Monday, Chef Scott Brake prepared a special ratatouille and Parmesan risotto combo to top cooked peppers.

“They weren’t very popular,” Brake said. “But getting students to branch out and try new things is part of my job.”

Brake remarks the Asian spice curry with a rice-like grain he made Wednesday was popular and it will be a recurring menu item.  

In fact, almost all of the Asian dishes Bistro is cooking now are gluten free. Brake enthused about a new fangled gluten free, low sodium, non GMO soy sauce that he’s using to add flavor. All the Asian products Bistro acquires now are all natural and most of them gluten free, so Chef Brake plans on routinely preparing Asian hot-lunches.

Alternative gluten free lunch options are always mentioned on emailed menu at the end of the week. Even if they don’t showcase themselves in the refrigerators as grab-and-go items, “if I say I have it [in the emails], it’s always somewhere in the kitchen,” Brake says.