Oser Communications Group

GOURMET NEWS MARCH 2018 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 4 Fancy Food Show Continued from PAGE 1 tradition spreading across the country from the American South has three essential in- gredients: shredded cheese, mayonnaise and pimento peppers, all stirred together to form a satisfyingly flavorful spread for a sandwich or a party appetizer. Like a lot of authentic Southern cooking, it's a mixture of flavor and affordability – goooood on a budget. Not necessarily fancy, not usually thought of as "gourmet," but, in the hands of a talented cook, goooood. Red Clay Gourmet aims to elevate the traditional pimento cheese by making it both goooood and gourmet, and Founders Lance and Michele Sawyer were at the Win- ter Fancy Food Show to spread the good- ness. Their Gourmet Pimento Cheese is available in five flavors that expand the def- inition of pimento cheese with flavors that stretch the traditional boundaries without challenging the spirit of adding zesty flavor to cheese, making it spreadable and keep- ing it Southern. Their Flame Roasted Jalapeño flavor is an example, although they have four other flavors: Classic Sharp Cheddar, Hickory Smoke Cheddar, Goat Cheese & Sun-Dried Tomato and South Meets East – Sriracha. For the Flame Roasted Jalapeño flavor, they roast the jalapeños in house to smooth out their fla- vor and then mix them into shredded ched- dar and smoked Gouda cheese, which adds just a hint of smokiness without heading too far over into chipotle territory, and just enough mayonnaise to make it spreadable. The jalapeño is thoroughly blended into the mixture, so that its flavor is consistent through the spread, the cheese is high- quality and the mayonnaise is a product that's custom- made for Red Clay Gourmet to en- sure that it's made with cage-free eggs and that it's non-GMO. The Sawyers package their Red Clay Gourmet Pi- mento Cheese spreads into a 10- ounce square con- tainer and a 5-pound foodservice container as well as a new single-serve snack package that includes 1.25 ounces of cheese spread plus crackers. They're producing it them- selves in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and they're both actively involved in the day-to-day production. Emmi Roth brought an altogether other kind of cheesy tradition to the show with its Tête de Moine, a cheese first made in the 12th century by tonsured monks at the monastery of Bellelay in Switzerland. For a time, the tangy semi-hard cheese made from fresh cow milk was used by tenant farmers to pay the owners of their land, but today it's being made in 2-pound cylinders in the mountainous area of Jura and ex- ported into the American market by Emmi. It's properly served from a girolle, in which a sharp blade rotates around a spindle in- serted into the cheese to shave off frilly curls that dress up a cheese board. "Tête de Moine" translates to monk's head, and it's most likely a reference to this practice of serving the cheese by shaving off the top of its head, just as the monks were once in- troduced into their order by having the tops of their heads shaved. Emmi Roth's Tête de Moine is an AOP cheese made of 100 percent cow milk and aged for 75 days. An Emmi Roth promo- tion just before the last holiday season met with great response, since the trumpet flower-shaped curls in which it's tradition- ally served, in combination with a slightly funky aroma and a memorably tangy flavor with a long finish, make a wonderful holi- day presentation. Like Red Clay Gourmet, V&V Supremo Foods, Inc. is also looking to spread a cheese tradition from one part of America to another. V&V Supremo offers Mexican- style cheese made in Wisconsin. The com- pany is the oldest producer of Hispanic cheeses in the U.S. It's been making cheeses in Chicago since 1964, but is now making cheese both in that original Chicago plant and in Wisconsin, where there's an available supply of milk that's suitable for the needs of these cheeses, accord- ing to National Accounts Man- ager Patrick Jacobo. "It's all about the milk," he said. V&V Supremo's Oaxaca Cheese is a pasta filata-style cheese, the Mexican version of a mozzarella, with a stringy texture that re- sults from gently stretching the curd as it's made. It was a World Championship of Cheese winner in 2016. V&V Supremo's Chi- huahua Cheese was a World Championship of Cheese winner in 2014. Like the Oaxaca cheese, it's a melting cheese, traditionally used to make quesadil- las. Over the past decade or so, it's selling well in the foodservice market, as Americans have become more in- terested in using authentic ingredients for their quesadillas, Jacobo said. The product, already popular among chefs, is now avail- able at retail for people to use at home. Los Pacos is another brand bringing the flavors of Oaxaca to the United States with its mole sauces that represent the height of Oaxacan haute cuisine. The company makes a total of seven artisanal mole sauces that come from one of the top restaurants in Oaxaca. Ingredients for the complex sauces are sourced from organic farmers and local indigenous farmers. Those ingre- dients may be fried, baked or smoked be- fore