Blue Apron restaurant inside the Warsaw Area Career Center reopens to the public today. For the last two weeks, students have been serving lunch by invitation only. Under the leadership of culinary arts instructor Chef Mark Bragg, students are now ready for the public. Bragg said students voted on what the menus will be. Some items have been held over from previous years, like the Cesar salad, while other items like the spinach salad are new. “Everything is made from scratch as much as it can be,” he said. One item on the menu Tuesday was chicken fettuccine. Bragg said students don’t make pasta in-house, but they do make menu items like chips themselves. Students also chose to serve three soups – chili, vegetable and potato. While the chili is a holdover, the latter two are new to the menu. Beginning next week, boxed lunches will be available. Bragg said they will offer them just for teachers to begin with, but then expand to offer them to the public. The lunches will already be prepared so a person can’t choose what they want in them, but will only be $5. Blue Apron will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. Due to parent-teacher conferences, the restaurant will be closed the week of Oct. 20. WACC Director Ronna Kawsky said the Blue Apron has signature dishes that remain the same, but also menu items that will change every two weeks. Reservations and pre-orders can be made by emailing blueapron@warsaw.k12.in.us, Bragg said. Kawsky said the WACC website has a link to the Blue Apron menu so people can see it before they order. If anyone has any further questions, she said they can call the direct line at 574-371-5099, Ext. 5074. Thirteen students work at the Blue Apron. Six are in the advanced class and seven in the introduction to culinary arts class, Bragg said. It’s a two-year program, and each student is there for three class periods. “It’s a feeder program from the (family and consumer science) department. There are prerequisites to get in the program. We’re looking to expand it,” Bragg said. Students are eligible for dual credit at Ivy Tech through the program. This is Bragg’s first year as chef at Blue Apron. He replaces Teresa Daggett. Bragg said he spent the last eight years working at Grace College, and 15 years working for Sodexo, “probably the largest food company in the world.” Before that, he was at the Viewpoint Restaurant at the former Ramada Hotel. Prior to that, he worked at the Barbee Hotel, and did an apprenticeship at the Sycamore Hills Country Club in Fort Wayne.
