Latke hacks: Sheet pan, family-style and make-it-a-meal toppers

If a glob of ketchup or dollop of jarred applesauce is your idea of a gussied-up potato latke, you may want to swing by One Market Restaurant and its pandemic-born New York-style deli, Mark ‘n Mike’s, in San Francisco.

Atop uncommonly round latkes, you’ll find shards of crispy gribenes poked into spheres of chicken liver; slivers of avocado dressed with smoked salmon and caviar; and a curtain of melted cheese slipping off a half-wheel of broiled, blistered raclette onto the potato goodness, alongside pickles and feather-light bresaola.

There are so many ways to latke. It’s just a matter of finding your potato jam (get it?). In time for Hanukkah, Mark ‘n Mike’s small-plate approach — eight options, dubbed the Festival of Latkes, through Dec. 23 — can inspire myriad options at home. You can skip the hours-long frying game and subsequent, kitchen-coated cleanup by making one large skillet latke. And you can even sneak latkes and other salty, potato-inspired magic into desserts, says one Jewish food expert.

This month’s latkes aren’t the first for One Market chef-partner Mark Dommen and co-owner Michael Dellar, who grew up in Beverly Hills on his mother Harriet’s brisket, stuffed cabbage and latkes with homemade applesauce. Like many restaurants, One Market has always offered special menus for Jewish holidays.

But the popularity of Mark ‘n Mike’s, which launched in November 2020, stands apart and fills a longtime need for downtown deli food. In addition to a robust weekday lunch service — thanks to a killer matzo ball soup and traditional sandwiches, like navel-cut pastrami on twice-baked rye — the deli sells between 500 and 600 loaded latkes at the Ferry Building farmers market on Saturdays.

“Sandwiches were always an afterthought for us, a way to use up roast beef,” Dommen says. “Now they have become a focus. The latkes are just fun. We’ve tried a lot of things over the years, and this (Mark ‘n Mike’s) is one that stuck.”

Dommen brought the idea to Dellar after One Market’s business came to a halt following the 2020 spring shutdown. Dellar developed the concept and taught Dommen “what he didn’t know about Jewish food.” Dommen had a head start, though. His float-not-sink matzo balls are inspired by his Austrian mother’s delicate knödel dumplings. And his crystal-clear chicken broth, perfect pickles and smoked salmon all have the touch you’d expect from an upscale chef.

Those latkes are no different. To offer a consistent potato pancake — one that doesn’t break or spend too much time in the fryer — Dommen came up with this technique: The kitchen staff makes large, sheet-pan-size latkes from grated potatoes and onion, salt, egg and potato starch, then par-bakes them in the oven.

“Then we punch them out with a round cutter and drop them in the fryer,” he says. This preparation requires less time on your feet and less oil, making for easier clean-up. (Dommen says the scraps crisp up particularly well, too.)

Clean-up was a cinch at Micah Siva’s childhood home in Calgary, where the San Francisco recipe developer grew up on latkes made with grated russets, sweet potatoes and even carrots using the family’s tall-sided electric frying pan.

“I think it was a wedding present to my parents,” says the Nosh with Micah photographer and writer. “You always knew it was Hanukkah when that came out of the box.”

Because of her work as a Jewish food expert — latke requests start rolling in around August and don’t stop until December — she tends to freeze extras and re-heat them in the oven when the holiday rolls around. But if she’s really fried out, she’ll whip up a low-maintenance super latke.

Siva’s Family-Style Skillet Latke calls for russets, onion, parsley, matzo meal and eggs. It yields one, large 1/2-inch thick latke and comes together in about 30 minutes. This way, everyone can partake.