I’m not quite sure how, but some people — maybe you — can cook a bunch of different dishes that all land on the table at the exact same time. The soup is hot, the salad is chilled, the rolls are warm, and the butter is spreadable because it was set out an hour before dinner. It’s a culinary trick I’ve never mastered, so I admire people who can pull it off.
While we were preparing this issue, with our very first section of Dish, I remembered an article I’d read years ago in The New Yorker, about short-order cooks in Las Vegas. Since casino restaurants serve gazillions of breakfasts every morning to early risers and all-nighters, the cooks are constantly juggling multiple egg orders — scrambled, poached, sunny-side up — all of which have to hit plates at precise times. When they do that hour after hour, shift after shift, year after year, their brains develop extra neural pathways to handle all the multitasking work. (“The Egg Men” published on Aug. 28, 2005; it’s worth looking up.)
“Egg cooks are worth their weight in gold in this town,” a culinary union representative told the reporter.
Here in our own town, there are other behind-the-scenes folks who are worth their weight in gold, and you’ll meet a few in this issue. We created Dish to celebrate the producers, cooks, servers and others who help make Central Iowa’s food scene so diverse, dynamic and, obviously, delicious.
Publishing a magazine is sort of like prepping a meal. We plan the menu, gather the ingredients and fuss with the presentation all the way up to the inevitable moment when it’s time to hit “send” — off to the printer and out to the world. And each story has a different cooking time . . .
Crock-Pot: Our feature on classic supper clubs (read here) was months in the making. Photographer Joe Crimmings pitched the idea and then spent enough time at three local eateries to capture the essence of each one — the chatter, the clink of silverware, the sizzle of steaks on the grill. His evocative images illustrate Megan Bannister’s essay, based on her excellent book “Iowa Supper Clubs” (The History Press, 2020).
Instant Pot: Our stories on cookbooks, bagels, brain-boosting foods and hot sauce are quicker takes on local foodie news, whipped up by our talented staff and contributors.
Microwave: For our last-minute scoops, I encourage you to subscribe to the free dsm Dish newsletter we send out every Friday. (Sign up here.) Some of our latest dispatches featured new restaurants, pie bakers, a glorious pot roast, and some vegan recipes even a carnivore would love.
I could go on, but I don’t want to keep you waiting. All these stories aren’t going to read themselves, so make like an egg cook and get cracking.
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