23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (2024)

As Jean-Georges Vongerichten celebrates 50 years of cooking, we're looking back at some of his best recipes in Food & Wine, from fresh salads and starters to flavorful mains, plus a kumquat condiment and co*cktail. Channel the chef and restaurateur's French techniques, Asian ingredients, and American influences with shrimp toast, sesame chicken salad, steamed red snapper, and grilled sirloin with a homemade soy sauce. Take it from the entrepreneur behind more than 50 restaurants around the world, these dishes are ideal for entertaining.

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Ginger, Green Apple, Sweet Onion, and Coconut Salad

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (1)

Start any meal with this tart and sweet salad. The recipe includes Vongerichten's Lemon Verbena Oil and tips for grating your own coconut.

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Crab Balls with Grapefruit Salad

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (2)

This dish is inspired by crab and grapefruit tossed with cold glass noodles at the former Spice Market. Vongerichten reconfigured the flavors into crab balls rolled in panko and sesame seeds. The side salad is a fabulous mix of tart (grapefruit), spicy (Thai chile) and sweet (ginger syrup).

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Sesame Chicken Salad with Ginger-Lime Dressing

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (3)

Vongerichten prepares a version of this salad with raw bluefin tuna at his flagship restaurant Jean Georges in Manhattan. Here he replaces the fish with chicken breasts crusted with sesame seeds, pan-roasting them until golden and juicy, and drizzling with a dressing brightened by ginger-lime syrup.

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Zucchini Carpaccio

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (4)

This simple zucchini, arugula, and Parmesan starter or side takes just 15 minutes, and is mixed with olive oil and lemon juice.

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Spicy Lobster-Noodle Salad

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (5)

This cellophane-noodle salad, with creamy avocados, crunchy peanuts, and a chile-honey dressing, is an excellent showcase for lobster. Caribbean spiny or rock lobsters are sweet but can be slightly dense, while Maine lobsters are more tender and just as delicious.

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Chicken with Riesling

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (6)

For this meal, quarter a chicken and simmer it in a skillet with Cognac, Riesling, and shallots. Serve with a creamy mushroom sauce and noodles, spaetzle, rice, or boiled potatoes as desired.

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Steamed Red Snapper with Mushrooms and Ginger

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (7)

Vongerichten steams snapper fillets in foil packets with a piquant mix of ginger, lemongrass, green Thai chiles, miso, fish sauce, tarragon, scallions, and orange zest. The blend can be made ahead of time and used to flavor other meats like chicken and pork.

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Grilled Sirloin with Shallot Soy Sauce

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (8)

The combination of soy and butter is superb. The base for the sauce needs to be refrigerated overnight to develop its flavor fully, so plan accordingly.

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Molten Chocolate Cake

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (9)

This is the original, supremely rich version of the iconic molten chocolate cake, created by Vongerichten at JoJo. Serve it with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you like.

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Shrimp and Water Chestnut Toasts

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (10)

At 66, Vongerichten's former luxe Chinese restaurant in downtown Manhattan, he identified this crunchy toast as "New York Chinese." "Shrimp toast doesn't exist in China," he says. "You don't find spaghetti and meatballs in Italy, either." Adding a tiny dice of water chestnuts to the rich shrimp topping makes it extra juicy.

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans and Avocado

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (11)

Vongerichten first created this side dish as an all-green one, using pistachios. “When I tried it with pecans, though, it was even better,” he says. The unconventional combination plays with textures (crisp roasted sprouts, creamy avocado) and flavors: “When you roast brussels sprouts, they get sweeter; but when you warm avocado, it gets a little more bitter.”

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Kumquat and Pineapple Chutney

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (12)

Vongerichten's bright, tropical, citrusy condiment can be served with pork or veal chops, duck breasts, cold leftover roasts, cheese plates, or terrines and lasts for a week in the fridge.

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Poached Eggs with Parmesan and Smoked Salmon Toasts

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (13)

Vongerichten wraps smoked salmon around half of the toasts and sprinkles the rest with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, so it melts and forms a salty crust when baked. He says dipping a French mouillette (crispy toast finger) in a soft egg yolk has to be one of life's great pleasures, and remembers loving this as a kid.

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Slow-Cooked Sweet-and-Sour Pork Shoulder with Pineapple

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (14)

Inspired by the retro combination of ham and pineapple, Vongerichten created this tropical centerpiece by mixing the pineapple with vinegar for a sweet-sour effect and marinating pork shoulder with hot paprika and Sriracha chile sauce.

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White Asparagus and Ham Gratin

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (15)

Like a frugal Alsatian, Vongerichten uses the asparagus peels to make a fragrant broth. When he adds them to boiling water, their characteristically grassy aroma emerges almost immediately.

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Toasted Coconut Custard Tart

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (16)

Vongerichten loves this tart from his friend Maya Gurley of Maya's Restaurant in St. Bart's. The soft custard filling and the caramelized shredded coconut topping have the creamy-crunchy texture of a coconut macaroon. He serves it with a Kiwi, Banana, and Passion Fruit Salad.

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Red Wine Risotto with Mushroom "Marmalade"

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (17)

An intensely fruity wine like an Amarone boils down to something so rich, it's almost meaty. Vongerichten reduces the Italian red with thin slices of earthy mushrooms, then swirls the purply sauce into a risotto.

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Lemongrass Chicken

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (18)

This is a good place to start experimenting with fresh spices: The pungent paste is incredibly easy to make, even though it needs a couple of hours to fully flavor the chicken.

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Spinach-Shiitake Bread Puddings

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (19)

Vongerichten's ramekin-sized treats are a nice touch for any brunch spread. Bake and broil the earthy, cheesy bread pudding in an hour and a half.

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Grilled Hen-of-the-Woods Mushrooms with Sesame

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (20)

"Hen-of-the-woods are often shredded and sautéed, but when you cook them whole, they become crispy outside and meaty and moist inside," Vongerichten says of his preferred method of preparing the coral-like mushroom. "I'm a purist when it comes to beautiful ingredients, so serving the mushrooms in big clusters keeps them the way they grow in the woods."

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Dark-Chocolate Pudding with Candied Ginger

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (21)

"For me, ginger should be everywhere," says Vongerichten, who garnishes dark-chocolate pudding with candied ginger. "It's as good in marinades and vinaigrettes as it is in dessert."

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Steamed Bass with Onion, Ginger and Scallion

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (22)

Versions of this steamed fish are made all over China, and in Shanghai the recipe always contains a little aged soy sauce. When Vongerichten adapted the dish for his former restaurant, 66, he couldn't find aged soy in New York, so added caramelized onions for sweetness and depth of flavor.

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Kumquat Mojitos

23 Jean-Georges Vongerichten Recipes (23)

Classic mojitos are made with rum, muddled mint, and limes; Vongerichten keeps things interesting by swapping the limes for tart kumquats and kalamansi concentrate, the frozen juice of the sour Asian citrus fruit.

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