Baltimore’s new top chef

The hottest restaurant in Baltimore isn’t in Baltimore, said Elizabeth Large in the Baltimore Sun. It’s Volt in Frederick, Md., 50 miles to the west. After chef-owner Bryan Voltaggio began appearing on Bravo’s Top Chef reality show this season, waiting times for reservations started stretching to weeks.

Although the New American cuisine can run to $75 a person and up, it’s “worth the trip and the cost.” The menu changes seasonally, and dishes are appealing “both intellectually and viscerally.” Meals begin with a chef’s canapé and fennel breadsticks. The first-course charcuterie plate is “a work of art” that shows the range of pork “from rillettes to headcheese.”

Among the entrées, the pork loin with fennel, plums, and Swiss chard makes you just “want to curl up and get cozy.” Another autumn offering is the guinea fowl “jauntily sharing space with a pretty bit of cabbage,” some parsnips, and warm Concord grapes. Perhaps the best dish, though, is the halibut accompanied by ruby quinoa, winter squash, and Marcona almonds.

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228 N. Market St., Frederick, (301) 696-8658; Voltrestaurant.com