May 16, 2024 • 45 mins
Savor the flavors of innovation and tradition as we whisk you away on a culinary journey where the future of food trends meets the age-old craft of cheese-making. Last week's gastronomic adventures had us reminiscing about Jefferson's flavorful excursion to Boston, the ingenuity of Chef Keith Sarasin duck à l'orange egg roll, and Chef Johnathan Rodriguez's foray into Supermarket Steakout. We're not just teasing your taste buds; we're preparing them for the big reveal of Jefferson's "The Craveable Cookbook" and hinting at mouth-watering collaborations on the horizon.
Take a seat at the table with Mark Maurer, the cheese maestro behind Solena Cheese, and indulge in the tale of his inspiring shift from Hilton executive to artisanal cheese advocate. Mark's laughter-filled anecdotes range from the precision of mozzarella production to the joy of building a business that mirrors one's true passions, all wh
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Walk-In Talk Podcast now sweetened by Noble Citrus! Bite into a Juicy Crunch tangerine, 40 years perfected; seedless and oh-so-tasty. Or savor a Starburst Pummelo, the giant citrus with a unique zing. Don't miss Autumn Honey tangerines, big and easy to peel. Noble - generations of citrus expertise, delivering exceptional flavor year-round. Taste the difference with Noble Citrus!
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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
Our podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry. Don't miss out on upcoming episodes where we'll continue to cook up thought-provoking discussions on important topics, including mental health awareness.
Be sure to visit our website for more food industry-related content, including our very own TV show called Restaurant Recipes where we feature Chefs cooking up their dishes and also The Dirty Dash Cocktail Hour; the focus is mixology and amazing drinks!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk Podcastwhere you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We are recording on-site atIbis Images Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
First things first.
(00:29):
Last week on the programJefferson my man, he was up in
Boston with cookbook maven ChefKeith Saracen.
Find out what they were doing.
Plus, we had friend and FoodNetwork competitor on season six
of Supermarket Steakout, chefJonathan Rodriguez.
Be sure to tune in on Tuesdaynights.
Check their website for theexact times.
(00:50):
It's pretty cool to see him onthere.
Thank you, peninsula FoodService for supplying the
proteins for today's productionChefs in the Central Florida
area.
Peninsula is the largestdistributor of Creekstone Farms
beef in the Southeast USA,complete with a fully staffed
butcher shop to help solve yourkitchen inconsistencies.
Peninsula is the largestdistributor of Creekstone Farms
(01:11):
beef in the Southeast USA,complete with a fully staffed
butcher shop to help solve yourkitchen inconsistencies.
Yes, check out their dry ageprogram too.
Okay, our guest this week.
We have a very cool guest ownerof Salena Cheese, mark Maurer.
It's a Central Floridafamily-owned and operated
manufacturer of delicious,delicious cheeses Mozzarella.
Stay tuned.
Selena is on deck.
(01:31):
Walk Talk will be at the NRAshow in Chicago in just a few
days.
Jeff and Pooch will be doingimpromptu short-form interviews
with industry personalities andmeeting up with some of our
partners, sponsors and friends.
In fact, citrus America's boothwill be home base, along with
Metro and a couple of others.
Come say hello at booth 5463.
(01:53):
Can't wait to see AJ from Metro, along with Tina from Rack
Porcelain.
Wish I could make it, but I gotto send these two guys.
Jeff, baby, pop the clutch.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
We didn't cook yet, but you're going to talk about
what we got go sure, I mean,we're going to do a little bit
of a study of a duck today, sowe're doing a.
So it was national crap day, soI want to do something that was
different.
I'm going to do egg rolls, butwe're going to do a riff on a
duck on orange.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
We're going to morph that say that again duck on
orange yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And then, uh, it's like saying croissants, we're
going to do cardamom rubbed duckbreast with shredded napa
cabbage.
And then we did a togarashicandied orange that you guys
tried earlier.
That I thought was going to betoo spicy for John, but he
proved me wrong.
We got a little brie in therefor some creaminess as well.
And then the dipping sauce is ablueberry lemon thyme dipping
(02:41):
sauce as well.
