1) Use fresh ingredients.
2) Laugh a lot.
3) Open lots of wine. (Unless you really know what you’re doing, it should be red.)
4) Make sure that you believe that the meal you are cooking for them is the single most important thing that you’ve ever done in your life.

As it happens, these rules also work quite nicely for most other activities that have nothing to do with eating or cooking. At least in France.

I. Gazpacho for 6
(with many thanks to M.F.K. Fisher)

If you have a garden handy, this recipe is heaven.

Peel 3 lbs of red, ripe, juicy tomatoes by plunging them into boiling water for 2 minutes. When the skin starts to detach, take them out of the water, cool, then peel.

Wash and clean 3 green peppers, 2 or more cloves of garlic, one small white onion, one large cucumber, and as much fresh chopped parsley, basil, marjoram, chervil, or whatever, as you can get your hands on.

Puree everything except half of the cucumber in a food processor, mortar and pestle, or, if you’re really into it, squash it up with your bare hands. Mm-m-m.

To this mixture add 1/2 cup good olive oil, lemon juice to taste (we use 2 or 3 lemons), salt, pepper, and just a dash of tabasco or jalapeno. Add a quantity of cold water equal to 1/3 of the mixture’s volume.

Dice the remaining cucumber and sprinkle it on top.

Refrigerate well. Twenty-four hours is perfect. If you weren’t able to plan ahead, just substitute ice cubes for most of the added water, and put the soup in the freezer for an hour or two.

Variants:

Sprinkle croutons on the soup before serving.

If the ambassador and his family are coming to dinner, you could pass the gaspacho through a medium sieve to get rid of some of the pulp. More elegant, but not as tasty.

Ribs à la Mode de Denny

This recipe is a personal victory.These ribs are the talk of Albi and I’m not even from Texas, South Carolina, or any of those places where the true ribmasters are supposed to come from.

1. Prepare the Ribs

Rub at least 1 pound of ribs per person with tandoori powder (which is the raw material of Tandoori paste, used in Indian cuisine to prepare tandoori chicken, etc). Let stand covered, for at least an hour, but no more than two.

2. Prepare the basting sauce

Mix together in a sauce pan and heat gently:

3 parts tandoori powder
3 parts tomato paste
1 part honey
1/2 part wine vinegar
1/2 liter orange juice

When the sauce is starting to simmer add 2 tablespoons of ground peanuts (yes, you can use peanut butter, but please make sure that you use a brand that actually has peanuts in it). Remove from heat.

Warning: tandoori powder is RED. Everything it comes in contact with will stay RED for a few days, including your hands.

3. Start a cracking fire.

This is a good time to test out the Listel Gris. Is it cold enough?

4. Baste

Just before putting the ribs on the grill, baste on both sides with the sauce. Once the coals are hot but no longer showing flames, place the ribs on the grill, bone side down. Cook 5 minutes, then turn.

5. Baste the top of the ribs with the sauce. Cook ten minutes, then turn.

6. Turn, baste, turn, baste, turn, baste, until the ribs give off high-intensity waves of “come-eat-me” chroma. Run and get the potato salad.

Dominique's Salade

If you're going to make a potato salad, why try to make a carbon copy of the stuff they sell in styrofoam at the 7-11, when you can do it like this?

I. Cook the potatoes

Two medium sized potatoes per person. We steam them in a pressure cooker 10 minutes, but no question about it, there are many ways to cook a potato. Cool to room temperature. Peel or don't, then slice.

II. Prepare the other Ingredients:

• two large, ripe tomatoes, sliced
• pitted black olives to taste
• sweet pickles, sliced
• sour pickles, sliced
• one small spring onion, sliced
• a good handful of fresh herbs-basil, parsley, chervil, etc.
• two hard-boiled eggs, sliced

III. Prepare the dressing:

Mix two tablespoons strong mustard with the juice of 2 lemons. Add olive oil in a trickle while constantly stirring. The dressing will expand (emulsify) like mayonnaise. Figure two volumes oil for one volume mustard/lemon juice. Add salt.

IV. Mix and refrigerate:

Almond Brownies

A four millionth variant of the classic recipe.

I. Get the chocolate component ready:

• melt together 100 gr. of butter with 100 gr. of bitter cocoa powder, in the top of a double boiler.
• Cut open a vanilla bean lengthwise. Open, and scrape out the zillions of tiny seeds. Add to the chocolate mixture. Save the vanilla pod pour a rainy day.
• Let the mixture cool.

II. Prepare the other ingredients:

• In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together 3 egg yolks with 200 gr of brown sugar.
• Sprinkle in, while stirring gently, 50 gr. of sifted unbleached white flour and 100 gr of powdered almonds.

III. Fold in the chocolate.

Gently.

IV. Fold in the egg whites.

After beating them, of course.

V. Bake

Pour the batter into a well-greased 9 x 9 pan. Sprinkle slivered almonds on top. Bake in a 350° oven, for 25 minutes.