Upgrading three favourite childhood comfort foods

Creamy mac and cheese, glazed meatloaf, stick-to-your-ribs mashed potatoes: all childhood favourites that impart comfort with a capital "C." Comfort foods are honest, simple and hearty, but that doesn't mean they can't benefit from the added luxury that high-quality ingredients impart.

Mac and cheese in its humblest form commands respect. Even the tangy psychedelic-yellow cheese powder included in the boxed mix was a magical thing: add hot milk and boom! Silky, hot cheese was born.

But now you can do better. Here's how:

1. Cook equal parts fat and flour over low heat in a saucepan until it turns blond. Add one cup of milk for each tablespoon of flour you used and simmer it all together until thickened.
2. Next, add cheese - a combination of equal parts Gruyere, Comte and Parmigiano-Reggiano. As a humbler alternative, you could also try using aged white cheddar.
3. Add a few cracks of freshly ground black pepper and stir into freshly cooked macaroni.
4. For an added touch, sprinkle panko breadcrumbs on top of the mac and cheese, dot with butter and bake in a 180° Celsius (about 350° Fahrenheit) oven until golden brown and crisp.

The humble meatloaf - nothing more than ground beef, a few aromatic ingredients and a ketchup glaze - inspires nostalgia on par with a Norman Rockwell painting.

But, as you might expect, it doesn't take much to upgrade meatloaf, and you certainly don't need to upgrade the beef. When beef is ground, the qualities that distinguish AA from AAA meat (tenderness, for example) are rendered irrelevant.

Here's how to give this classic comfort food a flavour upgrade:

1. Start with any tough cut of beef - the tougher the cut, the "beefier" the taste - and have a local butcher grind it for you.
2. Mix the ground beef with enough panade (day-old bread soaked in whole milk) to moisten the mixture.
3. Add the cooked aromatics of choice - fried shallots, roasted garlic, sauteed porcini mushrooms - and stir them in gently. Next, add egg yolks - 1/2 yolk at a time - until the mixture binds when formed into a ball.
4. Fill a loaf pan with the mixture and bake it in a 180°C (about 350°F) oven until the internal temperature measures 80°C (about 175°F).
5. While the meatloaf bakes, make the ketchup: reduce San Marzano tomatoes with sugar and spices to taste until it coats the back of a spoon.
6. Spread the ketchup on top of the meatloaf and continue baking until it caramelises.

Potatoes are the white crayons of cuisine: monotone, boring and disregarded. That is, until you do something amazing with them.

Enter beurre noisette mashed potatoes, the caramelised, creamy incarnation of a spud dressed in luxury.

Here's how to make this delicious dish:

1. Shred equal parts Russet and Yukon Gold. The first variety imparts starchy "meatiness" and the second variety tempers that meatiness into a paradoxical pleasure.
2. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and boil them until fork-tender.
3. While the potatoes boil, cook butter over low heat until brown and caramelised, then set it aside.
4. Also, while the potatoes are boiling, warm up some heavy cream over low heat.
5. Once they're ready, press the potatoes through a ricer or fine-mesh sieve and into a mixing bowl.
6. Stir the brown butter (beurre noisette) and warmed heavy cream into the potatoes to taste, all the while adding a pinch of salt here and there to balance the starch.

The next time you're feeling nostalgic for the comfort foods of childhood, give one of these upgrade recipes a try.

Whether it's the rich cheesiness of the upgraded mac and cheese, the enhanced beefiness and custom ketchup of the luxurious meatloaf, or the creamy nuttiness of the beurre noisette whipped potatoes, these recipes are unique twists on old favourites that might just become your new favourites.

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