Ebb & Flow, the restaurant at 100 Commercial St., will close March 20 for minor renovations and reopen later with a new chef.

William D’Auvray, the current chef, is moving to North Carolina with his family so he and his wife, Melissa, can be closer to family and pursue their own restaurant projects. Ebb & Flow owner Angelo Ciocca has hired Paolo Laboa, an Italian chef from Genoa, to bring a new concept to Ebb & Flow.

Laboa won the World Pesto Championship in Genoa in 2008. After working at restaurants in Italy, he moved to the United States, where he was executive chef at the well-regarded Farina restaurant in San Francisco. He has also worked at Pride’s Osteria in Beverly, Mass., and Bistro Don Giovanni in Napa, Calif.

You can watch Laboa make his “perfect pesto” on You Tube.