Soup for the Soul

EVERY FEW DAYS, on a somewhat random schedule, a mysterious item appears on the Pilot House menu: Mo’s Soup. To the uninformed, it’s a big question mark. Who’s Mo? What kind of soup is it? To those in the know, of which there are now many, no questions asked. It’s simply their cue to grab a spoon and dig in.

“I have Mo’s soup every time she makes it,” says nursing senior Ray Castro. “No matter what flavor, it always tastes like she was making a pot just for her family.”

Most UP students know Mo, aka Monique Quintana, as the heart and soul of P-House. Even if they don’t know her by name, they know the woman behind the register who wears a bright headscarf, a big smile, and her heart on her sleeve. For some, like Ray, she’s their mom away from home, the one person they can count on who can tell when they’re feeling low and say just the right things to make them feel a little bit better.

“I really got to know her when I started working at Mack’s Market,” says Ray. “I would tell her, ‘Mo, you remind me so much of my mom.’” This summer his mom flew in from Guam and they actually got to meet. “It was so heartwarming to have my mom and my university mom connect.”

 
As for the soup, Mo’s fans know that no matter what kind she makes (and she never makes it the same way twice), it’s going to pop with flavor. It won’t ever skimp on spice. And it will taste like it was made just for them, because it was.

“Some of these kids, you can tell when they’re on a budget because they’ll only get soup or some fries,” she says. “So, I put that in the back of my head—I need to fill these kids up! It’s not always easy because I have to work with whatever we have on hand that isn’t meant for something else, but I use the techniques I learned in culinary school, and what my grandmother taught me about making something delicious from the least amount of ingredients.”

Whether it’s birria or pho, creamy chowder or smoky tomato, the soups represent Mo’s concerted effort to minimize food waste. But mostly, she says, the soups are her therapy. She’s been working with Bon Appétit at UP since 2016. A proud graduate of Oregon Culinary Institute, she was hired as a cook, but just one year later she was diagnosed with breast cancer and the physical demands of working the line were just too much. She had to leave the creativity of the kitchen behind and move to cashiering—a blow for someone who spent her childhood devouring cooking shows with Julia Child and Jacques Pépin.

“Since I was young, I’ve had a strong desire to cook. It’s my love language,” she says. “I love seeing people eat and enjoy it, and I love how it brings people together.”

Making a batch of soup on her good days, or at least not her worst days, allows Mo to keep a hand in the kitchen, leftovers out of the compost, and her mind busy. “The kids are my endorphins. My happy drug,” she says. “When I make soup for them and they like it, it does something to my body, and that happiness helps me push through the rest of the day. I don’t feel as miserable because I’m occupied with making sure it tastes good and the kids want more. It’s a symbiotic relationship: They make me feel good and I make them feel good with my soup.”

And though she’d rather have the health and stamina to stay in the kitchen, being behind the register puts her in front of the students, and that’s where she’s found a new purpose. “Being an ear for these kids and letting them know they are seen has been really important to me,” she says. “A lot of them are international or from out of state, and I want them to know I’m a safe space. When my children are old enough to go to college, I would want them to be able to identify someone who is a safe space for them too."

DANIELLE CENTONI is a James Beard Award-winning writer. She is UP’s communications specialist.