We’ve been living in our converted school bus for two months and I have to confess it’s been quite a challenge trying to figure out how a family of two adults and a Jack Russell can live a rich and full life in a downsized minimalist environment. When we began the journey I had grand […]
Peter Glatz
After the passing of his wife, Julianne (former Illinois Times food columnist), Peter Glatz decided to retire from a 40-year career as a dentist to reinvent himself as a chef at the age of 66. In his short culinary career, he has worked at Chicago’s Michelin-starred Elizabeth Restaurant, Oklahoma City’s Nonesuch (Bon Appetit’s “America’s Best New Restaurant- 2018), Savannah’s The Grey, and Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis.
Posted inFood & Drink
When life gives you preserved lemons. . .
When we lived in the old Spaulding Orchard farmhouse, we were running three refrigerators and three freezers, usually all full. My late wife would buy, process and freeze produce by the bushel. She would save and freeze all our chicken carcasses and wingtips until she had accumulated enough to fill a five-gallon stockpot and then […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Japanese comfort food
According to a report published last month in ResearchAndMarkets.com, the market for dishwashing supplies is expected to grow by 275% as a consequence of everybody eating at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are presently sheltering in place in our school bus in a remote location inaccessible to meal delivery services, so I am constantly […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Knives sharp as lightning
While living in France in the late 50s, Paul Childs recalled hearing his wife, Julia, cry out: “Goddamnit! I’ve never yet gone into a private French kitchen where the knives are sharp! How the hell do these people think they’re going to cook when they can’t even slice through a tomato?” Julia Childs had such […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Will trade minestrone for a place to park
A few years ago I was at my campsite at Summer Camp Music Festival when a young man approached me carrying an empty grocery bag and asked if I had any charcoal I could spare. I had plenty so I put some in his bag. He thanked me and then asked if he could possibly […]
Posted inFood & Drink
How to cook a wolf
As long as we end up beating the Reaper, these past weeks of self-quarantine really haven’t been awful. Amid bad news and increasing fears we have been gifted a rare period of respite to reflect and reassess. Life as we knew it will never be the same. The future? It’s not yet been written. As […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Beans, for hard times
My year working as a chef in Oklahoma City is coming to a close. The restaurant that dominated my life for 60 hours a week had to shutter and furlough its staff three weeks ago, and my newly acquired free time is being spent downsizing my belongings and packing for a new life living in […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Creating your vision of an inspired life
I’ve loved cooking ever since I was a teenager. I enjoy cooking so much that late in life I started doing short, unpaid apprenticeships at notable restaurants in order to broaden my culinary skills. I’d approach a chef and say “I’m old and a bit slow, but I’m neat and precise.” I started planning my […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Cooking your way through a crisis
There’s nothing like a pandemic to make us realize how fragile we are. It is quite unsettling to realize how unprepared our governing bodies and health care services were as they try to manage this crisis. We look to them for guidance and the best advice they are able to offer is to wash our […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Rethinking hummus
Todd Snider is an American singer-songwriter whose music has been described as a combination of Americana, alt-country and folk. I met Todd in 2017 when he was lead singer of the Hard Working Americans, a side project of some of the members of the rock band Widespread Panic. I had driven my bus down to […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Home-brewed kombucha
The end of our one-year lease in Oklahoma City is approaching and we are beginning the process of boxing up our belongings and deep-cleaning the apartment. We have a $1,000 security deposit on the line, and we’ve been told that our landlord is super picky. The apartment has been well-maintained and is generally spotless… except […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Fondue says, ‘Fond of you’
In her essay Love in a Dish, the renowned American food writer M.F.K. Fisher wrote about the importance of couples eating together. “There can be no warm, rich home life anywhere else if it does not exist at the table, and in the same way there can be no enduring family happiness, no real marriage, […]
