Starter

Here's a popular starter at The American Restaurant in Kansas City.

Toss chopped endive, radicchio, fennel and roasted bell peppers with oil and vinegar for a pretty salad course. For the finale, offer poached pears drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with crushed toffee. Learn how to make your own ravioli with our hands-on streaming video demonstration.

Serve these pastries as the first course of a special-occasion supper — maybe with a bottle of chilled Champagne.

Similar to the whipped feta spread at Papagus Greek Taverna in Chicago.

A variation of this recipe is made by adding 4 to 6 anchovy fillets to the topping. In Rome, it is called pizza alla napoletana. In Naples, where all pizza is alla napoletana, it is called alla romana.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Dry-toasting the barley adds a nutty taste and helps the barley retain its texture in this excellent meatless dish.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Nutmeg adds nice flavor to this soup.

Begin by offering crisp breadsticks with roasted red peppers, black olives and marinated artichoke hearts on a bed of arugula. Follow the stew with apple pie.

The decade saw the rise of a modern southwestern cuisine, and the rise of chilies, like the poblano that gives this soup a kick.

From coast to coast, diners in the eighties showed an insatiable appetite for crab cakes. Some chefs deep-fried them; others spiced them with Old Bay Seasoning. But the best crab cakes, like the ones here, let the sweet flavor of the crab predominate.

It's very important to use freshly shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano — preferably shredded with a Microplane — for these parmesan crisps (called frico). The consistency and volume of pregrated cheese is quite different and can result in cups that are heavy and chewy. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 40 min

Place mother-of-pearl caviar spoons in the crème fraîche and caviar bowls for spooning the toppings onto the potatoes. What to drink: Three-Olive Martinis and brut rosé Champagne.