The two buzzwords at restaurants around the country is "house made". You get house made cured pork products hanging in walk-in coolers and wine rooms; house made condiments (although I have yet to taste a ketchup as good as my beloved Heinz); house made pasta; house made bitters and tonics in the bar; and house made etc., etc. It's a worthy ethos, if only because it allows them to call themselves responsible, sustainable, local, and any other trend-word du jour. You also see, which is the point of this post, house made mozzarella plopped on appetizer plates across the country, which is what The Atlantic's Corby Kummer explores in his essay in the current issue. His bottom line: most shouldn't even try. He talks about a small and growing company in the industrial wasteland of outer L.A. called Gioia Cheese whose mozzarellas and their incredibly sensual cousin burrata, which I would humbly posit is the Sophia Loren of the cheese world, are becoming the stuff of culinary legend, served by food luminaries like Nancy Silverton and her partners, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich at their restaurant Mozza in SoCal. Read for yourselves while I make my airline rezzies to South El Monte......photo from flickr
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: jumping through the hoop at Lovely Hula Hands!
2 comments:
Interesting article. I happened to have a brush with house-pulled mozzarella (that's how it was described) last night at Todd English's Campo Osteria here in Fort Lauderdale. There's a certain amount of showmanship in hand-pulling mozzarella table-side, but the resulting mozz was rather chewy and bland. The menu of accompaniments was much more interesting: a reduction of figs in balsamic vinegar was fantastic. I concluded that it was an experience worth having once.
I too have had an unfortunate experience with "homeamde" mozzarella. not too good. The fig sauce sounds awesome...yum!!
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