Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Laurent Torondel, the chef of BLT Steak and BLT Fish, developed this recipe for tropical bread pudding. It's rich and luxurious, but quite easy to assemble. Thin challah slices are layered on top of one another then drenched with a boozy mix of eggs, sugar, cream and coconut milk. It's baked in a bain-marie, then slid under the broiler for a few minutes to achieve a crackly-brown top. Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli, who own the Frankies Spuntino restaurants in New York, prefer to keep it mellow. "I cooked on the line for 18 years," Mr. Falcinelli told The Times. Mr. Castronovo, equally low-key, said, "We like to take the easy approach." That means many of their dishes, like vegetable antipasti, grilled meats and wine-stewed prunes, are cooked well ahead and assembled to order or served at room temperature. In this version of braciola, the meat rolls are covered with canned tomatoes that become sauce as the meat cooks. "My grandfather calls it gravy," Mr. Falcinelli said. "For the Sunday sauce, you do spareribs, sausage, meatballs, braciola." The Franks’ version is lighter, meant to be eaten with salad and bread, not steaming pasta. Leftovers are good for sandwiches the following day. Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

This recipe dresses up the chowder with chorizo and pan-fried hake, an inexpensive cousin to cod. Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Thit kho to – a sticky-sweet pork dish with funky undertones of nuoc mam – is often served on Tet Nguyen Dan, the Vietnamese New Year and the nation's most important holiday. This recipe is adapted from Michael Bao Huynh, a chef and restaurateur who came to the United States as a refugee in 1982. Thit kho to is traditionally made with pork belly, but it can also be made with pork shoulder butt (as shown in the photo) – a lighter though no less delicious alternative. Serve the meat over a pile of snowy white rice with a bottle of hot pepper sauce nearby. Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Korean New Year, Solnal, is greeted with steaming bowls of rice cake soup called tteokguk - "comfort food," said Moon Sun Kwak, who serves it at Dok Suni and Do Hwa, her family's restaurants in Manhattan. Her mother, Myung Ja Kwak, who is the chef, slowly simmers beef bones into a marrow-rich broth as the base for the soup. "It's so healthy," the elder Ms. Kwak said as she dropped homemade dumplings into the soup in Do Hwa's kitchen. Not all versions of the soup have dumplings; it's the tteok, or rice cakes, that matter. "You eat it so you can turn a year older." Dana Bowen

Dana Bowen · NYT Cooking

Dana Bowen