PHOTO PROVIDED Student chefs prepare dishes at Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Le Jeune Chef.

Celebrating its 40th year of operation, Le Jeune Chef, a staple of Pennsylvania College of Technology offers broad educational opportunities for its students while giving the public a memorable fine dining experience.

“We’re in a unique position as a restaurant,” explained Brian Walton, Assistant Dean for Business and Hospitality.

“We’re a student run restaurant, and our mission is being an educational restaurant that doesn’t compete with, or do the same things that other local restaurants are doing,” he said.

“We’d like to show people what hospitality should look like without taking directly out of the pockets of the many awesome restaurants in this community and we want to continue to build the partnerships that we have with local restaurateurs,” Walton said.

Walton said the goal of Le Jeune Chef was to provide a live learning lab to teach its students to be future leaders in this industry, whether that be getting ready to run their own or someone else’s hospitality operation, while giving them a reliable part time employment opportunity that works around their class schedule.

“Learning at Le Jeune Chef crosses the gamut of the hospitality industry. We’ve got students who are running and operating their own cafes, their own food trucks, and working in somebody else’s hospitality operation,” Walton said.

A number of connections between the college and other organizations also give the students a leg up on post-graduate endeavors, Most notably the Kentucky Derby.

“That sets up the students really well for a number of different options that they might find along the way, because just because they graduated from culinary school doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be a chef,” he stressed.

Two of the major teaching points of the restaurant are adaptability and sustainability.

“Everything on your plate, everything on your buffet, should be edible, and we should be minimizing waste, so we’ve been able to adapt from a true international cuisine to a casual, fine dining restaurant that meets the needs of not only what our customers and guests are used to, but also where the industry is going,” Walton explained.

For the public interested in getting a taste of Le Jeune’s offerings, the restaurant offers a number of options and a rotating schedule, with Monday through Friday open for lunch, and Wednesday through Saturday reserved for academic dinners.

“The academic dinners, typically in March through May, are on Wednesday nights, and they’re a five course regional American cuisine. And then in the fall, typically, August through October, we run Thursday night dinners for global cuisines, which is the international style menus, where we include dishes from Asia, Africa, Europe and others,” Walton said.

“I would really love the community to know that we’re open year round to the public, and every time they come in, they are helping our students. We’re not running these dinners because we just want to be open. We’re running them for the purpose of teaching our students,” Walton stressed.

When you come here, you will get excellent, top of line service and amazing food in an atmosphere that’s top notch for a reasonable price,” Walton said.

While not being a public cooking school, there are impromptu classes where patrons may be invited into the kitchen to learn how to make the meal of the night. A great opportunity for a date night or just a get-together with friends, according to Walton.

“We do a number of team development or team building exercises,” Walton explained.

“We recently did one for a local company where we took them into our labs, and we did pizza making with them. It was a great way for them to let their hair down, so to speak, and kind of laugh as people were throwing pizzas around the lab, and then they made their own dinner that night,” he explained.

And unlike many restaurants, Le Jeune Chef is also more than happy to share their recipe with anyone interested in having a go with it for themselves.

An upcoming event Walton is particularly excited for will occur on Oct. 25, when George Logue, of Herman and Luthers will feature as a visiting chef.

“He’s one of our graduates, as well as a local staple in the community,” he said.

Anyone interested in more information are encouraged to check out Le Jeune Chef on their website, www.pct.edu/le-jeune-chef, and across all social media, including their YouTube channel, which features instructional and how-to videos.