What dish would you cook if you wanted to impress someone with your cooking skills?

Filet mignon isn't too hard. We used to do it on the barbecue grill with charcoal, so it had incredible flavor. 7 minutes a side over a bed of white charcoal for filets 3" thick will give you rare, 8 minutes will give you medium rare and I wouldn't cook them any longer than that.

If you want to impress someone, melt some butter in a saucepan before you start the grill and put in fresh herbes de provence...or used dried if you can't find fresh. Crush black or green peppercorns in a plastic bag with your kitchen hammer, or grind very coarsely with your pepper grinder. Rub your filets all over with good olive oil, then crust them with the ground pepper. Press the pepper in slightly so it doesn't fall off the meat.

Make sure the meat is at room temperature before grilling, and make sure you let it rest 10 minutes when it comes off the grill before serving.

Just before you serve the meat, pour a nip of cognac over the filets and light them on fire in front of your guest. Let it burn for about 20 seconds, and then douse the flame with your melted butter and herbs.

This is called Filet Mignon au Poivre au Provencal.

To keep everything easy, make a VERY simple salad of crisp broken romaine lettuce with shavings of real parmesan cheese, and serve with a loaf of crusty french bread and butter.