A professional eater's amateur thoughts on cheese

Did you know that August is National Goat Cheese month? In celebration of this month long holiday, I thought I’d say my piece on cheese plates.

Now, I’m no expert on cheese, but I have had (way more than) my fair share of it throughout my cooking career. Until relatively recently, cheese plates were something of a novelty on American restaurant menus. Within the past ten years, it seems that just about anywhere you go to eat offers artisan cheeses either as an appetizer or a dessert. Of these artisan cheeses that are being offered, there are now a wide variety of fantastic domestic cheeses available. Ten years ago, this wasn’t the case. This year at the American Cheese Society Awards there where over 1300 domestic cheeses being shown! I’d say that’s quite an accomplishment for America.

I’ve worked in restaurants where it was looked down upon to start the meal with a plate of cheese, and also in restaurants that had it under the heading of “appetizers” or “starters”. My answer to the stuffier places that think that the only time to eat cheese is after a meal is this: Who cares when you eat it? All that really matters is that you are enjoying it.

There are countless ways to enjoy cheese. Whether it be on a cracker or a crusty baguette, an apple or with a little mostarda, no way is the wrong way. For me a nicely balanced cheese plate would consist of the following factors:

1) a buttery, spreadable double or triple cream cheese such as CowGirl Creamery's Red Hawk or Old Chatham Sheephearding Company's Hudson Valley Camembert
2) a firmer, slightly nutty cheese such as Ewephoria or Abbaye de Belloc
3) a blue cheese such as Tilston Point or Fourme d' Ambert
4) something sweet
5) something salty
6) bread or crackers
7) all cheese at room temperature

Within these requirements on my dream cheese plate there would be a cow’s, a goat’s and a sheep’s milk cheese (and a stinky one! But that’s just me.). I like to mix and match flavors; like a slightly warmed piece of bread spread with a little of Jasper Hill’s creamy Constant Bliss, topped with a dollop of peach-hazelnut chutney. Or a toasted slice of fennel bread with a hunk of Tomme Crayeuse and a smidge of ratatouille relish….or my all time favorite, just about anything with mostarda.

What is mostarda you say? Well I’ll tell you my friend; it’s the ultimate condiment. If you’ve never had this sweet, tangy and sometimes spicy Italian concoction, I recommend that you do not pass go, you do not collect $200, and that you go directly to your nearest specialty or cheese shop and ask for some. Mostarda, also known as mustard fruit or mostarda di frutta is condiment classically made of fruit and a mustard flavored syrup. In my version, I like to use dried fruit and add in a little prepared horseradish for an extra kick. At Market, it’s used not only on the cheese plates, but also as the perfect accompaniment to the rich, crispy duck confit.

This recipe is a combination of a few different recipes that came up when I googled it. From there, it has been tweaked time and time again. And now I present you, my friends:

Golden Raisin Mostarda
makes about 3 cups

1 c sugar
3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp whole yellow mustard seeds, slightly toasted
1 cup golden raisins
2 Tbsp high quality dijon mustard
3 Tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Add mustard seed and raisins and return to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer until mixture has reached a syrupy consistency, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Let cool. This can be stored in a sealed container for a really long time.

Family Meal Cinnamon Rolls

It’s summer time and the Del Mar Race track is in full swing. For us, this means everyday is busy and the kitchen is not only hectic, but also sweltering. There are a lot of bodies in our tiny kitchen, bumping into each other constantly with no apologies, and trying to maintain their manliness by not complaining about the heat. We’ve come a long way from when we opened three years ago with three of our own cooks and also the ones that were provided to us from the previous restaurant. What a long transition period that was! During that time we were going through cooks like most people go through underwear, a new one everyday. Some of them couldn’t handle the heat, some of them just didn’t understand our philosophy, and most of them were just down right bad cooks.

When we are looking to hire someone new, we always have them come in for a stage, or working interview. In hindsight, we probably could’ve saved ourselves a lot of time and paperwork had we just asked our stages to make family meal. Ahhh family meal…the test of a truly good cook. There is no recipe, no step-by-step instruction, you just make something and everyone sits down together and eats it. Usually we have a stage peel carrots or make ridiculous amounts of oven dried tomatoes, mostly to test their patience and commitment to the task, but having them actually cook a meal for everyone using minimally desirable ingredients, probably could’ve saved us some time in the hiring process. We could weed out those who can’t season, sear, or blanch properly, and also those that crack under the pressure. This could’ve been really entertaining to watch too. The day-to-day grind can become rather mundane: you need some disastrous event to break up the monotony.

When we aren’t using it as a test, really it’s just sustenance; stomach wadding, to get us through the day and nourish ourselves on some level. Not all family meals are created equal. I’ve seen some hilarious and terrible ones; even from employees that I would consider to be really good cooks. There was the time that an otherwise stellar employee made tuna salad sandwiches on toast so dried out that it cut the roofs of our mouths and left us extremely parched. Or when a cook known for his heavy hand with rich ingredients made something that he called “Mac and cheese with hot dogs”. Now, this wouldn’t have been all that bad if it weren’t the middle of summer, and something like 102 degrees in the kitchen. Also, the macaroni itself was swimming along side the luke warm hot dog chunks in a sea of cheesy, salty cream. The whole concoction was not worthy of the name “Mac and cheese”.

All joking aside, there are more good ones than bad ones, mostly because now we have killer cooks. Family meal is not an assignment. It’s made by whoever can get to it, and during the long hot days of summer, it’s amazing that anyone has time. There are days when we throw a frozen lasagna in the oven and hope for the best, and then there are the days, like Sundays, when everyone pitches in a little something and we have brunch. A tradition around here has become the sticky buns. They’re so easy to make, we might even trust a stage to do it.

Make 15 large cinnamon rolls in a 200 pan.

Dough

2 1/2 cups flour
1 T salt
1 cup milk, warm, not hot!
1 T instant yeast
1/4 cup sugar
zest of one orange
1 egg yolk
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 TBSP butter

1/2 cup cinnamon sugar
2 TBSP melted butter

Combine flour and salt
Combine milk, yeast, sugar and orange zest. let stand until yeast foams up on top of milk
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine flour and milk mixture and mix for 10 minutes on medium speed.
Add egg yolk and vanilla, mix until incorporated. Add butter in small pieces until incorporated. Let dough rest 20 minutes in refrigerator.

Roll into rectangle ¼” thick and brush with melted butter.
Cover with cinnamon sugar. Roll up jelly roll style, cut into 8 pieces.
Lay cut side down in buttered a 9” x 13” pan and proof until doubled in size.
Brush with melted butter
Bake at 350' for 20 minutes, rotate at 10 min.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
4 TBSP butter, room temperature
¼ powdered sugar
¼ cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix all ingredients until smooth.

Frost cinnamon rolls while still warm. Serve immedialety.