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"People think soup sounds boring and that they've had it a million times," says Naomi Pomeroy. "I love that element of surprise when guests realize there's a lot of intrigue in the bowl." At her dinner party-esque restaurant, Beast, in Portland, Oregon, the chef starts most meals with a small bowl of soup. She created this wonderful dish as a way to use up leftovers when she was serving a celery heart and leaf salad. "I had these giant celery ribs lying around, and it was so wasteful; I thought back to the cans of Campbell's cream of celery soup I saw as a kid." Pomeroy's version has bright celery flavor; she stirs in a little crème fraîche and garnishes it with tiny bacon croutons and a splash of lemon olive oil. "This is a dish that changes people's minds about celery," Pomeroy adds. "I like to think they'll say, 'At my next dinner party, I'm making celery soup.'"