by Molly Hess
There’s a special beauty in how transformative cheese is. From the myriad forms it can take with a near-static list of ingredients to the reactions it can pull from us when we finally smell and taste it. How it can blossom in the kitchen is just as stunning. Our neighbors at Five O Four Kitchen definitely demonstrated that at our collaboration dinner in February.
Around the beginning of the holiday season, Chef Owner Cristian Orozco approached Marché with an enticing vision: a collaborative tasting menu driven by cheese. It would be a special evening where patrons could experience cheeses from our cases melded with inventive dishes. As our shop’s head cheesemonger, I adore watching people have exciting moments with cheese, so I volunteered to be the representative cheese tour guide through Five O Four Kitchen's incredible menu for the night. The Marché staff had the privilege of experiencing Chef Cristian's creations for a post-holiday celebration dinner (I’m still dreaming of potatoes draped in mushrooms and quail egg) so I knew something wonderful would emerge.
When I arrived that Sunday evening to watch the prep, the kitchen table was a lovely vision of fresh floral mise en place. Earlier that day, Chef had crafted cheese in-house (a mixed-milk requesón whey cheese -- think creamy ricotta) to serve chilled at the center of subtly-sweet ice cream sandwiches, blanketed in brilliant powdered beet and topped with kaluga caviar. A remarkable vision was taking shape.
As the dinner began moving into full swing, I marveled at how fondly familiar cheeses were taking on striking new faces. I witnessed Shabby Shoe (a soft cake of goat cheese wrapped in a wrinkly ivory rind) become a silky foam that played with chipotle and strawberry gelée, fresh persimmon, and radish, finished with a drizzle of truffle honey. The velvety soft serve-like paste of Hudson Valley Camembert (a sheep-milk and cow-cream bloomy rind from New York) melded with huitlacoche for a fondue dressed with trout roe caviar and yellow cherry tomatoes. As I shared the stories of the cheese with the guests, I watched their faces light up with every bite of each new dish. The night closed with a dessert bread quesadilla, a nod to a beloved treat from Chef Cristian’s childhood in Guatemala. Dappled in puréed fruits, flowers, gold leaf, and grated L’Amuse Signature Gouda, it was as sublime to taste as it was to look at!
