Cream Soup

This luscious, creamy cauliflower soup from star chef Anne Burrell gets a delicious topping of crispy roasted cauliflower and brussels sprouts.

Carrots and curry were born for each other and Michael Voltaggio's cold carrot salad with Thai flavors at Ink., in Los Angeles, is so superbly crafted that I thought about it for days after trying it. At home I don't do anything with liquid nitrogen or as many bells and whistles as Michael does in his restaurant, nor should you. That's the joy of dining out, to see what great chefs can do. On the home front, I love taking that inspiration and creating dishes like this one.

This silky-smooth pureed soup may sound like an Escoffier classic, but its taste is purely Tuscan. Chef Lauren Kiino, a firm believer in whole-vegetable cooking, uses more of the leek greens than any French chef would tolerate, for tons of gentle leek flavor. Kiino also stirs in a little creme fraiche. "But the Italian spirit is still the same," she says.

Creamy and cozy, this soup gets deep flavor from celery root, celery stalks and celery leaves. Spinach and parsley add color, while sourdough croutons give the soup a nice crunch.

This silky, vividly colored sweet pea puree is ideal for entertaining because it is delicious both warm and at room temperature; the soups and crisps can be made entirely ahead, and the tart Majorero cream can be melted just before serving.

Growing up in Italy's Marche region, Fabio Trabocchi roasted chestnuts in the fireplace to eat as a snack while playing cards with his family. At culinary school, he first transformed those chestnuts into this luscious soup. Incredibly creamy, it's best served in small cups as an hors d'oeuvre.

At his restaurant, Daniel Humm serves his wonderful sweet pea soup "cappuccino-style," with a topping of morel cream that's been frothed with an immersion blender. The recipe here simply calls for swirling the cream into the soup. Indeed, the cream is so intensely mushroomy, you may be tempted to eat it on its own.

Dean Fearing loves the holiday feel of butternut squash, especially when it's combined with ginger, as it is for his smooth, gently sweet soup. He tops it with whipped cream flecked with chopped pecans for a number of reasons: "Usually holiday soups have a dollop of cream--adding pecans gives it a dollop of flavor. And crunch. I think everything should have a little bit of crunch to it. Plus, this is Texas, and pecans are Texas."

With its all-American ingredients, this New England-style chowder is a comfort-food classic. The soup needs only bread, or traditional oyster crackers, as an accompaniment.

The corn and the clam perfectly complement each other in this delicious chowder recipe.

"I love that root vegetables are so rustic," says chef Marcus Samuelsson about this earthy, Indian-spiced soup. "I add pear and walnuts for sophistication and crunch." He says that if you can't find sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes), simply use all parsnips instead. The recipe is adapted from his book Marcus Off Duty.

Americans Braden Perkins and Laura Adrian have turned Hidden Kitchen (hkmenus.com), their Paris supper club, into a tiny (and still underground) restaurant with the same name. The lovely seasonal menu includes this silky soup.

This vegan pumpkin soup is incredibly creamy, thanks to the addition of coconut milk.