''When you hear someone say, 'Wow, that was great,' about a dish like that, it's really rewarding,'' Mr. D'Amico said.

Mr. D'Amico and other top chefs serve greens with strong, complex preparations of meat, game, and fish. His broccoli rape with orange and anchovy, for example, is paired with a grilled chop and a mushroom risotto cake; at La Caravelle, squid is stuffed with wild rice and chard.

But greens can also be used in simple dishes. They can be a bed for simple grilled or sauteed fish or chicken, or a layer in a sandwich, with plenty of lemon juice. Cooked greens, thinned with water or stock, can be used -- with or without additions like garlic, raisins, pine nuts or anchovies -- as a sauce for pasta.

Almost needless to say, the most common method of cooking dark, leafy greens -- boiling them to death, until they are the texture, color and flavor of an Army blanket -- is the least advisable. But the opposite approach, a 1970's affectation that calls for steaming them until they are so-called crisp-tender, can be just as bad. Greens, like asparagus or pasta, should be cooked until tender -- no more, no less. Too little time yields woody, stubbornly chewy stems; too much time turns their flavor muddy and their texture mushy.

The most reliable cooking method is a brief immersion in boiling water; call it simmering, poaching, blanching or parboiling -- they all amount to the same thing. After a few minutes, greens become tender and bright, the signal that they are done. At that point, they can be served, or ''shocked'' -- plunged into ice water -- before including them in other recipes. One of the simplest and most appealing recipes begins with simmering and shocking and finishes with a quick dressing made of olive oil, lemon and a suspicion of garlic. How could anyone not like that?

This is not to say that simmering is the only suitable cooking method. As long as greens are young, with stems less than an eighth of an inch thick, they can be sauteed without any precooking. Braising works well for greens of any age, and since the greens absorb the flavors of the braising liquid, this is a wonderful technique. Greens braised in red wine, a recipe from Windows on the World chef, Michael Lomonaco, demonstrates this aptly. Mr. Siverson of Flavors even grills greens, then crumbles them into white beans cooked with garlic. And of course, when they are extremely young, any greens can be eaten raw.

Dark greens don't disappear into the background when seasoned, so it's important to choose those seasonings whose flavors offset the greens' stronger, often bitter taste. The choices begin with acidic liquids, like vinegar or lemon, lime or other citrus juices or zest, and continue with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, chilies, hot pepper sauce, olives, anchovies and so on.