Charlie Palmer

At La Côte Basque, this dish was originally served with an extremely rich cream sauce, but when Jean-Jacques Rachou took over in 1979, he reimagined a lighter version, one with pan juices and crème fraîche. It plays up the nutty, earthy morels beautifully.

Chef Charlie Palmer shared this recipe for one of his signature dishes at his Dry Creek Kitchen restaurant in Sonoma, California, exclusively with Epicurious. Crisp-skinned, juicy duck breasts are accented with gingery fried rice and sweet roasted peaches for a stunning dish that's surprisingly simple to make. Note that the recipe makes more than enough soy-lime emulsion for the fried rice. Leftover emulsion, which will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three days, can be used in stir-fries and salads or as a sauce for tuna tartare or dumplings.

This ice cream doesn't hit you over the head with the flavor of chestnuts. Mellow and creamy, it's great on its own — though when we're not having it with the Tarte Tatin, we like to serve it with a delicate butter cookie.

Palmer wanders out behind the Dry Creek Kitchen to pick the apples for this tart. He generally goes for a combination of Macouns, Pippins, and/or Gravensteins, but we used easy-to-find Golden Delicious and were very pleased with the results. Palmer likes to serve this French classic warm, with a scoop of chestnut ice cream and crisp strips of candied bacon alongside. The three elements make for a textural symphony, but this caramelized beauty is also fantastic paired with a humble scoop of store-bought vanilla — or even by itself.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Practical Guide to the New American Kitchen by Charlie Palmer.

In central New York State where I grew up, summertime is speidie-time. Speidies are beef or chicken kabobs marinated in a locally produced spiedie sauce. Nobody makes their own; everybody buys it by the case to make it through the summer's grilling. Now that I live downstate, I've had to devise my own speidie sauce (really nothing more than a quite acidic vinaigrette), which I'm willing to share for the very first time.

This tart is so deliciously rich, it can stand alone as a luncheon main course. A crisp green salad and a glass of nicely chilled white wine would complete a most satisfactory meal.