Then I wanted to do somethingwith since we have some cheese
coming in, we're doing a pizza,we're going to do some barbecue
sauce on that pizza pickledshallots, because I know you
like pickled shallots.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I do.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, and then we actually have some stuff from my
garden that's going to be onthis one too as well Crispy
onions.
The duck is going to be kimchiand hoisin rubbed on that one.
And then I wanted to dosomething a little bit different
, because I love shashuka.
So I wanted to take shashuka,which is basically a stew of
tomatoes and peppers, cumin,coriander, garlic, and then it
(03:14):
has some peppers and you put eggin it.
So what I did was leave the eggout.
I blended all that through tobe nice and smooth.
Then I'm taking shawarma spicedlamb racks, and then we're
going to sear those off, putthem down with some roasted
zucchini as well, some mashedpotatoes and then, lastly, we're
going to be doing John'sfavorite.
(03:35):
I brought it back.
You didn't see it, did you?
It's figs.
But I'm taking it to the nextlevel.
I took it some brie, put somebrie inside the actual middle
brie inside the actual middlelittle cavity inside the actual
loin part of the pork chop,stuffed it with the fig and brie
.
Then I took the leftover figand brie mixture, added pecans
(03:55):
to give it some crunch, thatwe're going to put that on top
of it afterwards and then we'regoing to serve that with the
garlic mashed potatoes, grilledpeaches, because peaches are in
season right now for Florida,that's a short little window of
three weeks and then we're goingto do that with some charred
tomatoes from my garden.
I have some pickled chocolatepeppers from my garden as well
(04:15):
and I have my Marasaki peppersin throughout the whole
different menus.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, I think this whole cookbook thing that
you're doing you started offwrong.
The name of the book shouldhave been my secret, okay now,
that's the next couple.
Yeah, okay yeah, the craveablecookbook.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The craveable cookbook, yeah, yeah, by the
jefferson starship by the way,it's uh going to be released
looks like in about three weeksawesome awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
We won't be able to talk about it on this show, but,
uh, all right, well, citrusamerica.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Thank you very much because they actually said if I
wanted to put anything out ontheir their booth about the book
, I said, yeah, that'd be great,thank you.
So we're gonna do a qr codethey're awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, they really are .
Yeah, and, by the way, yeah,we're gonna be doing some stuff.
You know, I kind of I think Iseeded it maybe a month or so
ago, but we're gonna be doingsome things with uh, with, with
Citrus America coming up.
So stay tuned.
I'll drop more on that as uh,as that gets closer.
Are you excited about this NRAthing, or what?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I would be if I didn't go through what I went
through last weekend.
I'm still trying to recoverthat you listen.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
First of all, you picked up and left Okay, the
shortest notice of short notice.
I was like all right.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
August you're going to.
I'm putting you on notice rightnow, mid-august, I've got to do
it again.
August, yeah, on a.
Thursday Probably Getting dirty, don't worry, I'm going to prep
so that Sean has food.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay, yeah, we need to get that squared out.
Yeah, but I also need to knowwhich Thursday it is, because
right now I arison.
You hear me?
All right, you're gonna have tokick in for this, if you're,
you know, all right, pull on.
Yeah, real quick.
So you were, uh.
Well, actually, before we getto that nra, yep, this is a big
(05:55):
deal it's huge right?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
yeah, 10 football fields of convention space and
we're gonna have access to allof it yeah, it's amazing the
amount of emails that pooch andI are getting on an hourly basis
, let alone daily basis it'sreally cool well, I had.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I was on a call yesterday with uh, with metro,
and they're super excited too.
Aj and brianne are going to bethere.
Aj is going to be there,brianne is not okay.
Yeah, it's cool to see aj 100and yeah, there's some other
cool things that are going to behappening with with metro as
well.
You know just some contentrelated really cool stuff, so
we'll get into that at anothertime.
But, yeah, everybody check outmetro, metro, shelving, metro,
(06:39):
go baby.
And productivity yes, it istotally productivity did.
Did you see your cart?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I can't wait to play with it.
I'm going to do that tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Do you want to explain, maybe?
