Peter Glatz

For centuries, cooks worldwide have ingeniously stuffed vegetables, a testament to how readily available ingredients can be transformed into delicious and nourishing combinations of textures and flavors. The variety of fillings is vast, ranging from savory meats and aromatic rice to creamy cheeses and fresh herbs. Mediterranean cuisine offers dolmades, grape leaves filled with rice, […]

Panna cotta, meaning “cooked cream” in Italian, is a wobbly, silky, eggless custard-like dessert made with sweetened cream bound with gelatin. It’s one of my favorite make-ahead desserts, especially when I need to use up leftover dairy products in the refrigerator. A panna cotta is pretty easy to make, and it lends itself to improvisation. […]

Growing up in the Midwest, I had to attend many potlucks. These communal gatherings often featured dishes that, to modern tastes, seem pretty bewildering. My mother, by her own admission a poor cook, regularly contributed a solid block of Philadelphia cream cheese, generously blanketed with Sau-See Shrimp Cocktail – tiny shrimp swimming in a bland, […]

Juneteenth, a commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S., is a day rich in traditions. This celebration provides opportunities for community bonding, education and remembrance, ensuring that the spirit and significance of Juneteenth are passed on to future generations. Central to these celebrations are elaborate feasts where families and communities gather […]

Having spent the past winter in semi-hibernation, I’ve returned to my job as a chef at Caprae Restaurant at Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery in Champaign. I am once again living in my converted school bus next to the goat barn. I hadn’t planned on being here again. Last fall, I declared, as I have […]

On the reality TV show Kitchen Nightmares, renowned British chef Gordon Ramsay visited struggling restaurants as a troubleshooter and tried to turn them around. Ramsay would often order crabcakes because they are a simple dish that could be a reliable indicator of a restaurant’s food quality and cooking standards. He could tell if the restaurant […]

Our little house has a smallish kitchen, but thankfully it has a door that opens to a staircase leading to a dry basement, which I’ve turned into a giant pantry. My wife recently questioned why I keep the baking soda in the cabinet next to the stove instead of in the basement pantry with the […]

Miso has been on my mind a lot lately. I just taught a fermentation class at Lincoln Land Community College and demonstrated how to make miso. Then, this week, I read that astronauts aboard the International Space Station successfully made miso in space. So today’s column will be all about miso and its most well-known […]

In the American South, there’s an old saying: “We go together like shrimp and grits.” Shrimp and grits is a classic Southern dish now found on many menus across the U.S. Its origins are rooted in the Gullah Geechee culture of the coastal Carolinas. The Gullah are descendants of enslaved Africans. Shrimp and grits was […]

My wife is not a picky eater but she’s very choosy about chicken wings. She used to love the wings served at Cafe Brio, and she was crushed when the downtown Springfield restaurant closed in 2016. Since then, whenever she orders wings, she’ll invariably say: “They’re just not as good as Brio’s!” We spent the […]

“First, you brine a nice piece of fish and refrigerate it overnight. Then, you coat the fish with mayonnaise and crushed Ritz crackers and broil it. You’ll have a piece of fish like you’ve never had before!” This advice didn’t come from a TikTok influencer or a recipe from the back of a cracker box […]