Stir Bedside Table: Vancouver chef Robert Belcham
The restaurateur and hospitality mentor talks about how a lifetime of reading has opened pathways to new thinking
Robert Belcham
Stir Bedside Table is a column where Stir connects with local artists and creatives to hear about some of their favourite reads.
The reader:
Robert Belcham
Robert Belcham.
What’s your story?
I’ve been a chef and industry professional for nearly 30 years. After being awarded Chef of the Year at the 2009 Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, I opened a string of my own restaurants: Fuel Restaurant in 2007 and Campagnolo Restaurant in 2008, which was followed by Campagnolo ROMA in 2011. Next came Fat Dragon, then Campagnolo upstairs. In 2018, Popina was opened with Angus An, Hamid Salimian, and Joël Watanabe and then Popina Cantina followed-mid pandemic. I focus on sourcing quality regional products and animals from organic and free-run farms.
I’m a long-time member of the Chefs’ Table Society of British Columbia and have been working on the Chefs’ Table Society Culinary Centre, a brick-and-mortar space dedicated to giving our B.C. hospitality industry a home to call their own, full of reference material, a local Indigenous food database, a B.C. menu archive, an event space, a show kitchen, and bar.
I’m continuing my work at Popina Canteen, The Chefs’ Table, and many other smaller projects in and out of the hospitality realm. My latest project, Mentor Hospitality Consulting, is taking my accumulated three decades’ of experience and helping mentor young chefs, restaurateurs, and hospitality professionals. Leadership is a learned skill, and for your restaurant to be successful, good strong and fair leadership is key.
What's on your bedside table right now?
On my bedside table right now is Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life by Rory Sutherland, a great read about creating brands and expanding your business.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. I have been a fan of Rick’s since his Beastie Boys days, and when I heard him talk about the creative process on the Lex Friedmans podcast, I knew I had to read this book. I read a ton of books on business and brand development and how the creative process works in that context. Creating and building new businesses are what I do for a living now, and instead of books on cooking and ingredients, it’s books like these.
The book that changed your life?
I cannot think of one individual book that has changed my life, but I can say books have helped shape my life for the better. Both my parents were voracious readers and I still remember very fondly the set of World Book Encyclopedia they bought for my sisters and myself when we were incredibly young. As a young boy, I always asked for my mom to read the encyclopedia to me at bedtime, the stories of faraway places and accomplished people filled me with a lifelong desire to travel and explore. Reading literally tens of thousands of books over my life has opened incredible pathways to thinking and ideas that I would have never known about. When we were teaching my son to read, I used to tell him that you are reading the mind of an author who lived years ago and very far away. My son’s eyes would grow wide, and he would dive into those books, and it has never stopped for him. Books can change lives because ideas can change lives.
Most inspiring biography or autobiography?
The Autobiography of Malcom X.
I first read this book when I was 17, living in rural northern Alberta. At that time, the late 80s, there was one family of African descent living in our very small town. I had zero idea of the struggles of the American civil rights movement and the brutal history of slavery in America. Malcolm X’s unbelievable story of prison, political activism, religion, and his eventual self-realization that all men are the same and that only their individual actions define who they really are: His words helped shape how I view the world, and that a well-read person makes better decisions in life.
It could be well worth the read now for our young people now. The incredibly racially charged climate we find ourselves in today is so astronomically out of whack compared to what has happened in the past and what our society has overcome. The idea that we are more racially divided now than in 1960 is ludicrous and ill-informed. The ideas of Malcolm X and others like him, Martin Luther King, should be taught and talked about now more than ever and not just used as a footnote or T-shirt slogan.
Best beach-read?
Chaos by Tom O’Neil, An unbelievable rabbit hole read about the Manson Family, the CIA, LSD, and the conspiracy to cover the connections. An absolutely crazy fun read if you like pop culture and anything to do with the ’60s.
Working title of your autobiography?
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