So everybody knows.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So it's a Chef mobile cart.
This thing is.
I mean they thought ofeverything so it's adjustable
height.
You can put it to like 32, 33inches to 41, I think it is so
somebody who's tall like LanceCook could do it without, you
know, leaning over and hurtingtheir back.
It has everything you canpossibly think of.
It has a rack there.
You can put third pans, ninthpans or sixth pans as you're
cutting with a cutting board.
(07:11):
Slide that out, wash it.
There's even a knife rack theretoo.
When you're done, you canactually put multiple different
cutting boards so that you canhave that as well.
There's sheet trays that youcan put so that it's
self-contained.
So think about it.
When you need to prep in acooler because you're breaking
(07:31):
down fish, you'd walk right inthe cooler.
Listen, we were just on a sitevisit, or we were at that site
in New Hampshire on a farm.
It had a one-door region.
It had four tables that weresix-foot tables.
It had a two-deck oven and asink.
That's it three-compartmentsink.
There was nothing else there.
If we had that prep stationwhere we needed to cut and we're
out without killing ourselves,it would have been just super
(07:51):
fantastic.
I mean, you could have done.
Carry on, you know, not for 202people.
I will tell you that team isamazing to.
Keith has really lined himselfup and he's a great leader, and
Chris, of all, they did afantastic job.
I mean 202 people in 45 minuteswe served.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, that's, that's insane.
Yeah, is that what you're?
Cranky pants now.
Is that what this is?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, this is.
This is Jeff trying torecuperate, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, I remember this after the world food
championship.
This was cranky pants, jeff.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Right now, no, this should have been after Jeff
after the nine course meal.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Oh, speaking well, did you see the video yet?
Yeah, how was that?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
drop dead gorgeous, right?
Yeah, this guy evan is just amonster, he is it's almost not
that he's sitting over my lefthand.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
He's like a monster hanging over your shoulder,
right literally this I meanseriously.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
When you, when you guys, look at this, look for it
on the social media over at thewalk and talk on any of those.
It looks like it's a chef'stable.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
It really does, it's that quality what I was putting
out there.
So we have a little side chatwith the marketplace.
You know the porch market,fellas, and it's like a million
bucks.
To me it's like a million bucks.
You look at the video, amillion bucks, that's what I saw
, that's what I saw, that's whatI see.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I love how you were teasing them like I, I want to
show you and I'm like, justdrive over and show them you
gotta, you gotta tease oh, youwere definitely teasing yeah,
yeah so more teasing right now.
So when they do it, when theylook at this and they hear you,
now they can go look at it.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I know I'm excited, I super, I am excited and it's
going to be really badass whenwe put it out, plus all all
John's photography and you know,evan's working on some.
You know, don't forget, we havethe tasty cam, right yeah, and
that tasty cam footage will befor socials, right?
So it's all in the you knowportrait setting and it's.
(09:38):
We're going to be pumping allthat out.
It's going to be great, andthen we're going to be setting
up for the next one.
Got to pick the date.
It's going to be good, allright.
So, with that said, withoutfurther ado, mark, welcome to
the program.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, thanks, guys, really appreciate you having me
here.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It's our pleasure and thank you for coming out.
We always we really doappreciate when folks get to
come and experience, you know,walk and talk podcast in house,
in studio.
You get the feel for what we'redoing typically or historically
, I should say.
You know there'd already befood cooking and and it it
(10:14):
brings a different element to tothe show itself.
But you're going to see thatjust after the show you'll
experience some of that.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
And you get to eat a lot more than when normally yeah
, right, yeah right, thanks, Ican't always always, always with
the shots always with the shots.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
This guy.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Hey, so you have a very interesting.
First of all, we met you and Iabout a year and a half ago.
We did right and you were doinga tasting at uh pizzecki's
produce farm fresh over in saintpete, and I happened to be
there the day you came in to uhto do the tasting, so I got to
experience your product andyou're basically in the very
beginnings of the company.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That was my first sales call.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
That was your first sales call.
Yes, you broke the barata rightthere.
You know that was your firstcall, that was it.
