“For 10 years, when I was first coming up as a chef, [molten lava cake] was on every single menu in the country,” says Peter Serpico of Serpico in Philadelphia. At the time, he was cooking at two of the only places where it wasn’t, New York’s Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ko. Serpico was bowled over that it was so simple and yet so good. “I fell even more head-over-heels in love when I found out it was a mistake,” he says.