SHOW 5: Taking a Taste of TheGreenbrier’s Hemisphere with Chef Michael Voltaggio
WATCH: ‘My West Virginia’: Chef Michael Voltaggio
Last April, the Greenbrier Resort reopened after some multimillion dollar renovations. Among the changes unveiled was a new high-end restaurant called Hemisphere where the Old White Club, a Greenbrier institution, used to be found. What visitors discovered there instead was a sleek, stylish new prix fixe restaurant helmed by 29-year-old Chef de Cuisine, Michael Voltaggio, who has a penchant for reinventing familiar foods and dishes in unexpected ways.
“Conceptually, what we wanted to do was create a globally themed menu that would accent the finest products and techniques from around the world.,” says Voltaggio.
In the latest audio slideshow in the “My West Virginia” series, we visit Hemisphere and talk to the chef about his methods and food philosophy. In the 35 photographs that accompany an audio interview with the chef, we take a look of some of the dishes from Hemisphere’s several tasting menus, which include a vegetarian option.
These include Blue Fin Tuna served with white bean-nori pasta, “fried calamari’ and Tahitian vanilla aioli; Scottish prawns flown in twice weekly from Scotland and served with cream of dehydrated broccoli and ginger confit; and the restaurant’s signature dessert, the Hemisphere (emphasis on the <I>’sphere’<P>), a blown sugar sphere filled with seasonal flavors.
The ambition of the restaurant is evident not only in its décor but in its approach to a diner’s options, whether in the four-course, $95 prix five menu or the seven-course chef’s tasting menu, which can run upwards of $125.
Options may include such combinations as Coco-Tea Roasted Quail served with Huitlacoche<co > and Corn Meringue or Squab Breast Pastrami with mustard ice cream and rye consommé, a dish intended to invoke the flavors of a pastrami sandwich on rye in a most unconventional way.
“All we do is take familiar flavors and really just present it in a way that might be a little more unique than the way you might have eaten it before,” says Voltaggio.
Note: Since the interview was conducted some menu items depicted may have changed or been replaced by seasonal variations. For more information on Hemisphere, visit www.greenbrier.com or call 800-624-6070.
– By Douglas Imbrogno
