The lovely Carroll County hotel Antrim 1844, pictured above, announced this week that a new executive chef is in the kitchen, replacing longtime chef Michael Gettier. Chef Spencer Wolff sounds like just the toque for the job at the inn’s award-winning Smokehouse Restaurant.
A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, he has worked as the executive chef at The Hyatt Regency Schaumburg-Chicago and The Hamilton Hotel in D.C. among other restaurants. He focuses on contemporary American cuisine, according to a press release.
The multi-course, prix-fixe meal at Antrim has always been a treat. The restaurant, a perennial on our Best Resaurants list, welcomes diners in the main drawing room with hors d’oeuvres before escorting them to dining rooms for the main courses.
In the past, the staff presented guests with the night’s menu signed by Gettier, the former chef. I’m not sure if Wolff will continue that nicety. But it got me to wondering about Michael Gettier.
He carved quite a cooking niche in Baltimore—from the lauded Conservatory to his own French-influenced M. Gettier in Fells Point to buying the old Hersh’s Orchard Inn in Towson before landing at Antrim.
I was able to catch up with him on Facebook. And all is well.
Gettier, pictured, and chef Travis Wright have joined forces to form a new company called Kerfuffle Foods in Baltimore. They make vegetarian entrees, side dishes, and some desserts for wholesale to chefs and catering companies.
“Quite a difference to the restaurant gig!” he said in a message.
Sounds like a happy ending or great new beginning. Good luck to chefs Wolff and Gettier in their endeavors.
Photo courtesy of Kerfuffle Foods Facebook page