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Greg Griffin, a longtime local lobsterman and Cape Elizabeth High School alumnus, cooks up a batch of his secret-recipe lobster stew for students, staff and senior-citizen visitors at the school.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Elsie and Ken Maxwell stop by to sample the stew.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Students examine lobsters pulled from the waters off Cape Elizabeth.

CAPE ELIZABETH — Greg Griffin, wearing jeans and a sweater, stood behind a small table in the center of the Cape Elizabeth High School cafeteria. Two live but stunned-looking lobsters lounged on a tray in front of him.

A group of students, their bellies full of Griffin's lobster stew, gathered around to listen to the longtime lobsterman explain how a lobster sheds its shell.

"This entire claw pulls right out through that teeny, weeny hole," Griffin said, picking up one of the lobsters and pointing to the precise spot on its shell. "That's how soft they are. And then this lobster sits there and blows itself up with water. He inflates himself and stretches his (new) shell that's about the consistency of a wet paper towel. That's how it's going to make room to grow for the next year or two, and then it starts to calcify. Its first meal is its old shell."

A cascade of "Ewwwws" was followed by a query from one of the grossed-out students: "Can I touch it?"

Griffin returned to his old high school to mingle with students and feed them his secret-recipe lobster stew. Ted Jordan, the school's maritime history teacher, lured him here. Jordan worked as Griffin's stern man a summer ago, and now sits on a new committee that is trying to better connect the high school to the community through food.

Farmers, fishermen and chefs who live or work in Cape Elizabeth are coming to the school once a month to cook for and talk with the 600 students and staff.

Local farmer Penny Jordan, the Cape Farm Alliance and Jason Williams, chef de cuisine at Portland's Back Bay Grill, have participated. Mitchell Kaldrovich, executive chef at the Cape's Inn by the Sea, is scheduled to make an appearance in January, and Steve Corry of Portland's Five Fifty-Five will visit in March.

The school is inviting senior citizens who have deep roots in the town to have lunch with the students on the days the chefs visit so they can share their stories and get to know each other better.

The project includes a major upgrade of the cafeteria's design and equipment, funded by nearly $20,000 in grants from the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation and Let's Go, an initiative to promote healthy lifestyles in Maine children and families. Some of the money was used for a new salad bar that features as much locally grown produce as possible.

"We have so many vegetable farms in our town, and we have so many farmers and fishermen," said Nora Daly, a senior who is on the school's new wellness committee. "There are so many resources, and our group thought that we should be using them instead of just getting food from thousands of miles away."

The lobsters in Griffin's stew were provided by several local lobstermen. The critters were definitely local, caught around Richmond Island and Ram Island Farm.

"These are lobsters that have literally spent their lives here," Griffin said. "I can show you crusher claws of lobsters from Ram Island and they don't look the same as crusher claws from lobsters off the Lobster Shack. There's something unique about them. And when you hold up a claw, the meat section of the claw, down by Ram Island they're about half-again bigger. They're like Popeye lobsters."

The lobster stew was made with 20 pounds of meat extracted from 120 pounds of lobsters. Griffin's "secret ingredient?" Coffee creamer. He combines it with the juice from the claws to make a roux. The creamer adds a little sweetness to the stew that works well with its natural saltiness, Griffin said.

Reid Douty and Chase Hewitt, both sophomores, gave Griffin's lobster stew -- and the school's new emphasis on local foods -- two thumbs up. "It's nice to have some good food and be healthy at the same time," Douty said as he dug into a cup of the stew.

Nora Daly said that on days when there is a guest chef, students have been talking their teachers into letting them out of class early so they...