Thank you for joining us at our No Kid Hungry Dinner in Frederick at VOLT Restaurant!
A special thanks to Host Chef Bryan Voltaggio, VOLT Restaurant and all the chefs that came together for a great event. We hope to see you next year!

Join Us to Help
End Childhood Hunger in America

No Kid Hungry Dinner Frederick

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Volt Restaurant
228 North Market Street
Frederick, MD 21701

6:00 p.m.– Reception
7:30 p.m.– Multi-course seated dinner with wine pairings

GUEST SPEAKER
Marla Caplon, Director of the Division of Food and Nutrition Services, Montgomery County Public Schools

HOST CHEF
Bryan Voltaggio, Volt Restaurant

GUEST CHEFS
Erik Bruner-Yang, Toki Underground, winner of Eater’s “So Hot Right Now” Award, the “Perfect Soup” by Cooking Channel’s Unique Eats
Washington, DC
Spike Gjerde, Woodberry Kitchen, One of the “Top Ten Best New Restaurants” in America by Bon Appétit
Baltimore, MD
Matt Orlando, Chef de Cuisine, NOMA, the “World’s Best Restaurant”, under founder Rene Redzepi
Copenhagen, Denmark
Michael Voltaggio, ink., "Best New Restaurant in America" by GQ in 2012, Winner of Top Chef Season 6
Los Angeles, CA
Eric Ziebold, Executive Chef at CityZen, James Beard Award winner for Best Chef In America 2008, One of the "Hottest Restaurants in the World", One of “America’s Best New Chefs” by Food & Wine Magazine
Washington, DC

Tickets are no longer availble online for tonight's event. If you are intersted in Reception tickets, please call Andrea Agalloco at 202-746-6177 or Rachel Mentzer at 941-928-5400. Tickets for the seated dinner portion of this event are sold out.

Contact Andrea Agalloco at aagalloco@strength.org or 202-478-6528 with any questions.
Space is limited, RSVP required.

Want to sample a few bites from these renowned chefs and check out VOLT’s patio? Join us for the Reception only at the Frederick dinner for just $95!

Chef Bryan Voltaggio

Chef Bryan Voltaggio is at the forefront of a generation of chefs who are reinventing American cooking through a commitment to farm-to-table cuisine. Since opening VOLT in his native Frederick, MD, Voltaggio’s cuisine has earned him many accolades, including being nominated for a coveted James Beard Award as Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2010 and being named Chef of the Year by both the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Share Our Strength and the Restaurant Association of Maryland that same year. He was also a finalist on the sixth season of Bravo TV’s hit show “Top Chef” in 2009.

Already committed to a career in cooking early in his teens, Voltaggio served as sous chef and executive chef at two regional hotel restaurants by the age of 20. Aware of his need for more formal training, he attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, during which time he also cooked at the highly acclaimed Hamilton Inn in nearby Millerton.

Upon graduation, he staged at several restaurants in Manhattan, including Chef Charlie Palmer’s Aureole, where Voltaggio worked his way up to become the restaurant’s sous chef. Several years later, and after a brief, yet informative stage at the Michelin three-star Pic restaurant in Valence, France, Voltaggio returned to assist Palmer as executive chef at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, D.C.

Following nine successful years with Palmer, Voltaggio embarked on his dream  of opening his own restaurant. VOLT opened in 2008, allowing him to bring his cooking philosophies and signature preparations to fruition, characterizing his modern American cuisine as “sophisticated dishes offering classic flavor combinations that are created using fundamental and innovative techniques.”

His menus for VOLT are additionally driven by fresh, seasonal offerings, and the chef is an advocate for meats, seafood, and produce that are locally sourced, sustainable, and organic.

He and his acclaimed chef brother, Michael, have also begun a partnership with Williams Sonoma in which they work together to bring professional culinary techniques into the home kitchen through various videos and products.  In October 2011,  they are releasing cookbook titled – VOLT ink.

Voltaggio, 35, and his wife, Jennifer, live in Frederick with their son, Thacher and daughter, Piper.

