Peter Glatz

Because everything in a restaurant kitchen requires labeling with masking tape and a black marker, a Sharpie is a permanent fixture in my apron pocket. However, I used to constantly lose them to co-workers who would borrow my Sharpie and never return it. I eventually solved this problem by swapping my black marker’s cap for […]

Roasting food on a skewer is a universal tradition with cultural significance dating back to the dawn of human culinary history. Nearly every culture has crafted its own version, from central Asian kebabs and Middle Eastern dishes to Greek souvlaki, Italian spiedini, Japanese yakitori and Southeast Asian satays, highlighting its deep-rooted importance worldwide. Long before […]

Growing up in a home with a Teutonic heritage, I was exposed to turnips at a young age and developed a strong aversion to them. To my youthful senses, they smelled like skunk and tasted even worse. Finding them in a pot of corned beef and cabbage was enough to spoil the entire meal for […]

I just picked up my first bunch of local asparagus at the farmers’ market. In anticipation of grilling outside, I made a batch of romesco sauce. A staple of Spanish cuisine, romesco sauce is a traditional condiment from Catalonia in the northeast. Although it is now famously associated with calçots – tender spring onions roasted […]

This week’s column is dedicated to a deeply caring connection: women and their “kids” (a pun very much intended). The late 1970s marked a period of two parallel cultural movements in the U.S. This intensely creative era fundamentally changed the way America works and what America eats. While the personal computer was being invented in […]

The onset of spring brings with it a shift in what we do in restaurant kitchens. The season marks our departure from the heavy root vegetables of winter to fresh, vibrant produce. Following months of quiet dormancy, the emergence of foraged treasures like morel mushrooms and ramps, followed by locally grown asparagus, changes our menu […]

Now in my third year at Champaign’s Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery, I stay busy working at Caprae, our farm-to-table restaurant, and teaching culinary classes in our new education facility. Recently, I have also begun spending my Saturday mornings assisting at the Salt Fork Food Works Food Hub back home in Springfield. A few weeks […]

One of the most rewarding aspects of travel is discovering local culinary traditions – those storied techniques and heritage dishes that I would love to weave into my own kitchen repertoire. Every trip is a research and development project. This past autumn, a winning bid at a school fundraiser bought us a week in a […]

Confit and rillettes are two traditional methods of food preservation. Dating back to ancient civilizations, these methods originated as a preservation practice before the advent of refrigeration. They both involve slowly cooking meat in its own rendered fat. By submerging the food under a layer of fat, an anaerobic environment was created, effectively preventing spoilage […]