Dec 4, 2015 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Dan Wagner was struck by something a visiting chef from Kentucky told him last year while helping with the Greene County Career and Technology Center’s annual holiday buffet.

Jeff Cecil, a chef from Sullivan University, helped Wagner and the technical school students prepare the meal that fed hundreds, but it wasn’t the unique menu that inspired him.

“It was amazing. He was just blown away,” Wagner said.

“He thought it was about food, but at the end of the day he said it was really about the community enjoying themselves, meeting new friends and gathering with old friends who haven’t seen each other for a while.”

Wagner and his students are once again hosting the popular buffet lunch – with the help of Cecil – next week at the Career and Technology Center. The lunch will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 11 and costs $12 for adults and $8 for children 12 and younger.

The buffet lunch has been held for more than 25 years, and Wagner expects 350 to 400 people to attend the upcoming one. Four dining rooms will be open. Wagner said the team is working to speed up its service this year.

“It’s about the community coming together, and it’s become a great event,” he said.

This year’s food selections include a “Taste Across America” menu that pulls popular recipes from New England, New Orleans, the American Southwest, Texas and, yes, Kentucky.

“We were looking at the country in general, and people don’t realize the different tastes and different regions we have,” Wagner said. “We just love the American theme.”

The New England menu will include a clam bake, Yankee pot roast and seafood Newburg; the Texas selection will be “smoked products” such as ham, baby back ribs and pulled pork; New Orleans items feature chicken and sausage gumbo, Southwest styling will have Mexican street corn and seafood stew cioppino; and the Kentucky menu will have cheese grits and Southern fried chicken.

Wagner said there will also be an “average day food” table of local favorites such as hot sausage, meatballs and pierogies. In addition, the buffet will include 18 different salads and a variety of other entrees.

Wagner, along with 26 students and other support staff, are working hard to pull off the buffet. He said they spent the last few days baking and will now spend long nights next week working to pull it all together.

“It gets the kids an opportunity to learn,” Wagner said of the opportunity for students to work with several different chefs. “It’s just a whole week of working our tails off.”

Tickets can be purchased at the door, although groups larger than six are asked to call 724-627-3106 ahead of time.