The quiet voice of GW’s new Executive Chef Kevin Brown was barely audible over the sizzling food cooking on the stoves around him in the Marvin Center’s catering kitchen. Despite winning six Culinary Olympic Gold Medals, Brown says he’s still not completely comfortable speaking up about himself.

But when prompted, it’s easy to see that this new chef has a lot to talk about.

When Brown came to GW in November, he brought with him a notebook full of new recipes and plans to start adding dishes to the J Street menu that will cater to a section of the GW population he feels has been ignored – vegetarians.

Brown said many chefs don’t try out vegetarian recipes because they take a great deal more work and creativity than recipes containing meat.

Growing up the child of two flower children, vegetarianism was almost genetic. A vegetarian for years before he became a chef for the United States military, he eats meat now, but tries to eat a lot of vegetarian dishes too. A fourth generation chef (excluding his parents), cooking is also in his blood.

One of Brown’s newest plans for GW is called Letters to Home, where parents send in recipes that he will prepare in GW’s eateries to help alleviate students’ homesickness for mom’s cooking.

Food is a very personal thing, and it’s a good way to show appreciation, Brown says.

But after working a six-day week filled with 16- and 17-hour days, Brown says he focuses on one of his personal favorites: junk food.

When I’m home relaxing, give me a bowl of Cap’n Crunch and a Yoo Hoo, and I’m happy, he says.