Nachos

These next level hot dog nachos from Food & Wine’s Paige McCurdy-Flynn are drizzled with sharp cheddar beer cheese that takes less than 2 minutes to cook in the microwave. Slideshow: More Nacho Recipes 

Celebrities: they’re just like us. And they love nachos. ¡Buenos Nachos! by Gina Hamadey (Dovetail 2016) collects nacho recipes from actors, musicians and celebrity chefs to demonstrate the surprising versatility of the cheese-on-chips model.Dessert nachos? Check. Breakfast nachos? We’ve got those, too. Check out the book for an extended love letter to this classic, and feast your eyes on a selection of beautiful nachos dreamed up by some of our favorite celebrities. —Hannah Walhout

Jorma Taccone, of the comedy trio The Lonely Island (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and writer-director Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) both grew up in the East Bay of San Francisco, but didn’t meet until they were in college at UCLA. The first time they were back home together, they headed out for a burrito, but fought about where to go. “We ended up at Ramiro and Sons, in Alameda, so I could convince him it’s the best,” says Heller. It only took her 15 years. “It hurts my heart to admit that I might like Ramiro more,” says Taccone, a diehard fan of Gordo’s in Berkeley. “My friends would kill me if they see that in print.” So what makes an East Bay burrito so great? Simple ingredients, says Heller, whose brother, Nate, has been helping them perfect this nacho recipe in homage. To mimic the way the tortillas are steamed with cheese, they bake cheese slices on tostadas before layering on the burrito ingredients. Heller, a lifelong vegetarian, skips the carnitas and swears it’s just as good. One important thing: “No fucking lettuce,” says Jorma.Slideshow: Outrageous NachosReprinted from ¡Buenos Nachos! by Gina Hamadey. Copyright © 2016 by W&P Design. Published by Dovetail (www.dovetail.press)

“Growing up in Southern California, nachos were something of a weekly craving,” says Tiffani Thiessen. The actress who played Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell and Valerie Malone on Beverly Hills, 90210 is now a food and entertaining personality with a show (Dinner at Tiffani’s) on the Cooking Channel. Here, she’s reimagined her childhood craving into a breakfast-worthy dish that tends to disappear “within three to four minutes after serving.”Slideshow: Outrageous NachosReprinted from ¡Buenos Nachos! by Gina Hamadey. Copyright © 2016 by W&P Design. Published by Dovetail (www.dovetail.press)

Georgia restaurateur and Top Chef judge Hugh Acheson believes that the weekend is for letting creativity dictate nachos. “Start by making some beer-braised beef short ribs,” Acheson says. “And fancy that, you made too many! With the leftovers, you will make nachos. In this idealized experience, you will frolic in the woods, foraging for ramps. You are dressed like a gnome, but nobody cares. You get back to the kitchen and have some pressure-cooked pintos all ready to go. Let’s build some nachos: Take the beef plus pintos plus jack cheese, pickled peppers, those ramps all charred and tasty and assemble it all over tasty white corn tortilla chips, which maybe you made yourself. That gets baked until crisp and gooey and melty, and then you get all Jackson Pollock when the crema comes out. You eat and drink a beer, all the while wearing that gnome uniform with pride.”Slideshow: Outrageous NachosReprinted from ¡Buenos Nachos! by Gina Hamadey. Copyright © 2016 by W&P Design. Published by Dovetail (www.dovetail.press)

Edward Lee—the Korean American chef of Louisville’s 610 Magnolia and MilkWood and author of the cookbook Smoke and Pickles—has long known what the rest of the country is just learning: Sweet-spicy-funky gochujang makes just about everything better. Here, he uses the Korean pantry staple in his beer-braised, chipotle-spiced beef chili and also mixes it into sour cream for extra umami and flavor. To make the nachos, he drapes the chile and creamy dip over tortilla chips, then adds crumbled cotija cheese and slices of fresh serrano peppers. “I eat nachos only a few times a year, so when I do, I want to make sure it’s worth it,” says Lee. “This recipe is not for the timid. It requires a long night, beers, whiskey and loud music.” Reprinted from ¡Buenos Nachos! by Gina Hamadey. Copyright © 2016 by W&P Design. Published by Dovetail (www.dovetail.press)