{"id":27122,"date":"2025-09-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27122"},"modified":"2025-09-16T09:31:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:31:04","slug":"camosun-college-alum-returns-to-campus-as-cafeteria-chef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/09\/02\/camosun-college-alum-returns-to-campus-as-cafeteria-chef\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College alum returns to campus as cafeteria chef"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Justin Zhang graduated from Camosun\u2019s Culinary Arts program 20 years ago, he didn\u2019t know he\u2019d be returning to the college two decades later in a much different role. Today, after stints cooking at Coast Victoria Hotel and Pearson College in Metchosin, the alumnus is the new chef manager for Aramark, who run the college cafeterias.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was young,\u201d says Zhang about his time at Camosun. \u201cI came from other country, and I [didn\u2019t] know much, especially I [didn\u2019t] know anything about the Western food… I think the program opened my door for my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Camosun College alumnus Justin Zhang is bringing new tastes to the caf menu (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His career now involves helping create new menu items for Camosun students. Starting on Tuesday, September 2, the cafeteria will have what Zhang calls a feature menu of items that rotate weekly. While he says that some cafeteria staples\u2014burgers, poutine, pizza\u2014will remain, new items will come and go, based on what students are enjoying.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it can be one feature [with] sandwiches on the menu, one stir fry, one curry, one entree, those feature menu. I do that every week changing. So this week, this is four items. Next week, the other four items. So that\u2019s three or four weeks menu. So this way I can find out what students like or what they don\u2019t. If something they like is on the feature menu, I keep it, they\u2019re coming back. If they don\u2019t, I find out the solution, like we do something else, then give it a try, see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flexibility is important to Zhang, who stresses that the rotating menu is adaptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m new here. What can I bring [to] the table? Hopefully everyone likes it,\u201d he says. \u201cEven not, it\u2019s okay, I can change it. I can update it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang\u2014who says that his favourite items can be found at the stir fry station\u2014says that he\u2019s trying to bring as much to the table as he can for students, in an effort to offer more choices. And that includes attempting to keep some prices down.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I know food costs those days went up high… I dropped the price for all the features I\u2019m doing. Hopefully, they are selling… I hope a student can afford the price, which I\u2019ll lower a little bit more on the feature menu… I try to keep all the feature stuff I\u2019m doing as low as I can. So, hopefully, students will like it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having diversity on the rotating menu is a priority for Zhang, as he emphasizes that Camosun students come from all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to give a little bit more everything, if I can,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd also I add a bunch of vegetarian options, gluten-free options, I have a lot of stuff. I have desserts. There can be lots of some gluten-free stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang says that even after all these years and a professional journey that has brought him back to where it all began, he still enjoys what he does.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like cooking. After a few years, I turned cooking [into] a job. Of course, it\u2019s a bit different than [it] used to be just cooking at home for myself,\u201d he says. \u201cBut after, I see, 20 years now, I still like cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Justin Zhang graduated from Camosun\u2019s Culinary Arts program 20 years ago, he didn\u2019t know he\u2019d be returning to the college two decades later in a much different role. Today, after stints cooking at Coast Victoria Hotel and Pearson College in Metchosin, the alumnus is the new chef manager for Aramark, who run the college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-september-2-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27124,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27122\/revisions\/27124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}