Chef Tony Maws's sweet little restaurant with its superseasonal menus is a bit of a secret—and that's just how he likes it.

Tony Maws passed up a cooking stint at Marc Veyrat's Michelin three-star L'Auberge de l'Éridan in the French Alps two years ago in favor of a turn at Larivoire, an unknown one-star place outside Lyon. To Maws, this unprepossessing restaurant with a market-based menu passed down from father to son was a revelation. Today, Maws's market-based Craigie Street Bistrot in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is also a bit of a secret. Maws has only a few hours each day to write a new menu using what his farmers have delivered to his door that morning, so his food is quite simple. But it's exceptional nonetheless. The following recipes show how Maws renews classic French cooking with lots of herbs and unexpected ingredients, like radish greens and sorrel.

Published July 2003