A gourmet $5 lunch at an unlikely South Shore spot - with a chef you might know

SCITUATE – There's a new favorite lunch spot in town, and it's in an unlikely location: the senior center at 333 First Parish Road.

The meals are prepared by an executive chef with years of experience working in South Shore restaurants who wanted to have fun in retirement.

What better place for Fred Willette Jr., 67, than a new senior center?

There's a modern, spacious kitchen, 25 loyal volunteers and a grateful clientele willing to try out new flavors and toast the creator of their culinary adventures.

"It's been very successful and Fred is fabulous," Linda Hayes, director of the senior center, said. "It's been a pleasure seeing this grow and a nice way to introduce the new senior center."

Willette's noontime meals are served Monday through Thursday and draw 40 to 50 seniors. Thursday is fish day, with fresh haddock and other offerings from Mullaney's Harborside Fish Market. It is routinely sold out with a wait list. On Fridays, the Cafe Window is open so people can pick up leftover dishes and desserts.

Seniors from mid-60s into their 90s come from Scituate and other towns including Norwell, Marshfield, Cohasset and Hingham. Anyone can sign up in advance by calling the desk. If you are registered with the senior center, you can also sign up online.

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"Of course, for $5, the meal is absolutely delicious, but it is as much a social event as it is a meal," Maureen Dinsmore, 78, a program volunteer, said. "The way he takes such care in seasoning, tasting as he goes along, even the bread topping on the fish. You can see he just loves to cook."

Willette's father, Fred Willette Sr., 88, was also a chef. He opened the Rib Room in Braintree and worked at Paige's in Hingham Harbor and the Hotel Somerset in Boston. Willette started at age 12 as his father's helper.

Willette graduated from Weymouth South High School in 1972, was a music major at the University of Lowell and then joined a band, playing guitar and keyboard. He also became certified by the Culinary Institute in New York and worked in Boston hotels, at the Whiton House in Hingham and Kimball's by the Sea in Cohasset. He taught cooking at Newbury College in Boston.

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When his wife, Susan, a nursing home social worker, suggested in 2000 he become food service manager at Norwell Knoll Nursing Home, he did so knowing he would have a free hand to create good foods like pates, not all purees. He was there for 14 years and spent six years at Life Care Center in Scituate.

"I loved that job because I wanted to do something useful and I felt like I was making a difference," he said.

Last summer, as the senior center was putting together its new kitchen, Hayes got a tip that the newly retired Willett was available.

"My experience tells me I know my audience and what they are going to like to eat," Willette said as he stirred a bubbling tomato meat sauce. "And no matter what it is, even if it's just meatloaf, it has to be the best meatloaf I can possibly make."

Willette is at the senior center four days a week, 4½ hours a day. He also teaches tai chi form six days a week in Hingham and Cohasset through his HeartMind Tai Chi school. And he writes music and plays guitar and keyboard in a four-man classic rock band called Billy and the Goats.

"I am way busier than I was before I retired," he said. "To have passion for something can give you a perspective you don't have otherwise."

His food service assistant Cameron Reardon said he "loves learning from Fred" and both men rely on the volunteers, seniors and students, to set the tables, serve the meals, wash dishes and clean up.

"We have been so lucky to have 25 dedicated volunteers," director Hayes said. "They assist Fred with preparation, setting up the dining room and serving lunch, in addition to the cleanup and dishes. It is a hearty collection of individuals who are willing to take that job on for us. ... We also have two groups of young people from both the Launch Program serving young adults with special needs providing training and life skills, and also from the iExcel program at Scituate High School."

Each group comes twice per week to set tables and help clean up the dining room and café after lunch.

Willette likes to visit the dining room at the end of each meal and ask how it was.

"It's been very positive," he said of the response. "I want them to be happy out there in the dining room. I feel like I am appreciated here and I try to do the absolute best food I can do."

While he feels he knows what most seniors like – pot roast, meatloaf, ground beef, shepherd's pie, pasta – he's also trying "to stretch the boundaries here and there. So last week we did lo mein salad with tahini miso dressing with grilled pork tenderloin with teriyaki."

He's also tried baby spinach and cavatappi (corkscrew pasta) with sausage and capers, and is considering coconut shrimp with mango salsa.

"We'll see," he said.

The menu for March is posted online, along with the menu for April, which includes baked salmon with rice pilaf, shrimp scampi on linguini, baked haddock and seafood casserole. Other entrees are beef stroganoff, chicken marsala, fettucine with Bolognese sauce and chicken piccata.

"Everybody wants to be here and that is enjoyable for me," Willette said. "I feel the same way."

Reservations for the senior center lunch program are required at least two days or up to two weeks in advance and can be made by calling 781-545-8722 and press 0 or follow the prompts to the front desk.

Congratulations at age 104

Quincy attorney Joel Davidson reports that Lillian Haritos, who lived in Quincy in her own apartment well past age 100, celebrated her 104th birthday Feb. 26 at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston. Lillian is an amazing example of the will to stay independent; on her 100th birthday she was featured here.

"It’s a great honor to know Lillian. She’s very sharp and a pleasure to talk to," Davidson said. "She told me that she has been listening to news of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine all day."

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Cohasset chef creates savory lunches at new Scituate senior center