DALLAS (KRLD) - Families across North Texas will be spending extra time in the kitchen this week preparing holiday meals. One north Texas chef is offering some advice on how to make those meals extra-special.
"As we become more of an international community, you're going to see more international dishes," said Andrew Klipsch, the head chef at the Bruce Hall Cafeteria on the U-N-T campus in Denton. He served international dishes to students during December and says they received a positive response.
"One of the things I like to do at Christmas time is a jam roly-poly. We call them a jelly roll here in the U.S., but it's actually an English dish. It's a sponge cake that's very thin and then you layer it with jam, cream cheese or fruit...and then you roll it up and then you slice it. It's really cute and fun," Klipsch said. "If you do a little background checking on Google you'll be able to give that information to people...and that information will actually heighten the experience of what you're serving to everyone."
He recommends serving a story along with the food, even if it's not a specialty dish. "The story really makes it different," he said. "We all have stories we tell about holidays when we were growing up - that's what makes them special. So if you can give food a story it's going to make it that much more interesting."
Klipsch served students at UNT some food with a built-in story leading up to the semester break. "We make Golden Snitch cookies. If anyone is a fan of Harry Potter, they know what the Golden Snitch looks like," he said. "These are really easy to make. You can do them as a ginger cookie or a sugar cookie…shape them and cut them to look like a Golden Snitch and then decorate them with golden sprinkles. It's very simple and a lot of fun for kids and adults as well. Most people enjoy having that story...and obviously cookies are a good thing to bring to any place."
