Campus at work: Now we’re cooking!

Worker invents Rath’s specials; but what to do with those leftover hot dogs?

If the Rathskeller is a UW–Madison institution, you might say John Peek ’84 has been institutionalized. On any given weekday during the lunch rush, you’ll find him by the Rathskeller’s grill. He’s easy to recognize — he’s the guy who serves up a standup comedy act along with the Paul Bunyan burgers, and he’s been at the Rath, off and on, for 18 years.

Peek first came to work at the Rathskeller in 1984, when he was an undergraduate studying agricultural economics. Since then, he’s left the grill behind several times — to supervise at the Stiftskeller, to run the sandwich deli and, for a four-year stretch in the early 1990s, to give up salaried work altogether and be “Mr. Mom” to his child.

But he’s always been drawn back. Counting pre-college experience, he’s been in food service for more than a quarter of a century. He’s done more kitchen time than just about anyone else on campus. Today, he’s the Rathskeller’s assistant manager, but climbing the ladder has brought him no escape.

“I’m a firm believer that, as a manager, I need to be out on the line, doing the same kind of work as the staff,” he says. “But I also like serving and being in the public eye. The best thing about working in the Rathskeller is being able to interact with the customers.”

So he faces 15 hours of splattering grease every week. But the shifts allow him time to be with his family, and besides, management has its perks. Among Peek’s duties is the responsibility for making sure the restaurant’s pantry is stocked. This gives him the opportunity not only to keep the Rathskeller’s food fresh, but to keep its menu fresh, as well. And Peek enjoys introducing Rathskeller diners to new specials. If not for him, there would be no Messy Veggie sandwich today. Nor would there be a Jackhammer. Or a Deutschland Delight.

“Since 1995,” he says, “I’ve created or introduced more than a hundred new recipes here. I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen.”

Many of Peek’s creations grow as much out of necessity as inspiration. Sometimes he’ll find that the Rathskeller has far more than it needs of one food item or another. Then Peek will feel the urge to create a special to see if he can work through some of the back inventory.

“That’s how the Jackhammer came about,” he says. “Jack is one of our less popular cheeses — I don’t know why, exactly. Once we were stuck with a lot of it, and I had to come up with a way to get it moving, so I thought, “Hey, ham and cheese — people like that.'”

Not all of Peek’s experiments have been such hits, however. His Vegetarian Chilito — vegetarian chili in a burrito with a side of Spanish rice — flopped. So did the Valley Burger, his attempt to bring a vegetarian patty to a carnivorous campus. And every fall, after the Union’s brat stand closes, he tries to find something to do with all the leftover hotdogs. So far, the answer has eluded him.

But for all his experimentation, he doesn’t partake in too many of the specials himself. “I usually bring in a lunch I’ve made at home. What I make is basically a deli sandwich anyway,” he says.