With artisanal this and that cropping up all over the food world and commanding high prices, many restaurants are trying to develop their own unique forms of ingredients to give them an edge. One of these places is cheese, but making cheese in-house is more complicated than you might think. An article at FESMag.com explains one chef's cheese challenges and how he faced them.
Brian Scheehser, executive chef of Trellis Restaurant at The Heathman Hotel in Washington ended up working with a dairy farm to make cheese. Some cheeses are easy to make in house like mozzarella, paneer, or ricotta, but aged cheeses require special equipment and sanitation procedures that a standard professional kitchen cannot match. Chef Scheehser specializes in making jack-style cheeses, including carrot-nasturtium and hop flavored jacks.
Through his connections, he got to know Cherry Valley Dairy, which already had cheese aging rooms and all the sterilization equipment and documentation procedures necessary. The dairy also has a cheesemaking staff that assisted him with his creations. Having this in place gave him the confidence to know he could have make a consistent product and protect against food-borne illness.
While you may not be able to make aged cheeses, there are several kinds of fresh cheese you can make. For an example of one, read the full link for a recipe for ricotta. And if you are already making cheese, why not check out our cheese slicers?
