A South Side chef is on a mission to make classic comfort foods healthy.

David Fuller is founder and president of Eating to Live, a vegan line of dishes that can be found in Chicago-area Whole Foods and Jewel Osco stores.

His specialty is collard greens and dishes like braised collard greens and kale, collard greens and cabbage, and even a collard greens grilled cheese.

Fuller recently debuted his creations at the National Restaurant Association Show, a dream 25 years in the making.

“I think that comfort food appeals to everyone, but also we have health conditions like diabetes, heart, high blood pressure, hypertension. All those things come from diet,” said Fuller. “It’s not radical. This is a slowdown process, you gotta feed the baby milk as I was taught. So gradually if you get people to thinking that way, and give them an offering like this that is health conscious that still has the flavor of what great grandmama and our ancestors produced, I think we’re spot on.”

Fuller is also a culinary arts and hospitality teacher at Chicago Vocational High School. His next goal is to take his collard greens nationwide.