“Food is medicine. People say healthy food is expensive. So which would you rather do? Pay upfront now for your food, or pay later when you end up in the hospital bed? Healthy foods give healthy minds. If you give someone greasy dull food, their minds will also be greasy and dull.”
-Steve Golob, Residence Chef, Vanier’s Dining Room
Since 1997, Steve Golob has been influencing the food offered at UBC. As one of UBC Food Services’ chefs, he has become known as a “foodie with a cause.” He is an advocate of health at UBC and with the many food providers in the Lower Mainland.
If you have a chance to meet Steve, you will likely walk away bounding with his energy and enthusiasm. His positivity and passion for healthy food are contagious. Although he is an award-winning chef, in his eyes, his main role is that of a teacher. Steve is consistently striving to make healthier food and teach others to rethink their choices.
Steve Golob shows off the bounty of UBC's harvest
He says: “This is the future. There won’t be a future if we don’t have healthy people. Why should I teach them to eat bad food?” Every year, Steve develops between 100 and 200 new menu items, many of which are favourite North American “comfort foods” transformed into healthier versions. For example, he makes chicken noodle soup with fresh kale from the UBC Farm, and macaroni and cheese with whole wheat noodles. Steve consistently strives to bring in fresh local food, because he sees that it is “fresher, more flavourful, healthier, has better colour and cooks better.”
Steve’s soups have become a hot commodity on campus. Place Vanier’s dining hall features vegan and gluten-free soups every day, which are featured in a blog so that the many soup fans can find out if they want to head over for the soup of the day. Steve also shares a number of soup recipes on the blog.
So here’s to UBC’s chefs and food service workers who take the time and passion to consider how they influence the minds and bodies of all who work, live and study at UBC.
My friend Amy makes the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. Since she lives in Vermont and I now live in BC, it is no surprise that I miss her…but around this time of year, I have to admit that I miss her pie more than anything! (Sorry, Amy, but it really is that good!) Before I moved to BC, leaving behind her beloved pie contribution to my Thanksgivings, I asked her to tell me her secret. She shocked me with her answer: her pumpkin pie was more butternut squash than pumpkin! I never got more than that single detail from her, otherwise I might share the recipe.
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