Celebrating Food and Community with Gerry Kasten

Gerry Kasten has taught hundreds of students the how, what, and why behind the food they eat. His classes emphasized that nutrition and deliciousness should come hand-in-hand. Now after 20 years of teaching, Kasten is hanging up his apron to retire.

Kasten’s career was built on two great loves: food and community.

In 2002, he started his Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition at LFS, studying food choices among gay men. During his degree, he learned about FNH 340, a course designed to teach students the concepts of cooking and nutrition.

“I realized that a lot of people knew about nutrition, but little about actual cooking,” Kasten says. “So, a group of us worked together to shift the curriculum towards a cooking course that includes important dietetic concepts.”

Eventually, Kasten co-taught the course himself, juggling teaching and his career as a public health dietitian. He served in small and rural communities across B.C., creating policies around food insecurity and farmer’s markets for Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health. He particularly enjoyed helping families with new infants navigate solid food transitioning.

Kasten went on to work for the First Nations Health Authority. He travelled to Indigenous communities to teach about nutrition in schools and diabetes prevention. Working with leaders in the community taught him how to balance health policy with real world situations. When a local store makes money selling junk food, what are the tools to help rationalize cutting a revenue source in the name of health?

Kasten brought all his empathy and experience from his dietetics work to the classroom. In addition to his cooking course, Kasten began teaching Critical Perspectives in Food Practices. In this class, students dove into the reasons behind food choices: culture, gender, taste, economics and many others.

“There’s always a big realization a third of the way into the course,” Kasten says. “The students realize so much of our history goes into our choices. So much of the work around food is done by women. Why is that? Is that changing? Students start to understand that food is more than what we eat.”

 Students Grow into Confident Cooks

Kasten’s best memories are of watching students transform.

“They come in as nervous cooks,” Kasten says. “By the end of the term, they’re confident of their skills and more ready to take on challenges.”

He attributes the success of the cooking course to the ability to align theoretical and practical applications of nutrition. After studying the macronutrients of an egg, students would cook an egg-based dish or vegan substitute. Adapting to dietary restrictions is made more approachable, after understanding the nutrients and textures to aim for in a dish.

After a lifetime of learning, Kasten is back on campus during his retirement. When he is not giving guest lectures on the gendered nature of food, Kasten is at Spanish class three times a week. He plans to put his new language skills to the test, travelling to sunny destinations.

“When people say ‘What are you going to do in your retirement?’ ” Kasten says with a laugh, “My answer is always, ‘Go to the beach.’ ”

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