Foie gras deviled eggs

For this premium deviled egg dish at The Katharine Brasserie & Bar in Winston-Salem, N.C., executive chef Danny Tippetts steams eggs for 12 minutes, cools them in ice water for five minutes, and then peels them and slices them in half. He removes the yolks and blends them in a food processor with crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and aïoli. 

Separately, he simmers seared foie gras with Cognac in cream so the foie gras fat melts and then he passes that through a fine mesh strainer and chills it. Once it’s cold he whips it into a mousse and folds that into the egg yolk mixture. Then he pipes it into the egg white halves. 

The dish is garnished with scallion and duck chips, made by drying thinly sliced duck prosciutto.

“I felt that having the rich and smooth fattiness of the foie gras mousse along with the crisp, salty duck prosciutto and fresh spring onion would work perfectly.” Tippetts said. “It’s a little play on doing a duck two-ways. I thought this French take on a Southern classic would be a good fit for our menu.”

Price: $16

Show Your True Colors

For this drink at The Commodore at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove in Miami, mixologist Ingi Sigurdsson makes a snap pea syrup by combining equal amounts of snap pea juice and sugar, which he stirs together using a rubber spatula without heating it.

He shakes ¾ ounce of that syrup with ¾ ounce of lime juice and ¼ ounce each of three herbaceous liqueurs: Dolin Génépy, mastiha, and Galliano L’Autentico. That’s all poured into an ice-filled rocks glass and topped with 1.5 ounces of purple Empress 1908 gin. It’s garnished with a cherry skewered with a peacock feather.

“Snap pea gives a great color and even better flavor,” Sigurdsson said. “It gives a great vegetal flavor which is enhanced by the liqueurs and gin.

Price: $23

Carolina crab rice

South City Kitchen, which has four locations in the Atlanta area, recently revamped its brunch menu, which now includes this dish, developed by culinary director Mark Jeffers.

Jeffers says the dish is a play on Hoppin’ John, which is normally made with rice, field peas, and pork.

It starts with Carolina Gold Rice cooked in a combination of white wine and crab stock, plus a little sesame oil, and then cooled. Onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and red jalapeño pepper are sweated in a pan until translucent and then the rice is added along with lump crab meat, diced cabbage, and lemon juice. Some crab stock and a little butter are added and the ingredients are all cooked together briefly and then finished with lemon juice and parsley. The dish is topped with a fried egg and a drizzle of spicy aïoli made with a little Old Bay seasoning.

Price: $28

Mentaiko spaghetti

Pod, a longstanding Japanese-focused Stephen Starr concept in Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood, had briefly been rebranded as Kpod and was serving Korean American food. But now it’s Pod again, and has a new Japanese menu developed by Starr Restaurant Organization’s director of culinary research & development, Mark Hellyar. 

He said this particular dish has its origins in the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, where shelf-stable goods such as dried spaghetti became staples after the Second World War. 

At Pod the spaghetti is cooked and then tossed with Japanese mayonnaise, butter and mentaiko, which is pollock roe cured with garlic and chile. The pasta is twisted over an egg yolk to give it a feel similar to spaghetti carbonara. It’s garnished with shredded nori seaweed and more mentaiko. 

Hellyar says it has been a hit with guests and is selling well.

Price: $18