These social, cultural and culinary aspects of food all come together in the uOttawa Dining Hall. Open from early morning to late at night, it provides a place where you can eat, gather with friends or colleagues, celebrate, study and take part in campus life. What’s its secret sauce? It offers a diverse range of food options, and it’s led by a team of chefs that recently earned Canada-wide honours.
A diverse, sustainable smorgasbord
With its eight stations and meals prepared on site from fresh ingredients, the Dining Hall has made variety a top priority. The menu seeks to suit all tastes, lifestyles and dietary needs within the diverse uOttawa community, offering vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten-free and dairy-free options.
The Dining Hall serves up to 9,000 meals a day, and that means listening to the community. So the menu evolves with people’s needs and preferences.
The team also pays close attention to how food is prepared and served. And that hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Dining Hall has been a Four-Star Certified Green Restaurant since 2023, making it the first university dining hall in Canada to achieve that distinction. Its zero-waste design has reduced the amount of takeout packaging by nearly a million items per year.
But beyond these best practices, the team shines for its culinary artistry.
Award-winning chefs in the uOttawa kitchen
In summer 2026, the team put their cooking skills to the test at the Canadian College and University Food Service Association Culinary Challenge. This competition sees food service teams from universities across the country face off.
Competitors dished out creativity, precision and technical mastery, especially during the “mystery box” competition, where they had to prepare dishes using a list of required ingredients in a limited time frame.
The uOttawa team excelled, picking up the top honours in the competition:
- the Gold Medal
- the People’s Choice Award
- the Best Dessert trophy
To the team, this victory provides both professional recognition and personal pride. And sweeping the awards after a tougher-to-swallow 2025 competition made it all the more memorable.
According to Philippe Demers, Senior Manager, Business Operations at the University of Ottawa, this success is the product of the same qualities he sees in his team every day: a strong work ethic, collaboration and remarkable adaptability.
“No matter what challenges come up, they’re able to adapt quickly and make the most of every environment,” he says.
“The Dining Hall is part of the social infrastructure of campus. It builds connections between food, community, wellness, sense of belonging, learning and student engagement.”
Philippe Demers
— Senior Manager, Business Operations
Services that keep pace with campus life
Also on the Dining Hall menu is a series of events, themed meals and unique culinary experiences that provide opportunities to come together and experience campus differently.
“The Dining Hall is part of the social infrastructure of campus,” says Demers. “It builds connections between food, community, wellness, sense of belonging, learning and student engagement.”