Introducing The Chef’s Counter
The Chef’s Counter at Burnt Hill Farm
A new tasting menu experience on our regenerative farm and vineyard in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Burnt Hill Farm is a food and wine destination designed to help guests step away from their day-to-day and settle into a slower rhythm and the beauty of nature. Set on a sun-drenched hill overlooking the Appalachian Mountains, Burnt Hill feels a world away, even though it’s just 30 minutes from Washington, DC. Food & Wine named it one of the most beautiful vineyards in America.
In our Tasting Room and Lounge, opened last year, guests enjoy a seasonal à la carte menu featuring estate wines, deep hospitality, and comfort driven food that reflects what we grow, raise, and make here on the farm and across the Chesapeake region. Burnt Hill has always been about bringing wine, food, agriculture, and people together — the magic, as we like to call it.
Now, we are proud to unveil the most intimate expression of that vision.
Introducing the Chef’s Counter at Burnt Hill Farm.
The Chef’s Counter is the fullest expression of Burnt Hill Farm. This intimate 12-seat tasting menu restaurant is set inside the working kitchen of our hilltop farm, where guests are seated with a front row view of the creative process and welcomed into an evening that feels both personal and transportive.
Offered on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 5:30 PM, the Chef’s Counter experience features Chef-Partner Tae Strain’s ever-evolving seven- to nine-course tasting menu reflecting what Asian American flavors mean to him and showcasing Burnt Hill Farm and Mid-Atlantic ingredients. The experience moves fluidly between composed plates and hand-held bites, refinement and comfort, precision and generosity. It is immersive, expressive, and rooted in the ingredients and energy of the farm itself.
Beverage pairings by founding winemaker Lisa Hinton are designed to complement the menu and deepen the experience of Burnt Hill through estate wine and fermentation. Equally thoughtful nonalcoholic pairings are also available, including rotating seasonal water kefirs, house shrubs, and fresh pressed grape juice. Each is made with the same agricultural focus that shapes our wines.
A regenerative farm that feeds the kitchen.
Burnt Hill Farm is a 117-acre regenerative polyculture farm and vineyard in Montgomery County, Maryland. We raise Mangalitsa pigs, Leicester Longwool sheep, and pastured poultry. We grow heritage grains, mushrooms, fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and 50,000 grapevines. Everything works together as part of one living system, feeding the soil, which feeds the kitchen.
That agricultural foundation shapes every part of the Chef’s Counter. It gives the experience a level of freshness, integrity, and distinctiveness that cannot be manufactured. The food does not simply arrive at the farm. It begins here.
Meet Chef Tae Strain.
Chef-partner Tae Strain brings a rare combination of talent, humility, and purpose to Burnt Hill Farm. After years leading acclaimed kitchens, including David Chang’s Momofuku in Washington, DC and Stuart Brioza’s The Progress in San Francisco, Tae returned home to Maryland with a belief that food should be rooted in place and centered on people.
In 2025, he joined our founding siblings as chef-partner to help bring the farm to life through Asian- American heritage cooking and to translate this land through flavor. Tae leads with creativity and care; his focus on teaching, systems, and culture is helping shape Burnt Hill Farm into a living kitchen, where every plate reflects both craft and stewardship.
What guests can expect.
A $75 deposit reserves your seat and is applied to your final check. The experience includes seven to nine courses with either estate reserve wine pairings or equally intentional nonalcoholic pairings for $250. Tax and gratuity are additional. Reservations are available for parties of one to four guests. We are unable to accommodate dietary restrictions or allergies.
How reservations work.
Reservations for the Chef’s Counter are released in drops. Reservations are made through a private Tock link available exclusively to Burnt Hill wine club members and mailing list subscribers. To learn more, view dates and availability, and receive access to book, sign up for our mailing list on our website.
Why this experience matters to us.
It brings us joy to share food and wine made with delicious, nutritious ingredients that we grow, raise, forage, or source locally. At the heart of Burnt Hill Farm is the belief that hospitality can connect people more deeply to the land and to one another. At the Chef’s Counter, strangers become friends, stories are shared, and dinner becomes something more meaningful than a meal.
That is what Burnt Hill Farm is all about. We are honored to welcome guests into this new experience.
-Drew Baker, farmer / founding partner
Please subscribe to our mailing list at the bottom of this page to receive the private reservation link for the Wednesday, April 8 at 7 PM release of May Chef’s Counter dinners and to stay in the know about future culinary events, farm happenings, and new reservation drops.
A view from the Chef’s Counter at Burnt Hill Farm in Clarksburg, Maryland, where guests enjoy an intimate tasting menu experience overlooking one of the most beautiful farm and vineyard settings in the Mid Atlantic.