Chefs' Favorite At-Home Recipes

Will Budiaman|Feb. 20, 2012 10:39 am EST

Ready to graduate from making semi-homemade meals to cooking like a chef? Many home cooks who aspire to improve their cooking skills and take on a challenge look toward chefs for guidance and inspiration. Chefs are the barometer by which we judge food trends, including what new ingredients are popular, what techniques are cutting-edge, and what cuisines are the next big thing. They are there to inspire and excite home cooks with new ideas.

But sometimes, a do-it-yourself approach to chef cookery can be intimidating. What makes a good recipe also an accessible one? Hardly anyone has the time, or the resolve, to spend precious time poring over cookbooks or hunting around for obscure ingredients from a list a mile long. It's understandable that home cooks might just throw down their aprons and go out for a meal.

That's why we're here to help bridge the gap and demystify chef cookery. Here at The Daily Meal, we make it part of our mission every day to make chefs' recipes accessible to home cooks. So we've put together some recipes from Food & Wine's cookbook, Chef Recipes Made Easy, as well as a few of our old favorites to inspire you to recreate some of these chef's most iconic dishes. You'll save some dough while impressing that special someone or friends and family at dinner.

Be sure to try Bobby Flay's Chile-Honey-Glazed Salmon, which he serves at his restaurant, Mesa Grill, in New York City. It's been simplified without losing the essence of the dish; plain sour cream stands in for the crema (which can be hard to find) used at the restaurant and using canned beans instead of dried means you don't have to wait overnight to make the sauce. And we all know how much of a chore trimming artichokes can be, so Jonathon Sawyer's Farro with Artichoke and Herb Salad as adapted for home cooks uses jarred marinated artichokes for maximum flavor with a minimum amount of work.

So quit making excuses, get in that kitchen, and sharpen your knives. As they say on that one show, "Allez cuisine!"

Click here to see Chefs' Favorite Winter Recipes.

Click here to see 10 Restaurant Tips for Home Cooks.

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