Tarte Flambée

Like many of the world's great foods, tarte flambee started out as a working-class dish—in this case a flatbread cooked in wood-fired ovens by farmers in Alsace. One of our favorite chefs from that French region, Gabriel Kreuther, serves a spectacular version in the Bar Room of the Modern in Manhattan. True to tradition, he tops buttery pastry with creme fraiche, sliced onions, and smoked bacon, then blasts it in an oven (hence the flambee) until it's bronzed, bubbly, and perfect. Such humble origins, such transcendent results.