Cook This: 3 recipes from Mary’s Comfort Classics, including pickle dip

Our cookbook of the week is Mary’s Comfort Classics by Mary Berg.

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Jump to the recipes: pickle dip, cheddar Ritz chicken and tall ‘n’ tasty cake.

“Food has always been comfort for me,” says cookbook author and TV host Mary Berg. “Whether you’ve had a great day, a bad day, life is handing you a bunch of malarkey, food is kind of the one thing, every single day, that you can get right. And even if it goes wrong, you can still fix it — or, like, have a chocolate bar.”

Comfort has been a consistent theme for Berg — after all, it’s the subject of the lengthiest and longest-living entry in her Notes app. Her new cookbook, Mary’s Comfort Classics (Appetite by Random House, 2026), made it tangible.

While the definition of comfort food is far from universal, its soothing presence in our lives is, says Berg. Mary’s Comfort Classics is her fourth book, and she’s glad she wrote it at this point in her career. There are plenty of cheesy carbs — and a chapter called “Starch City” — but Berg felt free to widen her definition beyond the North American comfort staples. She jokes that she can spin any recipe into a comfort recipe.

“(If I’d written the book earlier), I think I wouldn’t have had the confidence to attempt to convince readers that a salad can be comforting, and a big old pile of vegetables can be super-stinking comforting. And I’m really happy that that’s where it all landed. It feels like it’s the most full version of where I am right now.”

Comfort can mean butter tart croissants, Welsh rarebit — “a.k.a. cheesy toast” — and pickle dip, but it could also signify having to make fewer decisions in a day, Berg highlights. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing. Life is really hard, and all the things that are supposed to make it easier seem to not make it easier. So, I want to be able to eliminate steps. Be the pal in the kitchen.”

Berg’s culinary career kicked off after winning Season 3 of MasterChef Canada in 2016. Even as a student, well before she was developing recipes and became the host of The Good Stuff with Mary Berg and a judge on the show she won a decade ago, Berg says she experienced decision fatigue.

“If I had so much on my plate, I would just turn into a deer in headlights and not be able to do anything. And so narrowing things down, streamlining things — and I think I’ve continued to do that with my recipes — has been a real push for me because it makes me so happy when people tell me that they hated cooking, and my recipes make them like cooking again.”

She had fun creating recipes for the book — “make it tonight-able but not boring or basic.” Streamlined is her goal, but engaging is part of the process. “It will ask you to put in effort because I am a big tryer, and I think trying is awesome. But it’s not going to make you hate me at the end of it,” says Berg, laughing.

Through her cookbooks and shows, Berg hopes to be a support system. “I want to be the Alfred to your Batman. I just want to be there to help you do your thing,” she says.

“It would be amazing if everybody cooked all of the things that I develop. But I want you to feel like you can do it. Truly, the main realistic goal is that after you read the recipe, after you see me make a recipe, you feel in yourself, ‘I could do that.’ Because that feels good.”

Makes: about 2 cups

For the dip:
1/2 cup grated dill pickles
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For serving:
4 Greek pitas
Canola oil
Kosher salt

Place the grated pickles in a sieve lined with paper towel and set over the sink to drain.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon zest, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, dill and chives.

Gather the paper towel up around the pickles and firmly squeeze to remove as much moisture as possible. Add the pickles to the yogurt mixture and stir well to combine. Season to taste with salt and lots of pepper and set aside in the fridge.

For serving, cut each pita into eight wedges. Pour about 1/2 inch of oil into a large heavy-bottomed pot and place over medium heat. When the oil is hot and bubbles form around a wooden spoon when submerged in the oil, add the pitas in batches and fry until golden on both sides, flipping once. Transfer the fried pitas to a sheet pan lined with a rack and continue frying until all are crisp and golden brown. Scatter the hot pitas with salt. Allow the pitas to cool slightly, then serve with the dip. If you like, you can garnish the dip with dill, pepper and a pickle.

Note: For the real pickle enthusiasts, skip the fried pitas and serve this dip with some crinkle-cut dill pickle potato chips.

Serves: 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
40 Ritz crackers
1 cup grated cheddar
1/2 cup ground Parmesan
1/2 tsp garlic powder
8 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 425F (220C) and grease a large sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Butterfly the chicken breasts and pound to a scant 1/2 inch thick. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a shallow dish or pie plate, beat the eggs, mayonnaise and Dijon.

Crush the crackers to a fine crumb and transfer to a separate shallow dish or pie plate. Stir in the cheddar, Parmesan and garlic powder, then pour in the butter and stir well to evenly combine.

Working with one piece at a time, dip the chicken in the egg mixture and then in the cracker coating, pressing well to adhere as much of the coating as possible. Transfer the coated chicken to the prepared sheet pan and continue with the remaining chicken pieces, leaving a few inches of space between each piece on the pan. Once all the chicken has been coated, scatter any remaining crumbs overtop.

Bake the chicken for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp and the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F (74C). Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes: one 9-by-13-inch cake

For the cake:
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp canola oil, divided
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup boiling water
3 tbsp cocoa powder

For the frosting:
3 1/2 oz (99 g) milk chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder, optional
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp chocolate sprinkles

For the cake, preheat your oven to 350F (177C) and lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk 1/2 cup of oil with the sugar and eggs. Whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir just until combined. Pour in the boiling water and carefully mix to combine. The mixture will be quite thin but that’s OK — this addition of boiling water makes for an incredibly moist and level cake.

In a medium bowl, whisk the cocoa powder with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Scoop about 2 cups of the vanilla cake batter into the cocoa mixture and whisk to combine.

Pour the remaining vanilla cake batter into the prepared pan and drizzle with the cocoa-infused batter. Using a butter knife, swirl the batters to achieve a marbled effect. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan.

While the cake cools, make the frosting. In a medium heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove the melted chocolate mixture from the heat and stir in the sour cream, vanilla, instant espresso powder, if using, and salt. Gradually beat in the icing sugar.

Leaving the cake in the pan, spread or pipe the frosting on the cake, then scatter with sprinkles. Serve immediately or cover the cake and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. For optimal texture, remove the cake from the fridge about 30 minutes before serving.

Recipes and images excerpted from Mary’s Comfort Classics by Mary Berg. Copyright ©2026 Mary Berg. Photographs by Kyla Zanardi. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

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