Perfect Oven Fries

And the dream of a vegetarian steakhouse.

Last summer, I was reading The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook obsessively. I was nostalgic for that great moment in recent culinary history when even a portobello mushroom was new, when Balsamic glaze hadn’t been played out, when sundried tomatoes were all the rage—and the book delivered, and I realized, so did the flavors. And so “vegetarian steakhouse” became…