miley Cyrus, you're getting the best of both worlds with Julia Child's recipe. The au gratin half of the equation provides the creamy, decadent cheesiness you would expect from the dish; the rösti half gives you all those enticing nooks and crannies from the shredded potatoes, to say nothing of those beautiful browned bits. The basis of the cheese sauce is a Swiss cheese — perhaps gruyère, as delicious here as it is with French onion soup — while the rest of it is made from onion, egg, and herbs and spices, including parsley, salt, and pepper. (Certainly no cilantro, though, as Child hated that particular herb.)

All told, the recipe isn't particularly difficult or complicated. You're not asked to draw upon the kind of technique you would learn at the Cordon Bleu. But unlike modern recipes, which advocate for convenience at all costs, this one doesn't allow you to cut corners; you will squeeze the moisture out of those potato shreds, and you will thank Julia for it. And if you mess it up badly enough to ruin dinner, you can at least go to Julia Child's favorite fast food chain, In & Out, and have dinner in her honor.