News From The Cheese Caves

One would ask: “What does coffee have to do with cheese?” Everything I might say.

For instance, there are three major coffee producing continents: The Americas, Africa and South East Asia, with each country on each continent bringing its own flavor and subtleties despite the fact that they come from the same species of tree. Coffee shares this fickle trait with cheese. One can make a goat cheese anywhere in the world, from the same breed, but the flavors will change depending on the location that the cheese is being made.

However, the difference of flavor depending on origin is not the only common trait that coffee and cheese share.

Do you remember (10 years ago, or even less in certain places) when you asked what cheeses were featured in the restaurant cheese plate? The answer was usually brie, a goat, a blue and a cheddar or Swiss cheese.

Coffee is still at that basic culinary level in most restaurants.

Indeed when asked about coffee, from the late night diner to the 3-star Michelin restaurants, the question is the same: REGULAR OR DECAF?

Coffee has so much more to offer that it is the reason why Artisanal is exploring the java bean. I myself can not drink coffee anywhere else. It’s not about snobbism, it is just about that I finally know what a good cup of coffee is after 20 something years of drinking it!

The coffee we roast daily comes from either single estate or single farm. This is how you really get the nuances of coffee from one continent, from one country to another. When people ask me what is my favorite coffee I am now proud to answer the same way I answer when people ask me about my favorite cheese: it depends on my mood, on the weather.

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Technorati Profile
An interview with Executive Chef Armando Monterroso from the Marriott Marquis. The Marriott Marquis is located at
1535 Broadway, NY, NY 10036.

1. Chef Armando, when did you decide you wanted to be a Chef?
I realized when I failed my engineering school (laugh). At the time I needed to earn my “college money” so I worked in the kitchen. What I really enjoyed first was the camaraderie. When I decided to learn my trade, I went to the Culinary School of Johnson and Wales. There I got a degree in Hospitality and Culinary.

2. Do you find some similarities between engineering and culinary?
I do. I enjoy planning and designing a menu so there are definitively similarities. It has to look good, to have a good structure in the dish. It has to be harmonious.

3. Did you have a mentor when you left Johnson & Wales?
I’ve learned from numerous chefs. I did not follow one in particular. I think to be good you have to be a sponge and learn from a lot of other people.

4. How do you apply what you’ve learned at the Marriott Marquis?
You always have to ask yourself what your specialty is and what you excel at. My specialty is to be able to adapt myself to the situation that is happening in front of me.
To take an analogy in sports, I see myself as a football coach. For instance we’ve recently launched 3 new restaurant menus, a new catering menu, and a new concept: a cheese, chocolate and champagne bar every Friday and Saturday.
It takes a lot of adaptation to make this happens. You have your plans but you need to be able to change them a little bit, to tweak them.

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Even the most extraordinary figures in world history were mere mortals, who everyday took sustenance, as we all must. What follows is the true account of one such legendary figure and his encounter with some compressed curds.

Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as the father of Europe: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity. King Charlemagne lived from 742 until 814, considered kind, yet fiercely defensive of his family and Empire, there is much to admire, especially his discerning pallet.

The following excerpt was taken from a biography of Charlemagne written by a monk at Saint Gall monastery in the late 9th century. (aprox. 865 A.D.):

Charlemagne was traveling and stopped at a bishop’s residence at dinnertime. “Now on that day, being the sixth day of the week, he was not willing to eat the flesh of beast or bird. The bishop, being by reason of the nature of the place unable to procure fish immediately, ordered some excellent cheese, white with fat, to be placed before him. Charles….. required nothing else, but taking up his knife and throwing away the mold, which seemed to him abominable, he ate the white of the cheese. Then the bishop, who was standing nearby like a servant, drew close and said ‘Why do you do that, lord Emperor? You are throwing away the best part.’ On the persuasion of the bishop, Charles….. put a piece of the mold in his mouth and slowly ate it and swallowed it like butter. Then, approving the bishop’s advice, he said ‘Very true, my good host,’ and he added, ‘Be sure to send me every year two cartloads of such cheeses.’”

Both lovers of Brie and Roquefort cheese claim the story is about their favorite cheese, but it was probably Roquefort cheese.

At Artisanal we consider it to be an excellent account of the first wholesale cheese order.

