Dairy

Brie is even more indulgent when warm and covered with mushrooms. Serve this appetizer on a cold evening with a big red wine.

A French take on pizza, featuring tapenade, sliced Yukon Gold potatoes, and red pepper, as well as real imported Fontina.

Buttermilk and cake flour are the secrets to the incredibly light texture of this sophisticated cake with its gooey caramel topping. It's baked in a cake pan on a baking sheet to prevent the dates from getting tough.

Nutty Gruyère is de rigueur for a classic Swiss fondue. Hard apple cider, cider vinegar, and Calvados (apple brandy) give this great version added interest. Kielbasa, apples, and bread are served alongside for dipping— but potatoes are also good. Just steam some new potatoes or fingerlings until cooked but not falling apart, and cut them into wedges. Also, any sausage—not just kielbasa—will do. We like andouille or chicken and apple sausage, too.

A terrific side for roast pork loin or roast chicken. Smoky cheese and bacon are stirred into rich and creamy mashed potatoes. You can mash the potatoes with a regular masher or—even better—a ricer.

This gratin is more elegant than your usual broccoli and cheese casserole, thanks to a custardy base and plenty of parmesan.

Elegant and deliciously buttery, these golden fantails are an obvious choice for entertaining. Their shape resembles a blooming flower, with each petal forming a perfect pull-apart bite. But don’t worry—they are surprisingly straightforward to put together in a muffin pan.

Grimes spent hours exploring Nagyvásárcsarnok, Budapest's largest indoor market hall, where he discovered all kinds of cured and jellied meats, pickled vegetables, and a virtual hanging garden of sausages. This magnificent cold layered terrine, which requires almost no cooking, was inspired by that bounty. Horseradish and sour cream, so abundant in central European cooking, complement the beets and the tongue's smoky richness. The success of this dish depends largely on using good-quality borscht such as Gold’s Russian Style (avoid brands containing high-fructose corn syrup).

The delicate crust of this galette gets a warm spiciness from fresh sage.

The sweet raisins and bits of smoky cheese studding this risotto make for an arresting contrast with the smooth, savory rice.

These crunchy cornmeal morsels are nothing short of fried perfection.

These rolls have a lot in common with brioche—both are rich and tender, and they bake up with a gorgeous browned crust. However, these are much easier to make than that time-intensive bread, and they have the added advantage of aromatic Parmigiano-Reggiano. We guarantee they’ll fly out of the bread basket.

Increasingly available in supermarkets, the firm wheat protein known as seitan is mild in flavor and versatile in the kitchen. In this casserole, it takes on the earthy flavor of mushrooms, adding heartiness and heft.

This homespun loaf cake evokes the nut tree-covered hills of Avellino and the lemon-scented Amalfi coast. The cake batter is primarily ground raw nuts, generously flavored with lemon zest. The latter gives the finished cake a pronounced citrus flavor that pairs well with the orange salad.

Editor's note: This recipe is from chef Wolfgang Puck. If you don't have a Caesar salad on your menu in California, the customers will rebel. For a zesty Provençal touch, the Caesar at Spago is served with croutons slathered with our homemade tapenade. When you can find baby romaine, use it. If you can't, trim the outer leaves of the larger variety and, if necessary, break them into bite-size strips.