Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Burgers and fries.
Eggs Benedict.
Grand Marnier souffle.
Dumplings in their many variations.

And I'm sure there'll be LOT more.

Peking Duck
Bananas Foster
BBQ Chicken
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Reuben Sandwich
Wedge Salad
Osso Buco
Crispy Beef Tacos
Egg Foo Young
Ham and Eggs
Fish and Chips

I could go on for days. I have been trying to perfect the recipes and flavours that I grew up with and enjoyed:

cornish pasties
proper fish and chips - we used to sneak off to the F&C shop as teenagers and came home smelling like fish and chips...the ones wrapped in greaseproof paper and newspaper.
pork pies - I'm always trying to make a decent one.
cabbage rolls (my family doesn't like so I don't get to enjoy them)
REAL bangers (my quest is trying to mix that perfect banger seasoning of mace, sage, etc, and to grind my own sausage for bangers)
Tourtierre - meat pies in any fashion with brown gravy.
My dad's fried rice
My dad's sausage, sage and onion stuffing
Victoria sandwich
Toad in a hole

Most other American dishes, I can recreate successfully. But it is so hard to recreate the British dishes I grew up on. I try and try!!

Duh...sushi and carpaccio, of course!

chicken soup
pizza
mom's Viennese stuffing
lescho
apple pie
mac and cheese
campbells tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwich
red velvet cake
turkey
caesar salad

What do you mean by 'classics?'--Food that a chef or cook should be 'judged' by, comfort food, general American or regional classics, or nostalgia food that tastes as good now as it did 'back then'--or can't be replicated?

@HeartofGlass - I was thinking, I supposed 'American or regional classics' would overlap that of nostalgia foods, so I meant both of them. Basically food that had been passed down for generations. Pie is a good example.

@Gregory--gotcha! Although lots of those types of nostalgia foods tended to taste better 'back then' because of better ingredients/more care in making them (pie, cookies, donuts, biscuits come to mind--not that people don't make awesome versions, but there seems to be less consistent goodness in the stuff I've encountered). And maybe because tastes have changed and gotten a bit lighter.

Or they taste 'better now' because of fresher ingredients, new approaches--like wholesome peanut butter and expensive jelly, most cuisines formerly called 'ethnic' cuisines, and so forth.

I'm trying to go vintage here:
My Gram's pie crusts made with Whirl shortening. When they discontinued it, she went into a deep funk.
Gram's beef, barley and vegetable soup. I have the recipe, but it's not the same.
Pickled shoestring beets
Mom's creamed chicken and biscuits
Home fries cooked in bacon fat with cut-up hot dogs.
ANYTHING cooked in bacon fat :-)

Scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and fried mush (which is what we now call polenta, but made with white cornmeal instead of yellow.)

chicken and dumplin's
New England boiled dinner
New England clam chowdah
pot roast
meatloaf and mashed potatoes
lasagne
spaghetti & meatballs
sausages/peppers & onions
chicken cutlets/parm
ratatouille
beef stew
beef stroganoff
chicken pot pie
strawberry shortcake
apple pie w/vanilla ice cream
brownie sundaes
turkey dinner with all the fixin's -- old style (nothing fancy-shmancy)
cornbeef hash
french toast and bacon

oh lord, I could go on and on and on and on.....

MMM SUSHI!

My dad had a limited repitoire when I was growing up but what he did make was damn good:
-bacon and egg scramble with Nesquik to drink
-egg salad, still warm from the just boiled eggs
-French toast
-buttered waffle w/ syrup (he would put the butter on right away so it got nice and melty
-enormous pancakes
My mom used to make
-"cigars" ( a slice of ham rolled around mayo and a bread and butter pickle)
-manicotti
-stuffed peppers- ground beef, minute rice, broken up white bread, cooked in tomato soup based sauce
-chicken nuggets with honey and sweet and sour sauce for dipping
-cake-devils food cake with sour cream, choc chips, and instant pudding mixed into the batter, and white buttercream frosting. (I still request this for my birthday)
-Antipasto with salami, provolone,artichoke hearts, pepperoni, caponata, olives, roasted peppers
-macaroni salad with shrimp mayo and hard boiled eggs
Chinese takeout - wonton soup, egg roll, moo shu pork, egg foo young, chicken with broccili, dim sum.

Fresh baked bread
cabbage rolls
pirogies
Spatetzel
one pot meat stews -- paprikash, stroganoff, etc.
beef vegetable soup
mom's spaghetti
meatloaf
baked chicken

Ohh, I forgot:

Chocolate Cream Pie
Strawberry Shortcake - the angel cake version
Fried chicken
Potato salad

There. Done.

@KtMc24 - We were separated at birth! I forgot all of the wonderful stuff my Mom made that I never gave her credit for! Now I have to re-invent these specialties! Thanks for a kick in the noggin.

Childhood memory list:
Banana cake
Split pea soup with homemade croutons
Peach cobbler
Cream of mushroom soup (real is better, but I'll eat the condensed stuff too)

Foodie list:
Choux paste (I was so excited to find out it's really not hard to do)
Yorkshire pudding (never made it, but love it)