Michael and I had a blast showing ~70 cheese lovers how to step up their cheese melting game at California Artisan Cheese Fest 2018. If you didn't make it to our class, there's always next year! Below are the recipes for the grilled cheese and mac n' cheese we prepared, in case you feel like spoiling yourself or your loved ones. If you do make any of the recipes, we'd love to see how they turned out! Shout us out on instagram @thecheesetwins #cheesetwins : )

Instructions

1. Remove butter from fridge, allow to soften. Butter both sides of each slice of bread, set aside.
   
2. Toast pine nuts in a pan over medium heat just until fragrant, set aside.
   
3. Blend radish greens, basil, garlic, and half of toasted pine nuts in food processor until finely minced. Slowly add olive oil and process until smooth and creamy. Add grated Estero Gold and process for 1-2 seconds to incorporate. Set aside.
   
4. Grill one side of each slice of bread. Flip.
   
5. On grilled face of bread slice, spread pesto and add layer of Toma. Top with crescenza and toasted pine nuts. Add grated Toma to 2nd slice, melt and close.
   
6. Remove from heat to wood cutting board. Slice diagonal and serve.
   

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​Salad: Shave fennel and apple with a mandolin. Toss salad ingredients and top with Estero Gold shaved with a potato peeler for large, elegant shavings. Plate with grilled cheese.

Instructions
Lardon

1. Cut thick-cut bacon into lardon, rub with brown sugar and a few pinches of curry powder. Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Roast lardon at 350 until brown and caramelized, approximately 15 minutes.
2. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. Set aside.

Pasta ShellsChop cauliflower into florets. Boil with pasta shells until pasta is al dente. Pull pasta from heat and drain. Toss with butter to prevent sticking.

Mornay sauce

1. Grate cheese for mornay sauce and final garnish. Set aside.
2. Warm milk in medium-sized pot, stirring occasionally
3. Place butter in a separate pot and melt. Whisk in flour until homogenous. Reduce heat to medium-low. Whisk in milk, little by little, until smooth and creamy.
4. Whisk in nutmeg, salt and black pepper.
5. Add grated San Geronimo cheese and whisk until completely incorporated. Set aside.

Mac & Cheese

1. Mix millionaire’s lardon, cauliflower, pasta and mornay sauce. Top with grated WM Cofield cheddar.
   
2. Melt remaining 2 TBS of butter and mix with bread crumbs (Panko works great too). Add on top of Mac n' Cheese. 
3. Bake at 350 deg F until golden brown and bubbling. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Making a savory tarte with Phyllo dough is probably the easiest thing you will ever do in the kitchen and takes little time to prep, cook and serve. Unless you plan on making the Phyllo dough from scratch, the recipe is virtually fool proof and guaranteed to dazzle (and taste delicious).

Thaw phyllo dough in refrigerator the night before you plan to use it.

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

​Roll out on parchment paper in a baking sheet. Using a pairing knife, create the puff edges of the tarte by scoring a rectangle in the phyllo dough 1-2" from the perimeter. Score the new tarte perimeter to create an edge pattern (short diagonal cuts look great).

To prevent the tarte interior from puffing during baking, use a fork to poke holes throughout the interior (unlike the scoring, you will poke all the way through the dough).

Bake for 20 minutes at 375°F. Depending on your oven, you may want to bake for shorter or longer to ensure tarte cooks through and develops a nice browning.

​While baking, prepare the yogurt sauce by filling a ramiken with yogurt, add lime and salt to taste. Simple. Add fresh dill to give an extra bump of flavor (idea: if you like dill, you can also substitute the Chevoo used in this recipe with Chevoo's goat cheese marinated in California Dill Pollen & Garlic, yum).

Remove from oven and serve immediately.

If you like this recipe, follow us on social media to get more ideas! 

• Pairs excellently with a creamy, full-bodied Meiomi Chardonnay.

