French

Thanksgiving goes Provençal with this elegant dish.

In this redesigned French bistro classic, softened red onions join salty Manchego, and star anise gives the peppery broth a subtle undercurrent of sweetness.

All-butter puff pastry is available at some specialty foods stores.

Brandade is a salt cod puree from Provence. In this all-American take on the dish, an heirloom bean puree is mixed with Dungeness crab and two kinds of cheese.

A globe's worth of influences go into this tender quail, but the result is a very subtle dish with a classic French balance.

The flavor of the wine looms large in this meaty braise, lending an extraordinary savoriness to the melt-in-your-mouth carrots.

In an intriguing play on the combination of chocolate and chiles, this rich mousse gets its faint tingle from Sichuan peppercorns.

Much more interesting than plain mashed potatoes, this purée gets an earthy boost from celery root and chervil and an amazing smoothness and richness from a generous amount of cream.

Not a fin in sight here—just a light, sweet finish to a healthy meal.

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.

Jacques Maximin claims he never served these tartes fines aux pommes at Chantecler restaurant at the famed Hôtel Négresco. Jacques Torres, Maximin’s pastry chef for eight years, insists they were consistently on the menu. All that matters to us, though, is that the classic combination of warm apple and flaky pastry becomes new again in these light, simple tarts.

Laden with suitcases full of caviar, a thank-you gift from the Shah of Iran for cooking at his palace in 1978, Louis Outhier returned to France in need of a recipe that called for such extravagance. Oeufs au caviar was the result, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Outhier's young protégé at the time, still serves the dish at his namesake New York City restaurant. Layered inside an eggshell, warm scrambled eggs and cold cream are accented with a regal dollop of caviar.

Paul Bocuse believes a great chef will invent only two dishes in his entire career; his own truffle soup with pastry "hats" will forever be known as his signature creation. Our version retains all the theater of the billowy dome of puff pastry and the richness of the flavors but substitutes mushroom consommé laced with morels and snips of fresh chives for the opulence of truffles and foie gras.

Sole amandine is a classic preparation for the delicate fish, pairing it with toasty almonds and a lemon butter sauce. Lightly cooked Brussels sprouts add texture.

In this nod to chef André Soltner, who opened New York City's Lutèce in 1961, we've streamlined his once modern take on duck à l’orange. Duck breasts, roasted and then broiled until golden-crisp on top, end up perfectly medium-rare. To cut the meat's richness, we add a splash of raspberry vinegar and fresh berries to the pan sauce.

Rack of lamb, a popular restaurant cut, is easy to cook at home. Smaller Australian or New Zealand racks are the perfect size to serve two. Roasting the meat over sliced potatoes enlivens them with savory juices.

Pomegranate juice adds tartness to this famous French dessert.

While soufflés often sound difficult to make, this recipe is easy to follow and yields impressive results. We like to serve ours with high-quality vanilla bean ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

Don't be frightened by the word soufflé. This subtly sophisticated dish isn't difficult at all (just be careful not to overbeat the egg whites).

Travel editor William Sertl took a weeklong boot-camp course at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. For this classic French dish, students were taught how to sauté the chicken on one side—without touching it—until it's golden, before turning it only once. The pan-sauce lesson that followed yielded a simple, elegant cloak for the very juicy chicken.