Glenn Yasuda, founder of the pioneering produce-centric grocery store Berkeley Bowl, has died. He was 85.

Yasuda opened the first Berkeley Bowl as a small produce market with his wife in 1977. Now, there are two large Berkeley Bowl locations that have become renowned for their diverse and affordable selections of fresh vegetables and fruit, such as spindly Buddha’s hand, fuzzy red rambutan, aromatic epazote leaves and long burdock roots.

Yasuda was known to be immensely modest and hardworking, waking up at 2:30 a.m. to select the day’s produce well into his 80s.

“He’s just the nicest, most gentle man to be around,” said Terrie Gottesman, a cousin of Yasuda’s wife, Diane. “Very humble, self-effacing — didn’t make a big deal out of creating this internationally known produce market.”

Gottesman confirmed Yasuda’s death. No cause of death was given.

The Bowl, as Berkeley residents call it, inspired Bay Area residents to eat a vegetable-centric diet long before vegetarianism became a hot topic across the country. Along with Berkeley’s long-running farmers’ markets, the grocery stores have shaped how a lot of locals eat, said Alex Hozven, owner of the Cultured Pickle Shop, which has sold sauerkraut at Berkeley Bowl for more than a decade.

“(Yasuda) introduced people to so much. It wasn’t just, ‘I’m going to get potatoes.’ It was, ‘I’m going to choose between 20 types of potatoes.’ I think that was new in people’s conception of possibility,” she said.

The wealth of options inspired Berkeley dietician Laura McLively to cook far outside her usual repertoire. Her blog chronicling her kitchen experiments spawned “The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook,” published by Parallax Press in 2018.

“Berkeley Bowl allows us to cook with a sense of adventure and an appreciation for what other cultures have to offer,” she said. “More than that, (Yasuda) left a mark on Berkeley. He created an independent, large-scale grocery store that puts quality above the bottom line, and that’s really hard to find.”

Yasuda grew up in Southern California in a produce family — his father was a mushroom farmer. Because of their Japanese ancestry, his family was sent to an internment camp in Wyoming during World War II, but they were ultimately able to return to their farm.

Before he and Diane opened Berkeley Bowl in 1977, Yasuda worked a few odd jobs and the couple spent some time living in Japan. There, they felt inspired by how people lived right behind their little storefronts. When they noticed a former bowling alley in South Berkeley in front of their house go on the market, they decided to snag it and turn it into a produce market. Diane also came from a produce family — her father opened Yasai Market in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood.

In 1999, the Yasudas moved Berkeley Bowl into its current and much larger location on Oregon Street, which used to be a Safeway. In 2009, they opened a second location called Berkeley Bowl West, an even more spacious market in a modern building with a cafe. Despite the growth and impressive selection of Asian ingredients, sustainably raised meats and local artisan products, fresh produce always remained the focus.

According to Berkeleyside, which first reported Yasuda’s death, Yasuda’s son, Gen, will take over operations of both locations of Berkeley Bowl.

Yasuda is survived by his wife and co-founder of Berkeley Bowl, Diane; his son, Gen; and his two grandchildren, Mirai and Akemi.

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker