30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (2025)

Becoming a well-rounded cook starts with learning a broad base of fundamentals. With a firm grasp of the basics and some practice under your belt, you can begin to get creative, putting your own unique spin on essential recipes. Tackling more involved dishes will become more fun and less daunting once you know your way around the kitchen, and staple recipes provide practice with classic techniques. We've curated these classic recipes to serve as a springboard; from juicy roast chicken to rich beef stew and creamy risotto, this is a selection of classic dishes that every cook should know how to make well. If you'd like to specifically tackle French cuisine, check out this collection, too.

01of 30

French Rolled Omelet

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (1)

Eggs are the perfect, and often affordable, way to teach proper cooking technique. There’s cracking the eggs correctly; having a place to toss the shells; the best tool used to beat them; the type and quantity of seasoning added before, during, and after cooking; how to heat a pan; when to add the fat; all the visual, aural, aromatic clues of coagulating protein; the essentials of proper presentation; and on and on and on. Cooks are often asked to cook an omelet when they stage at restaurants, and food editor Mary-Frances Heck shares her recipe that's passed the test.

Get the Recipe

02of 30

Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (2)

For these exquisitely flaky biscuits, make sure to do two things: Use lots of cold butter and chill the dough before baking it. They emerge from the oven deliciously golden.

Get the Recipe

03of 30

Quiche Lorraine

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (3)

Crisp bacon bits and Gruyère cheese flavor this rich and creamy classic quiche, which is encased in a flaky butter-based crust. The secret to the quiche's super-silky texture is the small amount of sour cream whisked into the eggs. Be sure to use pie weights or baking beans when you blind-bake the crust, so it holds its shape and doesn't shrink in the oven.

Get the Recipe

04of 30

French Toast

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (4)

Cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter make this easy French toast recipe a winner.

Get the Recipe

05of 30

Club Sandwich

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (5)

This triple-decker sandwich with turkey, bacon, lettuce, and tomato is a classic for a good reason.

Get the Recipe

06of 30

Fresh Pasta Dough

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (6)

Perfect your fresh pasta dough and unlock the key to a lifetime of incredible pasta dishes, from golden-hued fettuccine noodles to ravioli and tortellini. This recipe includes three methods for making it: by hand, with a food processor, or using a stand mixer.

Get the Recipe

07of 30

Classic Cheese Pizza

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (7)

This recipe turns simple into sublime with the addition of an exceptional pizza dough, low-moisture mozzarella cheese, and an easy-to-make tomato sauce that hits all of the right sweet and savory notes to marry all of the flavors in this pie. A simple garnish of fresh herbs, and you've got perfection on a plate.

Get the Recipe

08of 30

Caesar Salad

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (8)

Just a handful of ingredients come together to make a robust, well-balanced salad. This recipe stays true to the original version of Caesar salad, with crunchy romaine leaves, toasty croutons, and a savory dressing made with anchovies and garlic. A little help from Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice deepens the complexity of the dressing, while a generous scattering of shaved Parmesan makes the dish more substantial.

Get the Recipe

09of 30

Mashed Potatoes, Kind of Robuchon-Style

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (9)

Chef Joël Robuchon was famous worldwide for his super-silky, rich, light, and buttery mashed potatoes. This is Anthony Bourdain’s version of those potatoes.

Get the Recipe

10of 30

Classic Beef Chili

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (10)

This is a great classic chili to keep in your back pocket. Fresh poblano, toasty ancho chile powder, oregano, and beer come together to make a flavorful bowl. Serve it alongside tortilla chips or cornbread and shredded cheddar, slices of fresh jalapeño and radishes, chopped scallions, and sour cream.

Get the Recipe

11of 30

Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (11)

For this classic beef stew, chef Jacques Pépin uses a special piece of the shoulder called the flatiron steak. This long, narrow cut is extremely lean, tender, and moist, and it makes an ideal stew. He does not use stock, demi-glace, or even water; he makes his stew strictly with a robust red wine. This is a fantastic winter dish.

Get the Recipe

12of 30

Julia Child's Favorite Roast Chicken

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (12)

Julia Child's chicken recipe is a lesson in simplicity and technique, yielding a flavorful, perfectly cooked bird you'll want to make again and again.

Get the Recipe

13of 30

Classic Pot Roast

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (13)

Grace Parisi's incredible classic pot roast recipe is the perfect version of this quintessential comfort food, with braised chuck eye roast, carrots, potatoes, and sautéed mushrooms, and buttered egg noodles.

