SCHOOLS: Nashoba Tech's Restaurant, The Elegant Chef, Sets Grand Reopening

The Elegant Chef, the award-winning, in-school restaurant at Nashoba Valley Technical High School, will hold a grand reopening Tuesday, Sept. 9.

This year, Chef-Instructors Steve Whiting, Fran Zentgraf, Kevin McGuire and Carley Engle have whipped up a new menu with some old favorites and some intriguing original recipes.

In a change from past years, when the menu fluctuated from day to day, Whiting said this year's menu will be fixed, with a special or two added each day. He said a fixed menu will give students in the Culinary Arts and Hotel & Restaurant Management programs, who staff the kitchen and restaurant, a better chance to learn what it's like to work in the industry, where most menus are fixed.

Whiting said there will always be a hamburger or cheeseburger on the menu, and, of course, the baked haddock, The Elegant Chef's best-seller

But new this year, the menu will feature flatbread appetizers made with fresh herbs from the school's own herb garden. In fact, flatbread appetizers are free for the month of September as a welcome-back gift to customers.

Whiting also said The Elegant Chef has a new motto - "Elegant food at a modest price" - that senior Aixa Amparo of Chelmsford coined.

The Elegant Chef is open for lunch to the public Tues.through Friday, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., when school is in session. Reservations not needed, but to make one or to obtain a menu, call 978-692-9958.