Peter Glatz

When you live in a school bus, without the amenities of central heat or AC, you become closely aligned with the changes of the seasons. When days are long and the weather is hot, I try to keep the heat out of the bus kitchen and plan my meals around what I can cook outdoors. […]

For the past six months one of my jobs at the restaurant has been making pasta from scratch using freshly milled flour from heritage grain, and the taste is really superior. But unfortunately, many of our guests can’t tolerate gluten so I always make gluten-free alternatives using rice flour and chickpea flour. I’ve worked with […]

The restaurant I’ve been working at serves over 200 guests a day and we go through a lot of vegetables. When the produce orders come in, our prep cook, Alberto, trims off the parts that won’t be used and transfers them into plastic boxes to be put on the shelves of the walk-in cooler. The […]

In early 2020, Nick Kokanas saw the coronavirus catastrophe coming way before the rest of us did. Kokonas is the founder of Tock, an online reservation platform utilized by many high-end restaurants around the world. While looking at Tock data coming in from his 50 restaurant clients in Hong Kong, “we saw reservations go near […]

I know quite a bit about the cuisines of Western Europe, the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia. I’ve studied the celebrated food culture of the American South (which was predominately the culinary influence of enslaved Africans). But I realize that I know next to nothing about the food culture of the Indigenous people who inhabited North […]

My love of bacon has been my biggest deterrent to embracing full-out vegetarianism. When I was attending the University of Illinois College of Dentistry, I had an apartment in Oak Park, home to 25 Frank Lloyd Wright structures. In the early morning I’d go for a run through the historic Frank Lloyd Wright District, and […]

I share a long butcher block work station at Minneapolis’ Spoon and Stable restaurant with Alexandra Motz, executive pastry chef. One of the first people to befriend me when I started my new job, Alex’s appearance is quite striking to say the least. With tattooed arms, stretched ear lobes, a nose ring and hair dyed […]

I’m currently reading Daniel Boulud’s Letters To A Young Chef, a manual written to help neophyte chefs understand what it takes to succeed in this tough profession. Daniel Boulud is one of the world’s most celebrated chefs and restaurateurs. The book was recommended to me by Boulud’s protégé, Gavin Kaysen, who is currently my boss. […]

During the Vietnam War, the CIA ran a clandestine sideshow in Laos. Known as the Secret War, it was the largest CIA operation in history. The CIA built an air base in the mountains of Laos from which it could launch military attacks. This base was so secret that not even Congress was aware of […]

My earliest grilling memory dates back to Brat Day, an annual summer tradition in the neighborhood where I grew up. Once a year my dad and I would drive to Sheboygan, nearly 150 miles away, to bring back coolers full of Sheboygan bratwurst for the neighborhood. This was back in the 60s when regional specialty […]

It’s been fiercely hot here the last few days, and when the sun bears down on the metal roof of the school bus that we call home, the temperature inside often tops 100 degrees. On days like these, I try to minimize putting any more heat into the bus while making dinner. These cold Asian-inspired […]

I’ve always dreamed of opening up my own restaurant. The problem is, I’ve never liked running a business. I loved being a dentist, but I hated being a business owner. In my second career as a chef, I’ve loved the restaurant work, but I acknowledge that I’d suck at being a restaurant owner. The kind […]