Fries

In chef Kelly English's Southern twist on Canadian poutine, the fries are topped with spicy pimento cheese, andouille gravy and crawfish, crab or shrimp.

Made with starchy baking potatoes—flavored with garlic, fresh herbs and Pecorino Romano cheese—and tossed with just a little extra-virgin olive oil, these fries emerge from the oven crisp and delicious.

Austin is loaded with food trucks, and the Korean-Mexican-Texan mash-up that is Chi’Lantro is one of chef Aarón Sanchez's favorites. For his famous late-night snack, Chi’Lantro chef and owner Jae Kim tops hot french fries with caramelized kimchi, grilled Korean-style beef and a mayonnaise spiked with Sriracha.

These ultra-crispy fries are a favorite at Proof on Main in Louisville, where Michael Paley goes through roughly 500 Idaho potatoes a week making them. Use very firm potatoes to ensure optimum crispness.

Gerald Hirigoyen tosses wedges of fried Yukon Gold potatoes with plenty of Piment d'Espelette, a smoky Basque chile powder, to give the crispy potatoes a slightly spicy kick.

The Peninsula flavors its sweet potato fries with furikake, a Japanese seasoning made from salt, sesame seeds and nori that the restaurant spikes with chile or hot paprika. If you can't find furikake (sold at Asian markets), substitute chipotle chile powder.

Scott Dolich serves these crisp-outside-tender-inside jumbo fries with homemade pumpkin ketchup, but they're also wonderful on their own. He spikes the fries with sambal oelek, a bright red Southeast Asian chile sauce available at Asian markets.

To take his french fries over the top, chef Jonathon Sawyer broils them with a tequila-spiked pimento cheese topping. It’s wonderfully decadent melted into the fries and also excellent as a dip.

Skin-on potatoes, like the ones used for these crispy, low-fat fries, are high in vitamin C and potassium; they're also a good source of dietary fiber and vitamin B.

Jonathon Sawyer is something of a french fry expert: There are never fewer than three kinds on the menu at the Greenhouse Tavern. This version, tossed with chopped garlic and herbs, is his most straightforward. At the restaurant, he serves the fries with garlicky aioli.

These fries have a cult following at The Breslin. Boiling makes the potatoes tender; double-frying makes them insanely crispy.