Baked Endive with Ham

This classic of la cuisine grandmère did not come to Cakebread Cellars via anyone’s French grandmother. We learned it from Rich Collins, who introduced endive to the United States when he began cultivating it commercially in California in the 1980s, as a young man barely out of college. Naturally, he calls his product California endive, not Belgian endive, and he has almost single-handedly built an American audience for this shapely chicory. We have watched Rich’s company, California Vegetable Specialties, grow exponentially, and we use his flawless endives year round in hors d’oeuvres and salads. Make endives au jambon—braised endives wrapped with ham and baked in béchamel sauce—on a blustery winter night, and bring it straight to the table in its baking dish.