With salad bars, a pizza oven and deli sandwiches galore, the Berkeley Café provides a wide variety of delectable options. Through these seemingly endless choices, the SAGE Dining program at Berkeley hopes to make every choice a healthy one.

Working behind the scenes to provide delicious and nutritious food to all three divisions, the SAGE Dining staff has utilized the new Café facilities to produce an expanded selection of dishes catered directly to student and faculty wishes. From flank steak to a brand new chicken sandwich recipe, SAGE’s efforts have elicited a positive response from much of the Berkeley community. Upper Division Chinese teacher Lihua Li, a frequent diner in the Café, loves that there is “a variety of food to choose from” and as a vegetarian, she has taken advantage of the multiple salad bars and this year’s addition of breakfast served every morning.

By looking at the menu each day, one can see that a lot of work goes into the process of planning and preparing every meal, whether it is for Middle Division lunch or the special performance menu for student athletes. According to Food Service Director Chuck Casamasima, “what a lot of people don’t know is that everything we make here [in the kitchen] is from scratch.” The Café avoids using processed goods by soaking their own beans and roasting their own turkey and roast beef in addition to using organic fresh fruits and vegetables.

To keep the ingredients at this high standard and to avoid pesticides, SAGE Dining “buy[s] local and sustainable [produce] as much as possible,” said Casamasima, and approximately 50% of the produce used in the Café is local or organic. SAGE also remains environmentally friendly by logging the number of servings each day so that there is not an overproduction of food that might be wasted.

For diners interested in what goes into each dish, Casamasima recommends checking the complete online menu. Here students can choose an item and read its list of ingredients, which Casamasima believes “is a real great tool for anyone who has any dietary concerns.” The Café also provides nutritional information packets and “traffic light” guidelines for different foods that recommend how much of each dish should be consumed based on fat, cholesterol and other dietary factors.

SAGE also emphasizes maintaining a varied and exciting menu. While chicken and pizza remain popular choices—anywhere from 60 to 120 pizzas are cooked daily—a variety of hot entrées are also provided. The Café mixes things up with new spices, soups and menu cycles that rotate three times a year. Sophomore Gabrielle Silberman has “noticed a bigger variety [of food] which has led [her] to choose more healthy options.”

One of the possible barriers to enjoying SAGE’s variety is a lack of time. This is the case for sophomore Shezreh Haider who “tend[s] to get what is the fastest because I want to spend the most time with my friends or be able to get to my club on time.”

Fortunately, SAGE Dining has remained aware of student desires and concerns. Recently the Student Forum worked with SAGE to serve coffee at lunchtime, something for which many high school students have advocated. In addition, the SAGE staff has kept detailed records of what dishes students like and dislike and is not afraid to modify the menu accordingly. By interviewing students and replicating many of the foods that students purchase off campus, SAGE has attracted more seniors to the lunch program this year than ever before.

SAGE Dining’s efforts to provide healthy and delicious foods have already made a positive impact, but they are not looking to stop there. Reflecting on the past year Casamasima said, “The Berkeley Café and SAGE will always be an ongoing process. Every year, […] we will try to bring something different, something special.”