food

I was 17 years old in 1970 when Joni Mitchell released her album Ladies of the Canyon. I’ve always found her music to be very impactful, and her early recordings are among my favorites. A line from the album’s track “Big Yellow Taxi” has always stayed with me: “Don’t it always seem to go that […]

I should know never to go into the vegetable garden without a basket and shears. I’d ended up there with my toddler, following her as she wandered aimlessly about our property on a sunny autumn afternoon. Several days had passed since I’d last been out in the garden, and in that time we’d had the […]

Has the experience of spending my first six months of retirement working in a restaurant kitchen made me a better home cook? It definitely has, but not in the ways I would have expected. Much of my time in the kitchen is spent picking little leaves off of thyme sprigs or cutting a basket of […]

Now that cooler fall temperatures have finally set in, foodies in the know will soon be enjoying one of autumn’s most delectable seasonal offerings. Wild mushrooms pop up seemingly overnight in local woodlands and farm fields, waiting to be plucked by an experienced mushroom hunter and taken home to be fried in butter or stirred […]

While attending dental school in Chicago back in the 70s, I was on a limited budget and always on the lookout for good but cheap dining experiences. One of my favorite discoveries was a small storefront restaurant in suburban West Dundee called Mama di Pinto, named after its chef owner, Virginia Pinto, who died last […]

Over the years I’ve made a lot of pie. I grew up with multiple generations of pie bakers, all of whom had very high standards, especially where crust was concerned. I still use my great grandmother’s recipes, though as I’ve gotten older and more confident I’ve had the audacity to tweak them slightly. It was […]

On this day 18 years ago I was on a plane flying to New York City to spend a weekend with my daughter, Anne, who was attending law school at Columbia. The flight had been rescheduled from a week earlier due to the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack. The mood on the plane was […]

As fires raging in the Amazon rainforest dominate recent news, the global importance of eating local has never been more apparent. While public attention to these wildfires is new, the fires are not a sudden phenomenon, nor are they accidental. For years, cattle ranchers and loggers have been setting fires to sections of the rainforest […]

What a long strange trip it’s been! This line from the Grateful Dead’s song “Truckin” keeps going through my head as I look back at the events of the last three days. It all started with an email I received: “Hi Peter. I work with Nonesuch on public relations, and we’ve received quite a bit […]

Eggplant is in peak season right now, and will continue to grace the tables at farmers markets until frost. Also know as aubergine, eggplant is low in calories, nutrient-rich, and loaded with fiber and antioxidants. This versatile fruit is widely consumed throughout Asia and the Middle East and comes in a range of colors and […]

“It’s too darn hot! It’s too darn hot!” These lyrics from Cole Porter’s musical Kiss Me Kate have been going through my head these past few weeks. The temperature around the stove at Nonesuch, the restaurant where I work, consistently hovers around 96 degrees F, even with the air conditioner going full blast. The temperatures […]

“On fair day my mother would always get up at four o’clock in the morning to fry chicken to take along,” my grandmother mused as we drove along looking for the best parking deal. “She’d pack up a picnic and we’d sit on the hillside and eat.” During the Depression, she explained, outbreaks of food […]