The love of macaroni and cheese has led me to experiment with different kinds of recipes, from the easy three-ingredient type incorporating evaporated milk, to those with the inclusion of eggs for a more custardy situation, to the likes of Balthazar's macaroni gratin (which, unexpectedly, convinced me that macaroni and cheese doesn't need bacon). The only style of macaroni and cheese that I have trouble getting behind is the pasta-in-a-slick-and-shiny-Velveeta-type-sauce variety I find the gluey factor a little off-putting, but if that's your thing, all due respect to you. I will eat it at a fancy restaurant (probably with lobster in it, which is absurd, but I will absolutely eat it), I will eat it at pretty much any restaurant that puts it on the menu (and please do), I will eat it from a grocery-store deli counter (would 100% right now, actually), I will eat it frozen from Trader Joe's (surprisingly decent, and made with cheddar, havarti, Gouda and Swiss), I will eat it from a box, etc. Personally, I like most every kind of mac and cheese: Give it to me (please), and I will eat it, and I will be happy. In this celebration of gluten and dairy, everybody should be a winner (except those unable to partake, and sorry!). The title of the following recipe - 'The Actual Best Macaroni and Cheese' - clearly indulges in hyperbole, for the actual best macaroni and cheese is, of course, made the way you like it most. I'm here as a macaroni-and-cheese lover, not a macaroni-and-cheese fighter.

The best mac & cheese recipe ever