Description

Le Gourmet TV takes a field trip to the Leslieville cheese shop to explore what's on offer. We discover a renge of fine artisinal cheeses.

Transcript

JULIA ROGERS: I got 17 here, what do you think? That’s the mildest, what was that like? MALE: The mildest is probably the Gouda. JULIA ROGERS: A taste to that. Do you buy directly from someone here? Ontario cheese makers? MALE: Yes, the Unity Dairy Cooperative. JULIA ROGERS: How fantastic. MALE: And they are Greeks, it's mainly one family and they’re really great family. They really have their heart and soul in cheese making. So, here try it. JULIA ROGERS: Thank you so very much. MALE: You’re welcome. JULIA ROGERS: Okay, well it’s a bit cold so usually it's good to taste your cheese room temperature and sometimes you can even taste it right from the fridge. Give it a smell. MALE I didn’t smell that. JULIA ROGERS: That’s alright. You’ve been smelling it all day. That’s lovely, it has quite a zip to it, yes? MALE: I told them— JULIA ROGERS: you can never tell it's not cow’s milk, can you? MALE Yes, for sure. JULIA ROGERS: Musty and good acidity. Would you tell them? MALE I told them they have to curve the edges, the corners so that it looks like Gouda. JULIA ROGERS: Oh you were just saying that. MALE He said, he knows and then he’s working at it but he said the mold is $500. JULIA ROGERS: Oh yes, he need the cheese mold exactly to achieve the shape and it would be pressed harder too probably then, so who knows. I think that’s great. To be honest, I tasted this straight from the farm about 2 years ago and I think this is better in balance and it's very tasty. So we’re definitely going to include that in my gift basket. Let's try this cherry here. So PEI, I bet they sell this cheese to the Japanese tourists. You think? MALE Yes. It's got a nice clothed. JULIA ROGERS: Yes, cloths to it. Can we look at that in there? MALE Absolutely, sure. JULIA ROGERS: let me see. Wow, so it's got some wax and it's about this mummy wrap of linen, isn’t that great? So technically it's breathing a little bit, it's drawing out a little bit not in a plastic bag. That is dynamite seller. When you sell it you cut the cloth off the piece that you’re selling or do I need that at home? MALE They store the cloth and then get it off the water. JULIA ROGERS: Fantastic, I’ll have a taste in that. MALE Okay, sure. JULIA ROGERS: Nice texture, whoops I’ll grab that, thank you. And you buy this, how big is the whole cheese for this one? MALE It's a bout 12 kg roughly. JULIA ROGERS: And you can go through at least half of that in a week or two, or? Week maybe? MALE Yes. JULIA ROGERS: It's all light texture isn’t it, it just kind of dancing around. MALE It's always a real flavor but it's the lacquer. JULIA ROGERS: Like Berkswell in a way, you know that gentle cheese nice with beer I think. Fantastic, okay I‘ll have a taste with that Bleu de Gex I’ve never had it when it's got this kind of aging on it from the outside in. MALE That’s so nice. JULIA ROGERS: Well interesting, I look forward to trying it. So this one is an unpasteurized goat milk and as to the back as well. You know it's important to have a good cheese name if you’re a Canadian cheese, you cant just call yourself you know some 2000 year old respective cheese name, so you have to come up with a little pun. Bleu de Gex there. That’s gorgeous; well it really looks handmade, doesn’t it? MALE It sure does. This cheese is definitely better in the summer. JULIA ROGERS: Well that makes sense, of course because that’s where the goats are. MALE It wasn’t the aging very much. JULIA ROGERS: The goats are probably not even making milk for 2 months in a year except maybe of frozen milk. MALE Is was kind of basically like I said, it wouldn’t age as all, it get staled in there. JULIA ROGERS: Or even dried, you could even dry them. MALE: Yes, that’s for sure. JULIA ROGERS: People don’t realize that animals have seasons too, if you let them. So should I serve this at home with popsicle sticks? MALE Yes, I think it's always going to need crackers beside it. JULIA ROGERS: Well this is definitely got a nice animal smell, and then you go woot and see your nose hairs curling. MALE Is on the edge but its good, I love it. JULIA ROGERS: Your right, lot of acidity but it taste nutty and leafy and there are stuff underneath there. It's not just milk on fire. Well I think that Mary will be I'm pressed. I didn’t tell you where they’re from but they’re form England but they got a lot of French cheese too. So, I think this will right in their family of cheeses. So do you think were good enough. Excuse me, it's so yummy. Three cheeses, anything else you would recommend? I’ve got my salami. MALE But you didn’t get the Richelieu? JULIA ROGERS: wait, I didn’t get the Richelieu, you’re so right. And again this is kind of a house warming gift for them, so they don’t necessary need to get of all of these cheeses at once. This one is probably nice at brunch and other indulgent times of the day. Can we see the front? MALE Absolutely, JULIA ROGERS: Richelieu’s nicer right? MALE Yes, here you go. JULIA ROGERS: Thank you. So here we go with the artwork, I can’t quite figure out what that is. It's a white-black. MALE I think it is Ceasar at work. JULIA ROGERS: It is Ceasar at work, that’s to this. MALE We’re making assumption there. JULIA ROGERS: Yes, so it's from the island where we have power well. Is that what Liptauer? MALE Yes, it is. This is getting to be in a very good condition in there. I could get it personally620 in another week. It’ll just be falling apart which is just great. JULIA ROGERS: Yes, that chalky rind there is going to probably disappear. Hold his still, let's give it a try and you know if it is of good quality, we can appreciate it young and appreciate it a little bit old. We like the brutes, thanks for giving that up too. Some cheese, they just work at it and it's going to be tasty. MALE So? JULIA ROGERS: Thank you so much ____646, try to self-serve with one of these? Thank you. Reggie, do you have all of your customers such a nice tasting or just to me? MALE No, it's not big of a deal. That’s it. JULIA ROGERS: You know I'm going to buy it. Wow, now this one after the bleu which was such an attack it's so smooth and silky, mushroomy, yes it's got some. It's got some flavor in that. MALE It's true, compared to regular Brie. JULIA ROGERS: And yet people love this one. MALE: Absolutely, I think people when they try it they are surprised because they’ve been eating regular Brie their whole lives finally I think they’re finally breaking out of that rut and they JULIA ROGERS: That’s right, it's a little crazy this one if I remember correctly. MALE You know it's actually double, it's double the price of the 742. JULIA ROGERS: How do you explain to people how come it is that cheese from close to home is so much more expensive than something that travelled and the price of gas and air travel and all that? MALE In France, so many cheeses that are made in factories now and it's not necessarily anything wrong with that and it definitely helps the price. In Canada, so many cheeses they don’t sell nearly as much and so they’re still making it by hand. Artisons are still making cheese and evolving the recipes and it just cost a little money to make a small amount of cheese. JULIA ROGERS: Well I don’t mind spending, I mean think of it as it's at the top of the food chain, right? It's just the apex and it takes a long time to age it and yo don’t need to eat that much either, if it taste good. Anyway, thank you so much.