Top 10 recipes of 1997:

Note: Charity Ferreira’s love affair with creme fraiche began when she tasted it as a topping on a brownie at a Paris restaurant when she was 18.

Note: We have former Times Test Kitchen intern May Parich to thank for getting her mom, Surapee, into our kitchen.

Note: We love pies.

Note: When Sacramento restaurateur and cookbook author Mai Pham and her family arrived in the United States in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, beef noodle soup (pho bo) was one of the things they desperately missed.

Note: This is the second recipe from Surapee Parich, mother of former Times Test Kitchen intern May Parich.

Note: Each year before Thanksgiving, we print our tried-and-true turkey recipes.

Note: In the risotto chapter of his new cookbook, “A Passion for Piedmont” (Morrow, 1997), Matt Kramer stresses the simplicity of risotto, and none exemplifies this simplicity better than the Lemon Risotto, which we excerpted from his book in October.

Note: We believe in using fresh, seasonal ingredients, as do the country’s best chefs.

Total time: 45 minutes 4 baking potatoes, peeled 1 large onion, grated 1 tablespoon lemon juice 4 eggs 3 tablespoons flour Pinch baking soda 1 teaspoon salt Freshly ground black pepper Oil Grate potatoes using food processor or fine shredder.

Note: Novelist and frequent Food section contributor Michelle Huneven got hooked on gorditas in Guanajuato, Mexico, and brought her obsession home with her, single-mindedly perfecting the art of making the “little fatties” and throwing gordita parties.