Chef Spike Gjerde

Spike Gjerde has been a prominent part of Baltimore’s restaurant community since he opened Spike & Charlie’s with his brother in 1991. The restaurant was the first expression of Spike’s belief in cooking with local, seasonal ingredients—something that would be an integral aspect of all of his culinary endeavors over the next 20 years, including neighborhood bistro jr., the seafood-focused Atlantic, pan-Latin Joy America Café, as well as Vespa, a neighborhood Italian eatery.

Working with the chefs de cuisine at each of his restaurants, Spike seasonally updated and refined the menus. In addition he created seasonal dessert menus for each and was one of the first chefs to take an active role in developing wine programs to complement his cuisine.

Along with his wife, Amy—whom he met while she worked as a pastry chef at jr.—Spike opened Woodberry Kitchen in 2007, continuing his commitment to sustainable operations and working closely with over 60 different farmers and growers throughout the Chesapeake Bay and mid-Atlantic regions, who supply the restaurant with beef, bison, lamb, chicken, eggs, oysters, shrimp, cheeses, and a majority of its produce.

In July 2012, Spike and Amy opened Artifact Coffee a coffee-driven destination featuring food and beverages that are fresh, local and made-to-order all day long. Much like the Gjerdes’ restaurant, Woodberry Kitchen, the coffee shop also relies on Spike’s longstanding relationships with the growers of the Chesapeake and supports sustainable agriculture that respects the abundance and traditions of the region while helping to ensure its future.

Spike’s hard work has resulted in acclaim on a local and national level, including features in Food & Wine, Esquire, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, The Washington Post, NPR and Huffington Post His restaurants have graced the ranks of many “best of” lists, including Bon Appétit’s 2009 Best New Restaurants list, and Spike cooked for a sold-out crowd at the James Beard House in New York. In addition, he is a regular addition to local television programs and has also appeared on CBS’s “Morning Show” and NBC’s “The Today Show.” He is also a member of the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance, which educates the public on the importance of supporting the local economy, and encourages businesses and consumers to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.

Born in Iowa City, IA, Spike and his family moved to Baltimore when he was 6. After receiving his B.A. in philosophy and Chinese at Middlebury College in Vermont, he went on to apprentice as a pastry chef for 18 months at the Baltimore-based Patisserie Poupon. His work has also been informed by his extensive travels in Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean, and Asia.

He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Amy, and their two children.

Chef Michael Voltaggio

Chef Michael Voltaggio has been in the kitchen since he was 15 years old. By 21, he had completed his formal training at the venerable Greenbrier culinary apprenticeship program.  He was immediately hired to work at the Ritz Carlton in Naples where he first immersed himself with what were considered unconventional techniques, under the tutelage of Chef Arnaud Berthelier.  He found that these techniques naturally melded with his classical repertoire, enabling him to cook adventurously with increased precision, eventually informing his signature style. Voltaggio would go on to successfully helm the kitchens for a number of esteemed chefs and restaurants, including Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg where he earned a Michelin star and The Bazaar by José Andrés in Beverly Hills where he was rewarded with a 4-star review.

Voltaggio was a finalist for the James Beard “Best New Restaurant” award in 2009.  That same year, he also earned the title of Top Chef on Bravo TV’s Emmy-award-winning show.  He has established a reputation for what critics heralded as “serious” food that is playful, visually stunning and flawlessly executed. He was also named “Best New Chef” by Angeleno magazine in 2010, cementing a place within the Los Angeles culinary community. Recently, GQ magazine named ink. the “Best New Restaurant in America” in the March 2012 issue; Los Angeles magazine recognized ink. as one of the Top 10 Best New Restaurants in Los Angeles in the January 2012 issue; and in April, Details ranks the restaurant as one of the nation’s “Top 10 Most Fashionable Places to Be Seen (and Eat).”

ink. is Chef Michael Voltaggio’s first signature restaurant. Alluding to the idea of permanence, ink. endeavors to create an indelible impression with flavor profiles that are inspired by the myriad of cultures that make up the city of Los Angeles.  Thusly, he describes the food at ink. as “modern Los Angeles cuisine” and aspires to create an experience that will repurpose the term “fine dining” for Angelenos.  He also recently opened ink.sack, a sandwich shop a few doors down from ink.  The concept is driven by classic flavor profiles that are elevated by premium ingredients and refined techniques. With sandwiches priced and sized to satisfy a palate craving options, ink.sack has established itself as a lunch staple in Los Angeles.