Prepare Potatoes and Onions:

• Peel potatoes and place in bowl of water to prevent discoloration. Strain and boil for 20-30 minutes (until cooked through). Slice into coins.
• While potatoes are boiling, peel onions and slice in half. Slice into thin half rings.
• Sauteé onions in olive oil until translucent. Add chopped garlic and lightly sauteé. Deglaze with red wine. Pull from heat and let cool.

Prepare Béchamel

• Heat milk in a medium-sized pot on medium heat, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon to prevent burning on bottom of pot.
• Warm butter on a low-medium heat. When melted, stir in flour until fully integrated.
• Add a small amount of milk to butter-flour mixture and stir until fully incorporated into mixture. Incorporate more milk using the same technique, until all of the milk has been added.
• Cook béchamel down until thick and creamy, stirring constantly. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg and pull from heat.

Prepare cheese and herbs

• Grate cheddar and Parmigiano and chop green onions and parsley.

Blend ingredients

• Layer ingredients twice in casserole starting with the "Potato Mix", followed by the "Other delicious stuff" (Comté for the base layer) and then Béchamel. Use spatula to slather béchamel over each layer. Repeat with Cheddar cheese and top with breadcrumbs.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 25 minutes, then broil for 5 minutes. Pull and cool for 5 minutes prior to serving.​

Everytime we are near Downtown LA, we visit Grand Central Market. 39 vendors of diverse backgrounds produce an enormous variety of food, grab-and-go or sit-down, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Our favorite stop is DTLA Cheese and Kitchen. Listed as one of “7 super LA cheese shops” by the LA Times, the cheese shop is run by the extraordinary Clarke sisters, Lydia and Marnie (who are also 3rd generation dairy purveyors), and Chef Reed Herrick.

Top 3 reasons we love this cheese shop:

1. You can taste the cheese before you buy it
   
2. Highly skilled, experienced cheesemongers available for quick consultation
   
3. Unusual and diverse cheese selection, even for the professional!
   

The cheese shop has a traditional layout, with a cool, funky spirit. Stop by for a meal or a wedge of cheese!

Have some friends coming over this holiday season and want to impress them without exerting too much effort - Baked Brie takes three simple steps!

1. Score the cheese with a pairing knife and slice off the top with a wire, then put the top back on. I do this for two reasons: (a) When the brie is baking, you can easily check when it is ready by peeling back the top or by simply noticing the oozing cheese from the corner; and (b) You can add chopped nuts (Pistachios or hazelnuts, for example) for some crunch or some jam or honey for sweetness (Personally, I just like the cheese plain).
2. Bake the cheese in a ramekin for 10-15 minutes. I like putting tin foil underneath just in case the cheese leaks overboard.
3. Pull out of the oven and on a hot plate for serving. Surround with crackers and enjoy!

It's that easy. For extra creaminess, select a cheese that is higher in butterfat and/or slightly ripe!

​-MK

Can you cut all cheese with single knife? Of course you can, but it won’t always be pretty! In this article, you will learn how and when to use our three favorite cutting tools for delivering a professional cheeseboard. They’re easy to use, affordable, lightweight, and can bring huge returns on time and presentation.

The first time I saw the wire in action was in a fromagerie near Lyon. A customer requested a slice of cheese from a cheese log deep in the deli case. Instead of removing the heavy log of cheese from the depths of the deli case, the monger leaned in with a small harp, sliced through the end of the log and caught the small wedge of cheese in paper, which she quickly wrapped, labeled and sold. The wire was cleaned in an instant and the next customer was called forward. Nothing in France impressed me more than this cheese monger’s ease and finesse. It wasn’t anything fancy or expensive - just a simple tool and technique.
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Perfect for:

• Soft and semi-soft, brittle cheeses (e.g. goat cheese, feta, and blue cheese),
• Soft, creamy cheeses (e.g. Brie-style cheeses, Ripened goat cheeses)
• Soft, stinky cheeses (e.g. Washed-rind cheeses like Époisses and Munster)

Why:

• This instrument is fast and furious. A knife blade sticks to soft creamy, sticky, or brittle cheeses, and can tear them apart. The wire is razor sharp and has zero drag. Perfect for cutting small-format cheeses across their diameter into pizza slices (e.g. goat cheese or camembert) or large cheeses into generous loaves that can be further cut down into bars (e.g. blue cheese).

