Frederick has a very lively weekend vibe with tourists enjoying the sites and shops of Market Street and the immediate area. Thus there is great opportunity for a brunch options that can represent Frederick’s dining potential. When I first acknowledged this demand, I was somewhat skeptical: Would we have enough time and staff to meet the need? How could we take traditional brunch fare and make it our own?

But as with many things in our first month of operation, we dove into brunch head-on this Sunday, and I’m pleased with our results. There were certainly some bumps that we will need to smooth out in the upcoming weeks - recipes will change and dishes will continue to come together. I particularly want to continue to understand how far can we go to take a very traditional service and create very unique dining experience. But our guests were satisfied and several vowed to make VOLT their regular Sunday brunch destination. I think this has great potential to be a creative outlet, especially in pastry. Our brunch bread service features a selection of muffins, scones, and brioche, the variety of which will keep our staff on their toes in the weeks to come.

Supporting local purveyors is one of the cornerstones of menu development at VOLT. We are fortunate enough to have a wide selection of suppliers from which to choose as well as a thriving weekly market. One dish that showcases this philosophy is our Monocacy Gold Cheesecake with Macerated Plums and lemon verbena sorbet featured on our seven course tasting menu. Both Cherry Glen Farm, owned by Diane Kirsch & Wayne Cullen in Boyds, Maryland, and Catoctin Mt. Orchard in Thurmont provide the local ingredients. From Cherry Glen we get an outstanding mild chevre with which we make our cheesecake, and from Catoctin Mt. Orchard, we receive fresh Methley Plums at the peak of their growing season. The two products come together to delicious effect on the plate and provide a snapshot of the wealth of local agriculture available to us.

www.catoctinmtorchard.com

Nancy Luse FNP’s Assistant Managing Editor and columnist for the Wednesday Food Section

We had a recent visit in the VOLT kitchen from The Frederick New Posts Managing Editior and Columnist for the Wednesday Food Section. During her visits Nancy, who is no stranger to the kitchen of course, helped prepare for dinner service. This is a snap shot of her hard work on one of the canapes for the evening. She prepared a spherical ravioli of pineapple with cilantro and vanilla sea salt.

Nancy, thank you again for bailing us out!!! and I look forward to having you back soon.

Taking lessons and posing for a picture

Pineapple spheres

Finished product

One of the tennants of the cuisine at VOLT is to use as much of the product - animal, vegetable, etc - as possible. So, when we received a baby pig thanks to, Sylvia at Four Story Hills Farm, I couldn’t wait to put that into effect. The most exciting by-product of our boon was a chicharrones canape which we served as a part of our seven course tasting. Chicharrones are otherwise known as crackling or pork rinds. We made ours by blanching and dehydrating the pig skin and then deep frying it at a very high heat. When its fried, the skin curls around into a tight coil, which we then pull from each end to get a longer, thin spiral. We then wind a delicate web of cotton candy around the spiral and finish it off with a dusting of curry salt. The combination is a celebration of the marriage between sweet and savory; the bacony pig skin crunches beneath the sugary cotton candy and the curry salt perks up both while engaging the palate.

Cheers!