Being able to get stuff from the farms and have organic stuff, that's a big help too because we're just trying to make sure that we're cooking food with dignity versus cooking food to save the dollar...
We just want to make sure that the kids know that somebody who's in the corner of feeding them good food that's going to help them grow as people.
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Steve Glenn
UGK Culinary Director
Born and raised in Richmond, Chef Steve has travelled far in his culinary journey. You might recognize him from Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay's chef training competition. After competing and becoming a finalist in the show, Chef Steve worked as a private chef. Most of his clients lived on the east coast, so Steve would drive hours up and down the coast, cooking incredible meals as he went. Spending some time working as the culinary executive of The Black Hen, he decided to come back to his hometown.
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Chef Steve started working with UGK Community First by chance.
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""I was walking the street one day and I walked past the [UGK studio] and I was like, Oh, this is a nice quaint little building. What are they doing here? I looked in the window, there's some apron. There's all this stuff on the shelves. And I read the logo and it says the underground kitchen. I said, 'kitchen'. Put two and two together. I was like, I probably need to be here or at least see what this is about. And so I sent an Instagram message to the UGK Instagram page."
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After reaching out, Steve connected with Micheal Sparks, UGK-CF founder. The two had a long chat about Steve's career and culinary inspirations. After cooking for an Underground Kitchen dining event, Steve was brought on as the culinary director for UGK and UGK Community First.