• Alain Ducasse at the Essex House

  155 West 58th Street, 212-265-7300

  Gougères, those wonderfully light cheese puffs, have been elevated to new heights by chef de cuisine Didier Elena at Alain Ducasse, where the little Burgundian delicacies get a surprise creamy cheese filling. The airy, puffy choux pastry shell, flavored with comte cheese from the Jura, is filled with Mornay sauce while still hot and crisp, then served immediately on a silver-edged Lalique plate as a welcoming hors d’oeuvre with an aperitif. Avoid the temptation to take a bite. The cheese might ooze and ruin the evening. Happily, they’re small enough to pop into the mouth whole for an unexpectedly intense cheesy sensation.

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine