Chefs update recipes of favorite American dishes

Breakfast is a favorite American meal. Because room service and dining room breakfasts are so popular, hotel chefs take a special interest in it. Chef Gordon Maybury, of the elegant Peninsula Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, created a new take on pancakes by adding Italian ricotta cheese and fresh fruit to the batter. He serves them with vanilla butter and a flavorful apple butter he makes with dried apples.

In Fort Lauderdale, Chef Don Pintabona of the Atlantic Hotel created a series of breakfast flatbreads that are easy to eat and delicious. He wanted the breakfast menu at the hotel’s restaurant Trina to be as dramatic as the dining room view of the pool and ocean. One of his easy-to-make combinations is scrambled eggs, sliced red onions, and smoked salmon or lox. He recommends being creative and supplies a list of toppers and another of stir-ins, that is, ingredients to add to scrambled eggs as they are cooked. Chef Pintabona’s flatbread is freshly made, but he says toasted pita bread is also delicious.

Eggs Benedict, original and brand new

Chefs Don Pintabona, Gordon Maybury, and Marc Meyer, of the Five Points Restaurant in the NoHo (North of Houston Street) neighborhood in Manhattan, have adapted Eggs Benedict to modern tastes. Chef and cookbook author Meyer says, “When people go out for brunch, it seems they’re seized by an uncontrollable craving for that rich golden stuff called hollandaise sauce.”

Invented at Delmonico’s, a popular and posh 19 th- century restaurant in Manhattan, Eggs Benedict took its place alongside Delmonico potatoes (boiled or mashed potatoes topped with grated cheese and buttered bread crumbs, then baked) and the Delmonico steak, a boneless cut from the short loin. Rich food for the rich!

• Don Pintabona’s adaptation is poached eggs on crabmeat with a drizzle of orange syrup.
• On Fifth Avenue at the Peninsula Hotel, poached eggs are served on lobster and crab hash with truffled hollandaise.
• Chef Mark Meyer makes smoked salmon eggs benedict and serves them on a shredded potato pancake or toasted brioche.

The family breakfast.

Findings of a 2005 study commissioned by the American Dietetic Association show that children from families where breakfast is part of daily life do better in school and have fewer weight issues. What constitutes a healthy breakfast? Nutritionists recommend whole grain products, fruit, and dairy products such as milk or yogurt.