Students at work in the kitchen of the International Institute of Culinary Arts, in Fall River, which graduated its first class of students in 1998.

The Providence Journal Sandor Bodo

The cooking school started more than a decade ago by renowned Portsmouth chef George Karousos is headed to the auction block Thursday as part of a federal bankruptcy filing made in March.

The trustee in the case, Boston lawyer Warren Agin, will sell off the function hall, liquor license and some of the other goods once part of the International Institute of Culinary Arts. Karousos owes nearly $2.9 million in connection with the school’s operation, including a $1.6-million mortgage Millennium BCP Bank holds on the school property.

Karousos, a master chef, and his wife, Ana Psarros-Karousos, started the culinary school in 1997 in a Fall River church they bought and renovated. Karousos owned and operated the adjacent Abbey Grill.

Among the assets held by the school is an 1897 pipe organ valued at $150,000.

In late June, another Fall River property owned by Karousos sold for $150,000 at a separate foreclosure auction. That property was used as the culinary school’s office.

The school, which graduated its first class of students in 1998, ceased operations this spring.

Karousos and his wife came to prominence in Rhode Island’s culinary sector after starting the Sea Fare Inn, a highly regarded restaurant they opened on Aquidneck Island in 1980.

pgrimald@projo.com