they're brought to- gether with other fresh ingredients and ground in stone grinders sev- eral times before they're slow cooked for hours in copper pots over a low fire. The Los Pacos sauces include Oaxacan Black Mole, which features the flavor of the chil- huacle chile along with more than 30 other ingredients, and Oaxacan Red Chile, which is flavored with more than 20 ingredients whose subtle sweetness is enhanced by chocolate, bananas and almonds. Other va- rieties include Oaxacan Chichilo Pepper Mole, a bitter mole traditionally served at funerals to symbolize the bitterness of los- ing a loved one; Oaxacan Yellow Mole, which has a strong herbal taste with cinna- mon and garlic notes; and Oaxacan Green Mole, which features the jalapeño pepper along with herbal flavors from epazote, parsley and yerba santa. The Los Pacos mole sauces are sold in 1-pound pouches and jars, with foodservice packaging avail- able on request. Re- tailers who wish to inquire may contact importer Mariela Oetinger, President of Vaca Jump Brokers. U.S. distribution is from Laredo, Texas, and foodservice pack- aging is available on request. The Setton Farms family didn't have to travel far from their California homes to bring Dark Chocolate Pistachios to the Winter Fancy Food Show. Also, the new Blueberry Coconut Pistachio Chewy Bites extend the line that started with Pistachio + Cranberries Pistachio Chewy Bites. A third flavor, Plum + Lemon Pistachio Chewy Bites, will be coming out this spring. The Dark Chocolate Pistachios are packaged in 5-ounce bags that retail for around $4.99, while the Pistachio Chewy Bites are individually wrapped to sell from a shipper display for about $1 each. KL Keller Foodways has gone farther afield to bring Yandilla Mustard Seed Oil from the countryside a r o u n d Wa l l e n d - been, Aus- tralia, into the Ameri- can mar- ket for consumers who want bright flavors and high quality. Yandilla Mustard Seed Oil won a 2017 bronze sofi Award and is the only edible mus- tard seed oil that's author- ized for import into the U.S. under U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture regula- tions. The Yandilla oil, made by Farmer Vivian Weatherall, is cold pressed in small batches. It has a high smoke point, so it can be used for high heat appli- cations, and it has a spicy bite of flavor that translates into foods fried in it. It's low in saturated fat. GN American Cheese Society Launches ACS T.A.S.T.E. Test The American Cheese Society (ACS) is launching a new certification exam, the ACS T.A.S.T.E. Test™ (Technical, Aes- thetic, Sensory, Tasting Evaluation). The exam evaluates cheese professionals' knowledge and skills in the assessment of cheese, from determining cheese condition and quality to evaluating cheese flavor, body, texture and appearance. Individuals who pass the exam will earn the title of ACS Certified Cheese Sensory Evalua- tor™, or ACS CCSE™. The T.A.S.T.E. Test is the second indus- try certification exam offered by ACS. The first exam, the ACS Certified Cheese Pro- fessional ® Exam, was launched in 2012 and has since certified more than 900 cheese professionals. Whereas the ACS CCP Exam ® evaluates candidates' under- standing of core competencies common across the majority of cheese industry jobs, the T.A.S.T.E. Test is focused exclusively on the sensory and organoleptic assessment of cheese. It promotes the standardization of cheese professionals' approach to commu- nicating about these aspects of cheese, ben- efiting stakeholders at all levels of the cheese production and distribution chain, from cheesemakers to the consumers who purchase and enjoy their cheese. The T.A.S.T.E. Test is divided into three sections: cheese identification, assessment and evaluation; single attribute identifica- tion; and single flaw/fault identification. Candidates are evaluated against a rigorous and widely respected standard developed using methods employed by the American Dairy Standards Association. Those indi- viduals who pass the exam will receive a lapel pin, embroidered patch, and a certifi- cate, along with the right to call them- selves an ACS Certified Cheese Sensory Evaluator or ACS CCSE. "We are excited that our T.A.S.T.E. Test will provide yet another opportunity for cheese professionals to showcase their ex- pertise and differentiate their skillset. It also sets the standard with a common lex- icon for how the industry defines and de- scribes cheese," said Nora Weiser, ACS' Executive Director. The ACS T.A.S.T.E. Test will take place on July 25, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylva- nia during Forged in Cheese, the 35th an- nual ACS Conference and Judging & Competition. Applications will be ac- cepted from February 1 through March 30, 2018, or until spaces are filled. All candi- dates must meet a set of minimum eligibil- ity requirements including work and/or education hours in the industry, or they must be an ACS Certified Cheese Profes- sional in good standing. Due to the tech- nical nature of its content, the exam is not intended for enthusiasts. To learn more about the ACS T.A.S.T.E. Test, visit www.cheesesociety.org/ certification/taste-test. GN

• Cover