Get the Recipe

14of 30

Classic Panna Cotta

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (14)

This recipe yields a perfectly soft-set panna cotta with just the right amount of wobble. Fresh vanilla bean seeds perfume the base mixture, while creamy buttermilk adds a balancing tang.

Get the Recipe

15of 30

Creamy Tomato Soup with Buttery Croutons

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (15)

This quick, easy tomato soup is comfort in a bowl, especially when it's topped with brown butter croutons.

Get the Recipe

Shrimp in Garlic Sauce

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (16)

Based on a popular Spanish tapa, this dish is delicious enough to serve as a main course. You just sauté the shrimp in garlicky, spicy olive oil and then toss them with sherry, lemon juice, and a handful of parsley. The shrimp are equally good hot or at room temperature.

Get the Recipe

17of 30

Pork Fried Rice

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (17)

This Japanese-style pork fried rice from 2000 F&W Best New Chef Takashi Yagihashi was his favorite childhood after-school snack. It comes together in just 25 minutes, thanks to the inclusion of quick-cooking Chinese barbecued pork.

Get the Recipe

18of 30

Potato Gnocchi with Butter and Cheese

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (18)

Baked — not boiled — potatoes are the key to this fluffy potato gnocchi recipe.

Get the Recipe

19of 30

Bouillabaisse

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (19)

Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s bouillabaisse starts with a quick-cooking, but deeply flavored, seafood broth. Layering a base of aromatics with fresh snapper, scallops, shrimp, and a mix of Pernod and dry white wine creates a long-simmered flavor in under an hour. Be sure to use shell-on shrimp; those shells add flavor and body to the stock.

Get the Recipe

20of 30

Cobb Salad with Roasted Sweet Onion Dressing

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (20)

Arrange shredded chicken, blue cheese, tomatoes, cooked bacon pieces, buckwheat sprouts, corn kernels, and toasted pecans over the top of a bowl of fresh mixed greens, and dress with a roasted garlic and onion vinaigrette.

Get the Recipe

21of 30

Classic Cheeseburgers

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (21)

"When I started cooking, a juicy, cooked-to-perfection burger was on my top 10 list of things to ace," says cookbook author Dennis Prescott. "This recipe is for a classic, diner-style burger with all my favorite toppings. Adding a mustard layer to the beef before frying creates the most delicious crust — you’ll be an immediate convert."

Get the Recipe

22of 30

Classic Southern Fried Chicken

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (22)

A dredge in flour and seasoned salt and pepper delivers a subtle zing to this fried chicken with savory, crackling skin and meltingly juicy meat.

Get the Recipe

23of 30

Classic Chicken Stock

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (23)

This stock is perfect for making sauces, gravies, braises and soups.

Get the Recipe

24of 30

Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (24)

Spaghetti and meatballs is a crowd-pleasing classic Italian-American dish. The mixture of beef, veal, and pork makes the meatballs really flavorful.

Get the Recipe

25of 30

Herb-Roasted Spatchcock Chicken

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (25)

Chef Tyler Florence of Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco gets as much crispiness as possible when roasting chicken by spatchcocking, or butterflying — removing the backbone and flattening the bird so that more of the skin is exposed to direct heat.

Get the Recipe

26of 30

Pan-Roasted Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (26)

Grape tomatoes sautéed with capers, shallot, and cumin form a bright, chunky sauce for seared salmon. This recipe is from Ted Allen's cookbook, The Food You Want to Eat.

Get the Recipe

27of 30

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (27)

These made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies take less than half an hour, start to finish.

Get the Recipe

28of 30

Macaroni and Three Cheeses

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (28)

When legendary athlete Michael Jordan and chef David Walzog were working on the menu for his eponymous steakhouse in Manhattan, Jordan insisted on including macaroni and cheese. White cheddar, gorgonzola, and Parmesan make this deluxe breadcrumb-topped version sing.

Get the Recipe

29of 30

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (29)

From one deeply flavorful chicken broth, former F&W editor Grace Parisi creates four exceptional soups. Chicken noodle is a classic comfort food, warming in the winter and soothing for some.

Get the Recipe

30of 30

Whole Roast Fish with Lemon and Herbs

30 Classic Recipes for Your Repertoire (30)

Designer and blogger Athena Calderone often prepares this whole roast fish for her family on Christmas Day — it makes a dramatic centerpiece for a holiday meal. Like the rest of her menu, it tastes fresh and bright, thanks to a double hit of herbs.

Get the Recipe