Warning:

• Too Crumbly - If a cheese crumbles at the first touch of the wire, serve crumbled in a dish, on a cracker or slice of bread. Another alternative is to slice thicker pieces, but that can oftentimes be too much cheese for one individual.
• Too Creamy - If the cheese is ripe to the point of being runny, use the wire to slice off the very top of the rind and serve with a butter knife and plate with crackers or bread on the side for guests to lather themselves.
• Too Soft - For very soft cheese (e.g. ripe camembert or taleggio), each slice will stick to the cheese as soon as the wire passes through it. This makes it very important to slice and plate immediately.
• Too Hard - If you have to lean in for the cut, you will break the wire. Only use the wire for soft cheese!

Cost:

• Formaticum, “Cheese Wire” (6”) - $32

If you are leaning in to cut with a wire, you need this blade. It has little drag, like the wire, but more muscle to offer a clean, effortless cut. I love this tool, so much that I misuse it. I find myself trying to cut hard cheese with it, because I find I just don’t want to switch knives.
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Perfect for:

• Semi-soft, washed or mold-ripened cheese (e.g. Fresh Brie, Taleggio, Wensleydale)

Why:

• Sometimes the wire is just not enough muscle to cut cleanly through a block or wheel of cheese. The short blade, like the wire, has very little surface area to stick to the cheese, but provides the support and strength needed to muscle through the slightly firmer cheese. Perfect for a Dry Crottin, Shropshire blue, Stilton, Wensleydale, and young Pecorino. I find this type of knife to be a fantastic alternative to a pairing knife when cutting up cheddar for snacks or a party.

Warning:

• Laziness - The big problem I see with the short blade is that people may grow so fond of it that they may feel inclined to use it everywhere. This should not be used for hard cheeses or for all soft, brittle cheese, especially for the runny ones, as the paste will stick! If you find yourself leaning into the cut, find a bigger knife!

Cost:

• Boska, “Brie Knife” - $15.99. A pairing knife will also do, but tends to be too short in length.

Unless you are cutting enormous wheels of cheese, a kitchen knife is all the firepower you will need for getting the job done. The complexity with aged cheese cutting lies mainly in what shape you choose to cut. Aged cheese is often times cut into bars and sometimes triangular wedges. In many cheese shops, cheese mongers use wires for cutting aged cheese because it’s faster (they just have plenty of spare wires around to replace those which break).NOTE:  If cutting a granular cheese, like Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano, you may want to just break them down into chunks. Clean cuts for these cheeses can bristle the Italians.

Perfect for:

• Hard, dry cheeses

Why:

• Aged cheeses need weight and strength to make a clean, effortless cut. The height of the blade provides support and helps ensure a uniform cut across the paste.

Warning:

• Stickiness - If the cheese is too moist, the cheese may stick to the blade and tear to pieces. If you make a cut and notice that the cheese is sticking tightly to the blade, consider using a thinner knife (e.g. like a boning or paring knife).

Cost:

• Any large kitchen knife will do, so you probably have one already.

I love to forage for wild mushrooms and mountains of Utah are one of my favorite places to search for wild Porcini. On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, Certified Cheese Professional, Vanessa Chang, and I searched the Uinta Mountains for our favorite mushroom. While we did not find a King Bolete (Boletus Edulis, or Porcini), we did stumble across another edible mushroom akin to the King, Queen Bolete.

A few hours later, we hooked up with our friend, Chef Viet Pham, who had fired up his Kudu Grill to roast some meat, vegetables, and baguette to make the ultimate wild mushroom and Quicke’s Cheddar sandwich. Check out our video below for the whole story in <1 minute!

-Michael

Not enough time in the day to make a tasty meal? Our Caprese Salad for Beginners can be made in under a minute. Check out our youtube video below on how to up your game for fast food! Click here to like our video or subscribe to our youtube channel for more cheese tips and travel log adventures!