-Heather
Assistant to the CEO

I recently completed my Master Cheese Class at the Artisanal Cheese Center and although I completely reveled in the tasting experience, I also enjoyed the tales and legends of how so many cheeses have come to be. In fact, as I ate the cheese and learned its story, I found that I enjoyed the experience more!

Some of the stories are obvious legends while others are based in fact. Regardless, they all aid in giving a cheese and identity that goes beyond taste, aroma or look. A few of these stories are as follows:

Valencay (France): This was Napoleon favorite cheese. At that time, this cheese looked like a pyramid. However, when the Emperor was defeated by the Egyptians he returned to France, and not ever wanting to see another pyramid in his presence, chopped off the top of the cheese, subsequently changing the shape of this cheese.

Beaufort (France): This concave cheese earned its unique shape in order to facilitate transport from the mountainous Alps to the valleys. Ropes were tied around the cheese and hung over the saddlebags. In order for the ropes to be tied properly, the cheese was given a concave shape for better hold.

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We have cheese-makers, cheese tastings, cheese classes and now—cheese carvers? Just when you thought curd nerds couldn’t get anymore obsessed, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve witnessed Sarah Kaufmann, one of the nations few professional cheese carvers at work.

I had the pleasure and fascination of watching Sarah and her crew at work at last year’s American Cheese Society Conference in Chicago. Her cheese creation was the crowning glory of the Festival of Cheese, where over 1100 types of cheeses were beautifully displayed and eaten by the conference attendees. Thirty famous Chicago area buildings carved from hunks of cheddar, blue, Parmesan and goat cheese were started and completed in one day.

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In Oliver, the musical, there is a whole song on the glory of food. However, I have taken it upon myself to replace the word “food” with “cheese” because it is far more fitting. And whenever I’m around cheese, I can’t help but hum the chorus:

Cheese glorious cheese!
We’re anxious to try it!
Three banquets a day
Our favorite diet!

Certainly, cheese could become anyone’s favorite diet, because once given all the reasons on the ‘power’ of cheese, you’ll soon realize that it is truly a glorious food. It was quickly apparent to me once I started working at the Artisanal Cheese Center.

Most would agree that cheese is tasty, can be eaten alone and makes other foods taste even better. However, after working at the Artisanal’s cheese caves and discovering all the varieties of cheese that exist, the reasons to love cheese have become even more specific. These reasons are many but in the interest of this blog, I’ve narrowed them down to my top 10, which I share with you in the following order:

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It’s been one of my favorite breakfasts for years – some fresh fruit, a great cheese, and some fresh-brewed coffee, maybe with a little honey thrown in, either on the cheese or directly into my black coffee. I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of great fruit options available for most of my life, especially while growing up in Brazil. At a fairly early age I often took a sip of fine rich coffee with a little milk and sugar mixed in. There was a coffee bean roasting plant across the street from my grade school in Brazil, and the aromas wafting around my classroom made it difficult to resist. Fortunately my mother let me taste a little of her coffee, with milk and sugar; I became a big fan of good coffee at an early age, I’m a little spoiled that way.

Before I fell in love with good coffee I developed an appreciation for cheese. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t trust the cheeses in Brazil back then, so during my formative years I only had two of those three parts of the start of the day: the fruits (many) and the coffee (fresh-roasted and heavenly).

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I see the flower everywhere outside. “It’s about time,” she says. The hunt for the first morel mushroom start with the first sunny day and chefs are ready to pay money for them. “Are you going to bring me some? She says. I reply, “Is it not funny to see a knowledgeable gourmet rushing after a mushrooms?”

I have flowers growing years round in my caves. Cheeses flourishes all the time with humidity. White bloomy Penicillium candidum and Penicillium camemberti, Blue Penicillium roqueforti, Red Brevi Bacterium Linens, Yellow Sulfur Chrysosporium sulfureum or skin type Mucor like the desirable Geotrichum candidum (often encounter on goat cheese) or the less desirable Debaryomices which could make a hole in the rind.

This is why you always forgot to bring roses she asks?
With such beautiful living organism flourishing year round in the caves, I don’t remember to bring you others varieties, I confess.

Did you eat them she asks?
Of course I like the rind of Geotrichum covering the ripened goat. I also like the natural blue flourishing inside Bleu de Termignon or Gamonedo. I am pretty sure most of people eat the young rind of Brie and Camembert even if I often cut them when they show some orange mark – sign of ammonia – and surely, I love the Roqueforti grown on rye bread and inoculated in Roquefort cheese.

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