Test Kitchen : gourmet.com

Every month we’re giving two cooks in the Gourmet Test Kitchen an ingredient and asking them to create two dishes each—one savory and one sweet. You vote to determine who wins.

For our fourth challenge, Kay Chun and Melissa Roberts take on eggplant.

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After honing her skills at Manhattan’s Le Cirque and Montrachet, Kay added her own jewel to the New York restaurant scene in 2004, when she opened Share, an East Village restaurant where she served as chef-owner. In 2008, she joined Gourmet’s test kitchen, where she continues to seek out any cooking and dining adventure, big or small.

Eggplant is the unexpected star of this mouthwatering sandwich, a marriage of two New Orleans classics—the po’ boy and the muffuletta. It’s battered, fried, and piled high with a cool, crunchy relish of olives, fresh vegetables, and pickled eggplant.

Eggplant surprisingly transforms into a fig-like preserve with notes of apple and pear. The foolproof biscuit dough, a perfect vehicle to carry the sweet fruit filling, takes just minutes to put together. A touch of Armagnac makes the doughnuts extra special.

A former cook and food stylist in the Food Network kitchen, Melissa now splits her time inventing dishes for Gourmet and spending spare time at home, where she takes care of her two little boys, two cats, two goldfish, and her husband.

Once you slice through the silky flesh to reveal a fragrantly seasoned lamb and rice stuffing, this deceptively simple one-dish dinner is absolutely luscious and satisfying.

Eggplant and dessert don’t exactly go hand in hand. Yet in the depths of its soul, eggplant is a fruit that cooks up like an apple or a pear. So why not turn it into a classic French tarte Tatin? It’s a sexy dessert that puts the night back into nightshade.