Which Kind Of Mashed Potatoes Does Golden Corral Serve, Homemade Or Instant?

Since first opening its doors in 1973, Golden Corral has been slinging classic comfort foods in quantities best enjoyed with the top button of your pants preemptively loosened. And when it comes to American comfort classics, few plates are complete without a hearty serving of mashed potatoes. Serving at the scale that America's No. 1 buffet and grill does, diners have been known to question whether the chain's mash is made in house with proper potatoes or if the restaurant takes a shortcut, opting for instant mashed potatoes instead. The answer, it seems, might be a bit complicated.

In the past, Golden Corral has made a show of promoting that its mashed potatoes are the real deal. A 2015 Facebook post from the chain states that the secret to its mashed potatoes is "starting from scratch using whole buttermilk, hand peeled potatoes & a dash of white pepper." Similarly, back in 2011, Golden Corral posted that there was nothing instant about its potatoes, claiming that the employees peel over one million potatoes every week.

We can only assume that Golden Corral was telling the truth about its mash — a million potatoes a week would be an awfully large lie — but both of those posts were made quite some time ago. While there are some fans out there dedicated enough to develop their own copycat Golden Corral mashed potato recipes, the mash also ended up on our list of dishes to avoid at Golden Corral. The disconnect between these opinions may be indicative of a change in the recipe over time.

Aside from that old social media post, Golden Corral hasn't given up the details of how its mashed potatoes are made. There's no official recipe, nor is there a publicly available ingredient list. The only data from the chain is the nutrition facts on the Golden Corral website. There are two items listed under the potential allergens for every type of mashed potato on the menu: milk and soy. Most mashed potato recipes include some kind of dairy, but soy is an unlikely ingredient in a traditional mash. It is, however, quite common in instant potatoes.

Soy products can take multiple forms in instant mashed potatoes. In some products, soybean oil (also a common ingredient in margarine) is used as a culinary fat. Refined soybean oils like these, however, do not need to be labeled as allergens, per U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. If Golden Corral is marking its mashed potatoes as containing soy, that is much more likely to indicate soybean-derived ingredients such as soy lecithin being used as an emulsifier. This, in turn, likely indicates a highly processed food rather than the hand-peeled potatoes of yesteryear — perhaps why the mash is now considered by some to be the worst dish at Golden Corral.

In the end, there's really nothing wrong with potato flakes. A box of instant mashed potatoes is always good to have in the pantry, and soy lecithin is in all sorts of processed foods. The bigger question is simply whether or not Golden Corral can deliver a delicious mash with its new recipe. Right now, it seems that diners are none too pleased.