Liz Cook
@lizcookkc.bsky.social
Midwest writer who eats several meals a week. Work in Eater, Serious Eats, the BBC, Bon App, etc. Fun at haterade.substack.com
New from me: pickles! prosciutto! two kinds of dairy! A dip inspired by Iowa sushi, a dish that has the courage to ask, “what if a pickle were a fish?” Read:
Serious Eats@serious-eats.bsky.social · 2d agoInspired by the classic Iowa pickle roll-up, this creamy dip combines dill pickles, cream cheese, buttermilk, fresh dill, and crispy prosciutto for an easy party appetizer.
For Haterade, I wrote about the “suicide” (or “graveyard” or “kamikaze” or whatever other brutal name you grew up calling it). haterade.substack.com/p/all-soda-y...
All Soda Yearns to Be Red
A selective history of the “suicide”
haterade.substack.com
Another great read from @lizcookkc.bsky.social. This time about suicides (the drink, not the backup plan). And she gave me a new header image! open.substack.com/pub/haterade...
All Soda Yearns to Be Red
A selective history of the “suicide”
open.substack.com
I don’t think “write what you know” means “write about your own writing.” You should Know a second thing.
*influencer voice* Come with me to drink the viral birthday sambuca shot at the Scottsbluff, NE regional airport Italian restaurant
I’m writing a book! It’s a cookbook and a Cook book, and you can’t read it until 2028, when I will probably be dead from dairy poisoning. But this has been a long time coming, and I’m excited to share. Can’t imagine a better partner in all things than @jedportman.bsky.social.
Really enjoyed this piece from @brettmartin.bsky.social about yes, maggot cheese, but also disgust (my favorite topic) and artisanship and much more.
The strange story of casu marzu, Sardinia’s famous maggot cheese
A generation after casu marzu was banned across Europe, artisanal cheesemakers in Sardinia still elevate the controversial technique into a culinary art form.
nationalgeographic.com
Liz roots out the midwest's most distinctive places like a truffle pig for worn naugahyde booths, and in this piece I spoke with her about the things that give restaurants a soul and the shift from places with regional identity to personal identity
Liz Cook@lizcookkc.bsky.social · 3mo agoFor Haterade, I wrote long about restaurant design, regionalism, and identity. Photos are of the Sons of Norway Kringen Lodge in Fargo, ND, which doesn’t need my help. haterade.substack.com/p/where-am-i
For Haterade, I wrote long about restaurant design, regionalism, and identity. Photos are of the Sons of Norway Kringen Lodge in Fargo, ND, which doesn’t need my help. haterade.substack.com/p/where-am-i
Where Are We, And What Are We Doing Here?
A treatise on restaurant design.
haterade.substack.com
“Cinnamon is not a flavor for aesthetes. It is a flavor for dopamine chasers and chronic smokers—for people inured to subtlety, who need to be jostled just to feel.“ I wrote about (and ranked) the spicy holdouts in a dying confectionery field.
The Cinnamon Gum Olympics
Haterade is a newsletter for bus drivers and looksmaxxers.
haterade.substack.com
Mom, entering the room with her phone: “I have a question about jestermaxxing.”
It’s maple sugaring season in the Midwest, which means it’s time for the annual Sugar Shack Steam Snapshot (SSSS)
Food People kept pressuring me to by the Breville countertop oven, and I am here to report that it is indeed excellent if you want a toaster oven that can do anything EXCEPT make toast.
“I will let the haters adjudicate whether ranch dressing on pizza is “allowed.” This is a question on par with “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” in that it was designed to be answered at excruciating cocktail parties attended by the most boring people you know.“ haterade.substack.com/p/pizza-ranch
Pizza Ranch? No. Pizza Ranch.
It is time for the Midwest to live up to its promise.
haterade.substack.com
Get in, sickos, I made pizza ranch.
Pizza Ranch? No. Pizza Ranch.
It is time for the Midwest to live up to its promise.
open.substack.com
I stumbled on this product while researching for Haterade, and I can no longer think about anything else.
For the past decade, my sister and I have been bogarting mom’s gingerbread dough to make an annual Christmas Creature. For 2025, we are pleased to introduce Blossom the Possum.
Speaking of peppernuts, here’s @lizcookkc.bsky.social on pfeffernög—her Pfeffernüsse-inflected weihnachtlicher Genuss—fortified with twice as much absinthe as it is bourbon:
Jed Portman@jedportman.bsky.social · 8mo agoHave yourself a very Kansas Christmas with @lizcookkc.bsky.social’s pfeffernög, a boozy riff on a Plains holiday tradition. midwesterner.substack.com/p/pfeffernog
It was me. I did this, somehow, by being rude to Travis Kelce’s steaks.
The Athletic@theathletic.com · 8mo agoNEWS: The Kansas City Chiefs will be moving from Missouri to a domed stadium in Kansas in 2031, Gov. Laura Kelly confirmed.
“How many tables order this every night?” I asked. “Almost all of them,” she said, with just a hint of resignation. defector.com/two-nights-p...
i don’t usually read reviews for restaurants i will likely never visit, but this one (from @lizcookkc.bsky.social) for Mahomes’ and Kelce’s place in KC was worth it for style points alone defector.com/two-nights-p...
This review from @lizcookkc.bsky.social of Pat Mahomes and Travis Kelce’s weird, over-priced restaurant is maybe one of funniest I’ve ever read. defector.com/two-nights-p...
"Much of the menu at 1587 Prime reads like magnetic poetry for people with expense accounts." Liz Cook brilliance in Defector! A Christmas miracle!
Liz Cook@lizcookkc.bsky.social · 8mo agoI spent $900 at 1587 Prime so you don’t have to.
Liz Cook reviews Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce's Kansas City steakhouse: defector.com/two-nights-p...
Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce's Steakhouse | Defector
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As celebrity restaurant mascots, athletes offer a tidy sense of vertical integration: Why not supply the very calories they need to expend on the field? I’m surprised there are so…
defector.com
Great fun from @lizcookkc.bsky.social "You do not have to order the Heinz ketchup flight. You do not have to buy the Taylor Swift cocktail that tastes like a candle and is garnished with a flaming Brillo pad. You do not have to sacrifice your servers’ eyebrows at the altar of the tableside flambé"
Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce's Steakhouse | Defector
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As celebrity restaurant mascots, athletes offer a tidy sense of vertical integration: Why not supply the very calories they need to expend on the field? I’m surprised there are so f...
defector.com
"The goose is deceptively simple. You really only need three ingredients: a curvy-necked yellow squash for the body, carrots for the feet and beak, and cloves for its beady little eyes."
Liz Cook@lizcookkc.bsky.social · 10mo agoI know what you’re thinking: “Liz, how can I, too, make a web-footed squash goose at home?” I wrote a different article for you: open.substack.com/pub/haterade...
