LYNN – Matt O’Neil, executive chef and partner of The Blue Ox Restaurant and Bar, received celebrity treatment when he met with the Harrington School Library Club Monday.The club, made up of approximately a dozen fourth- and fifth-grade students, has been meeting once a week since February. The goal of the club is to combine a love of reading with a service component for the students. O’Neil met with the students to bring alive the tale of Paul Bunyan, a tall tale that also relates to the Massachusetts English/Language Arts standards.”I thought the partnership between the (club) and the Blue Ox was a natural as all the book club members love to read and eat,” librarian Carole Shutzer said. “Since the Blue Ox Restaurant is named after Babe, the blue ox in the story of Paul Bunyan, I thought to contact the restaurant to see if they would be willing to work with the Library Book Club. Both Joanna (Matt’s wife) and Matt were incredibly receptive and happy to treat the students to a culinary pancake feast and a discussion about the critical importance of reading and hard work.”O’Neil said it was a lot of fun and the name of his restaurant does in fact correlate with Bunyan’s companion.”It is nice to be a part of the community. At The Blue Ox we try to be as involved with the community as we are able. Kids are so important for the future, so it is nice to work with them and show them what we’re about at the restaurant and what community outreach can do for them,” O’Neil said.”Matt read the story to students after we enjoyed a wonderful snack of pancakes and syrup, two of Paul Bunyan’s favorite foods,” Shutzer said.She said O’Neil made flowers out of the maple butter, giving the pancakes a touch of elegance. They discussed everything from food preparation to the students’ favorite foods, healthy nutrition, Matt’s baby, Miles, and what he is starting to eat, as well as O’Neil’s college and culinary school experience and how to run a successful restaurant.”They were interested in food and the topic of me being a chef. It was great and a lot of fun,” O’Neil said. “They were joking around, (having) fun and really interested in food. They were asking for my autograph after. I felt like a celebrity in there.”He told the story about how he named his restaurant The Blue Ox as it is on Oxford Street and he is hoping to persevere through any difficulties he comes across in business, like Paul Bunyan does in the tale.”They gave me a recipe book the students made with 10 or 15 recipes and a lot of them are really great,” he said. “I might even make some at the restaurant. It is interesting to see what they’re eating at home.”Recipes included enchiladas, bread pudding, steak dishes and octopus salad. O’Neil said the recipes were very cultural and gave him a good idea as to what the kids are growing up eating.”I grew up eating food that was always prepared and nowadays you see so much fast food and TV dinners,” he said. “It is nice to see that it is not happening there and these students are eating very ethnic, cultural food that is American, South American or Spanish influence. It’s nice to see that and that they’ll be doing that for their kids. It’s very important. It was really fun. I had a blast and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.”