ROCKLAND—After three years, the Osprey Nest Café, a teen-run restaurant curriculum at the Mid-Coast School of Technology, is back and better than ever.

Their Mexican-themed lunch featured chafers of chicken mole, shrimp enchiladas, vegan Chilaquiles, Arroz Rojo, Caldo de Pallo, and other delicious sides, salad, and soup. The showpiece of the dessert station (besides the fried ice cream, Mexican rice pudding, and other sweet treats) was a gigantic dark chocolate castle fashioned by the freshman pastry chef students.

“It took the students about three weeks to make the castle,” said, Steven Watts, Baking & Pastry Teacher. “No one has ever baked before. In my class, we’re pastry chefs. Pastry chefs get very creative.”

Watts previously owned Sweet Sensations and Three Dogs Café in Rockport and has been teaching the Mid-Coast School of Technology students since September.

“I really love to teach; it’s fun,” he said. “We have a beautiful kitchen and I share a lot of my recipes with the students. I like to show them that [the culinary program] is not all about making chocolate chip cookies. We’re pastry chefs; this is stuff you’ll learn at a culinary institute and these kids are learning it in high school.”

The Osprey Nest Café runs for six weeks from March 28 to May 12. The café and bake shop are open to the public with cuisine themes changing weekly. It is a simulation environment designed to give students the opportunity to interact with guests and learn to produce restaurant-quality food, just as they would when beginning a career in the hospitality industry.

For more information visit: mcst8.org/ospreynest.  Reservation link: https://www.rubiconcampus.org/osprey/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com