Brunch At The Borland House: Gourmet Hospitality In NY's Hudson Valley

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The popularity of brunch shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, some culinary destinations devote some serious space to this Instagram-worthy meal. Take for example The Borland House Bed & Breakfast in historic Montgomery, NY. Located in the Hudson Valley Food & Wine region, the inn has the area's only farm-to-table restaurant that's focused on brunch. Helmed by manager and chef Anna Claire Frumes, The Borland House features delectable seasonal menus with farm fresh ingredients. Guests can also book a cooking class, have a private 5-course tasting menu, or just kick back, relax, and indulge in all of the gourmet goodness. One of the cooking classes available (by the way) is pastry baking, with a brunch focus of course, where participants learn to make items such as croissants. Here's a bit of info on Chef Anna and the B&B, plus some quick brunch tips for at-home hosts!

What prompted you to have your restaurant be brunch-focused?
Being a bed and breakfast we were already focused on providing gourmet breakfasts for our guests. It seemed very natural to extend our breakfast into lunch providing a brunch menu for both our guests and now the public at large, through our brunch house restaurant.

What are some of your favorite brunch dishes?
Our most popular dishes include our poached eggs on artisan rye with creamed leeks and black lava salt and our pearl sugar night risen waffles with our homemade seasonal compotes.

Who are some of the local purveyors you work with to source ingredients?
We exclusively use the Farms2Tables Hudson Valley purveyor, which provides us with food and products from over 100 farms, ranches, and food producers around the region.

What inspires your cooking?
My menu is strongly influenced by my childhood growing up on a farm and what foods I think of as comfort foods.

Hosting your own brunch for a large group of friends? Here are a few simple insights from Chef Anna to help you get prepped with less stress.

1) Baked French Toast or yeast-risen waffles are great to make ahead of time to have a gourmet brunch with little effort on the morning of.

2) As always, crudités and charcuterie platters easy popular brunch items.

3) Par baking (partially baking) pastries, quiche, breads, and pies and freezing them can allow you to have fresh-baked items the day of with minimal effort.

4) Poached eggs can be made a day before and cooled quickly in ice water, then refrigerated, for a quick Eggs Benedict.