Buccellato is a traditional cake to celebrate the spring in Tuscany. It's an ancient recipe dating back to medieval times. Today there are as many versions as there are cooks, and the term has taken on a generic quality that typically means rustic cake. This lemon version is slightly sweet with a bread-like crumb. The dense cake is soaked in Vin Santo before being served with blackberry sauce and cream.

This cake is dense and rich and mildly sweet. It's a true pound cake, with lots of butter and eggs so don't expect a true chocolate cake. The chocolate takes a back seat in this version. And though the beets may seems odd, they make this cake very moist.

This is another Eggs Benedict stand in. You can't have too many of these in my opinion. This recipe replaces the fatty ham with the luscious full mouth taste of walnut oil. I used red spinach, which can be hard to find. But it's so much sweeter and nuttier that I use it whenever it's in season. Regular spinach would be fine. As would most any tender young flavorful green.

These little fritters are a popular Turkish meze. They are good hot or at room temperature served with lemon and Haydari sauce (see recipe section).

This recipe takes a Fernand Point haute cuisine classic from the 1950s and simplifies it by filling the croûte with a beautiful salmon loaf. The result is super delicious and spectacular to look at– but deceptively easy if you use store bought pastry sheets.

Everyone thinks they make the best chocolate chip cookies. These are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. So I guess that makes these the best chocolate chip cookies.

In 1941 a new sort of fantasy restaurant opened in Beverly Hills. It was all pomp and circumstance. A man LIFE magazine branded “the most wonderful liar in 20th-century U.S” owned the restaurant. The restaurant was Romanoff’s. The liar was Michael Romanoff.

Michael “Mike” Romanoff arrived in Hollywood about 1927 and introduced himself as Prince Michael Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky-Romanoff, nephew of Czar Nicholas II. Everyone in Hollywood knew he wasn't a Prince, but in a town full of pretenders, it hardly mattered, and "Prince Michael" enjoyed great success as a restauranteur.

By the time he opened Romanoff’s in 1941 he was very well connected to the movie folk of old Hollywood. David Niven was a very close friend, and in his book Bring on the Empty Horses Niven devotes an entire chapter to the colorful “Prince” Romanoff.

It was connections such as these that allowed his restaurant to open with instant success. The first location was 326 N. Rodeo Drive, and it was so popular that Romanoff had trouble appeasing his high profile diners. It seems there were only 4 booths across from the bar and these were quickly deemed the “A” tables. Squabbles developed between the stars and industry moguls about getting one of those four tables during the prime lunch and dinner hours.

The Prince’s answer was to move to larger quarters at 240 S. Rodeo Drive. There he had 24 custom booths designed, all of equal proportion. Despite his forethought and planning he was soon faced with the same problem. Despite the booths' similarities, the four booths to the left of the entrance became the choice tables and the most sought after. This is the restaurant where the the phrase “seated in Siberia” started and came to mean any table other than the four on the “good side” of the staircase.

The food was French and first rate. Romanoff may not have been a Prince but his extensive travels and impeccable taste showed themselves well at Romanoff’s. Specialties included coulibiac of salmon, bouillabaisse Marseillaise, and a particularly showy saddle of lamb presented tableside on a silver cart.

Desserts were a must at Romanoff’s and were high drama. Flaming versions of cherries jubilee and crepes Suzette were popular, but the house specialty was a then practically unknown little confection: a chocolate soufflé. They were served in individual ramekins and were the perfect ending to a sumptuous meal. I have chosen this as my dessert item when I go to Panama to lead a cooking demonstration highlighting recipes from the great restaurants of Hollywood.

Romanoff’s success lasted well into the 50s. His clients were quite loyal and returned again and again throughout the years. However, as tastes began to change, the diners at Romanoff’s began to look like the “old guard” of Hollywood. The younger crowd preferred a more casual ambiance and soon only the regulars showed up.

Romanoff also began to espouse his political opinions at the restaurant. He developed a friendship with J. Edgar Hoover and other highly placed Republicans. He even began to spout anti-communist propaganda to diners at the tables. The smart set found this offensive, especially considering the toll that the McCarthy trials were having on this creative community. Even the old guard stopped by less and less.

Romanoff had influential friends, which was the key to his success, and as they abandoned him he fell deeper into debt. An attempt to recreate the magic of Romanoff’s in Palm Springs ended badly when his newly opened casual bistro in called Rocks had a disastrous opening.

In 1958 an act of Congress signed by President Eisenhower allowed Romanoff to achieve his lifelong dream. He became an American citizen. The restaurant limped along until 1962 when Billy Wilder, Jack, Benny, Jack Warner and Otto Preminger put financial backing behind longtime Romanoff’s maitre d’Kurt Niklas to open a new restaurant. This restaurant was called The Bistro and remains a Hollywood powerhouse to this day.

Romanoff's closed on New Years Eve of that same year.

It seems that the famous Cobb Salad was invented at the Brown Derby by the owner as a midnight snack for a special patron. It has since been copied and adapted through the generations. It has morphed countless times and falls into the category of the chop salad that can feature pretty much any ingredient your mind can think of.

It seems back in 1937, Bob Cobb, then owner of The Brown Derby, was alerted that Sid Grauman had shown up at the restaurant looking to be seated. It was quite obvious that he was too drunk to be seated in the main dining room, but too important to be turned away. Bob pulled Sid into the kitchen to get the man fed. It was quite late and Bob knew the refrigerators were full of partially prepped ingredients from all the meals that had been served that night. Opening a huge refrigerator, he hurriedly pulled whatever his hands first touched. A head of iceberg lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold breast of chicken, hard-boiled eggs, chives, cheese and some of the restaurants own version of an old-fashioned French dressing. He started chopping perhaps to distract Sid, or perhaps he had a plan.

Whatever the case The Cobb salad was born. The next day to repay his friend’s kindness Sid Grauman arrived at the restaurant for lunch and heartily asked to be served “The Cobb Salad”.

Cobb's midnight invention became an overnight sensation with Derby customers, people like movie mogul Jack Warner, who regularly dispatched his chauffeur to pick up a carton of this salad.

How true this story is I cannot say, but it has become part of the lore of Hollywood. Which makes this salad the perfect choice for my evening in Panama featuring legendary recipes from famed Hollywood restaurants. The version I have decided to present is very close to what Bob may have served Sid and has earned the moniker The Brown Derby Original Cobb Salad.