French

This streamlined, somewhat lighter cassoulet employs French green lentils, bacon, and smoked sausage.

Simmer butter until its milk solids brown to unleash its nutty alter ego. Use it to bring deep flavor to baked goods, like these financiers, or as a sauce for fish or pasta.

If you can’t make it to Paris to taste Fabrice Le Bourdat’s glazed madeleines (the best in town) you might as well learn to make them at home.

The cream puff is the Eiffel Tower of Parisian pastries: iconic, beloved, and displayed everywhere. The recipe is so irrefutably timeless that even Pierre Hermé, France's most famous (and endlessly innovative) pastry chef, still uses the formula he learned as a 14-year-old apprentice.

You'll need a special mold for this canelé recipe.

Here's a soufflé recipe by Michel Richard of Citronelle in Washington, D.C. that can stand up for itself. Whip the whites until firm, but stop before they get too stiff.

Béarnaise and steak are a match made in heaven, but this sauce has a few other divine uses. Try it spooned over poached eggs or spread over roast fish.