Cast Iron Skillet

Adding onion delivers moisture; forming thicker patties prevents them from cooking too fast and drying out. Both steps are key when working with grass-fed ground beef.

Rubbing the marinade onto only the flesh side puts it in direct contact with the meat and lets the skin get extra-crisp with no fear of burned bits.

Starting the chop in a hot pan lets you get a good initial sear; lowering the heat gives you control while it cooks through.

The batter for these fritter-like cakes is pretty dry, but that's what yields crisp results. Pressing them flat in the pan also helps maximize the crunch factor.

Harissa is a great shortcut ingredient to flavor, but no two jars (or tubes) are the same. Taste first—if it seems very spicy, use a bit less. You can always stir more into the chickpeas when the dish is finished.

Cook the chickpea mixture until it resembles wet concrete; it won't set up if it's undercooked.

Approach the clafoutis batter as if you're making waffles! It's no more complicated than that. This recipe resonates with me because it is so simple and versatile and, at the same time, elegant. Most often I make a clafoutis in a black cast iron skillet or heavy pie pan because they retain the heat well. You can certainly use individual ramekins, a tart mold, or even a crêpe pan. When you bake a clafoutis, it will puff up like a little soufflé, browned on the edges, but creamy within. I try to serve it immediately, because it will inevitably fall and deflate—but not to worry: This will happen and it's just as delicious anyway. If you understand this basic batter, the sky's the limit: it's a perfect blank canvas for almost any fruit you can think of: from choppable fruits like mango and banana, to cherries preserved in brandy. It's a recipe to draw upon all the year long. Variations follow, but here's the basic batter.

This is one of the simplest and yet tastiest preparations of eggs I've ever had. One afternoon, a friend and I unexpectedly dropped in on my friend Mario in Trieste. It was lunchtime, and he had a big basket full of fresh eggs he had brought down from the Carso, the high plateau surrounding Trieste. Eggs it was for lunch, served with a bowl of radicchio salad. We were just a few people that day, but this recipe is so very easy to modify for smaller or larger groups.

Take cornbread up a notch with this sweet-and-savory version studded with sautéed, thyme-scented apples.

Get your pan nice and hot. If you have a cast-iron skillet, now's the time to use it.

Tarte Tatin—Josh's all-time favorite dessert!—is a classic French upside-down apple tart that is prepared from start to finish in just one pan. It starts with sugar that cooks in the pan until it's caramelized, and then the apples are added and cooked until they are meltingly tender. The apple filling is then topped with pastry and the pan goes into the oven. The tarte is then inverted (to the delight of everyone watching) and served. While pie dough is the typical crust used for this tart, we've swapped in store-bought puff pastry for an easier preparation.

Serving a perfectly cooked, crisp-skinned piece of fish in a seasoned lime broth lets you get a spoonful of bright flavor in every bite.

"This dish was on our opening menu and still makes an appearance whenever we can get fresh skate wings," says Evans. His method also works with skinless turbot, flounder, or sole fillets

The beauty of a frittata is that it can be filled with just about anything, but the wild mushrooms in this one are especially delicious when combined with fluffy eggs and Cheddar cheese. To fill up the middle, I added green onions, peas, potatoes, and fresh thyme. It's actually easier to make this frittata than to go out to eat. Such a beautiful thing.

Go light on the salt when seasoning these chops; the marinade is fairly salty, especially after it reduces.

When working with big flavors, you don't need big quantities. "There's something to be said for restraint," says chef Chris Kuziemko of Chicago's Publican Quality Meats, a butcher shop that uses house-cured meat to make incredible sandwiches. Take his lead and swap the grocery store cold cuts for a special cured meat like soppressata or prosciutto, and indulge in a quality cheese. You'll build something beautiful without having to supersize. Just be sure to balance all the bold notes: In this pulled-back panino, Kuziemko uses a sharp provolone to cut the fat and the slightly sweet flavor of the coppa, and honey to temper the spicy-bitter broccoli rabe pesto. Because when no single ingredient dominates, each one can shine.

No tandoor oven? We didn't think so. Any heavy-bottomed skillet will get the job done.

This dish is inspired by a salad on the menu at Keens Steakhouse in NYC.