Yeah, so between then and Idon't know, was it a couple of
weeks ago when we sent what?
Two weeks ago, couple of weeksago, when we sent what two weeks
ago three weeks ago, about amonth, a month now, I don't know
.
Time is upside down.
So about a month ago you camewith here to ibis images and and
(11:12):
did a photo shoot with john,which was amazing, amazing, yes,
and but we got to eat productand sample product again, and
man your consistency isfantastic.
I want to say it's improved,it's even gotten better.
It was good then and it's evenbetter now.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Oh, it definitely has .
You know that was about a yearand a half ago we met and that
was at the very beginning of ourcompany, so the consistency has
changed a lot.
We've gotten better at makingthe cheese, got some new
equipment that helps us with theproduction, adjusted the
recipes a little bit and justgot a little bit more experience
(11:51):
under our belt making thecheese.
So a lot's changed in that yearand a half.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think it's pretty amazing.
So your story is pretty cool.
Not everybody is just like hey,you know what?
I'm going to start a cheesecompany.
I'm going to manufacture cheeseLike nobody really does that
it's rare and to do it in a, toexecute it in a way where it
makes any kind of sense andwhere you're where you actually
do have consistency in yourmanufacturing and your quality
(12:17):
and all.
Why don't you go ahead and takea minute to kind of explain
like how it is that you brokeinto the cheese business?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Well, it's a different story, that's for sure
.
I kind of fell into my passionof making cheese.
I used to work for Hilton forhotels for 20 years and I did
sales and business developmentfor them.
So I started here in Florida.
That's where I began my careerwith Hilton, moved up to Chicago
for a while, worked at a hotelup there and then I got
(12:50):
transferred to Sydney inAustralia.
So I decided I was single andwhy not?
Just moved to Sydney, startedworking for Hilton there and
then just after a while justkind of got burned out with the
corporate life and decided tomove on from that.
At that time I met my wife,kayla, and I was heavily into
(13:14):
CrossFit at the time, which is abit different.
So I decided to quit my jobwith Hilton and become a
CrossFit coach and did that fora little bit.
And that's where I met my goodfriend, giuseppe, giuseppe
Minoglia, and he worked for hisdad.
They had a company that theymade mozzarella in Sydney and
(13:34):
they're one of the mainproducers throughout all of
Australia there and very goodhigh-end cheese.
And I started working for themand really fell in love with it.
So I was able to find mypassion and they taught me the
trade, which I was very gratefulfor because they make the
cheese the true Italian way.
So Giuseppe's dad, vito.
He's worked and made cheese forover 50 years, so I think he's
(13:59):
in his 51st year now.
He started in Puglia in Italy,where Burrata was born, and they
taught me it.
So I worked for them and wedecided after a little while
Australia is far away, so wemoved our family halfway around
the world, decided to move backto Florida, be a little bit
(14:20):
closer to home and start up our,our company, selena cheese, and
then got that rolling and herewe are today.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So so that's an.
So whenever somebody says, hey,you know what, I'm going to
learn something and I'm going totry something new, I'm going to
go from my career path thatI've been on and I'm going to
jump ship and I'm going to getinto, like your manufacturing
cheese.
You know it's not like, oh, Ibought a, been on and I'm going
to jump ship and I'm going toget into like you're
manufacturing cheese.
You know it's not like, oh, Ibought a cheese company and we,
you know we buy it from.
You know different purveyorsand we or other other
(14:53):
manufacturers, and we just sellit.
You're making it and that's abig deal and your product is
really good.
Okay, so I'm comfortable sayingthat because I've had it.
I've had it in two separateoccasions, in two different
timelines in the history of youroperation.
So I'm saying that it's goodand I know you brought some
goodies here today as well.
So you know we're going to jumpinto that.
By the way, I am I took alittle bit of a different path
(15:16):
than you.
I saw CrossFit and I ran theother way you know, completely
in the other direction.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
He went and sit fit.
That's where you sit and getfit by eating.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I was.
I'm sit fit and I can hardlybutt in my pants, but I'm happy.
Do you know what I mean?
Happy, by the way, that's crazystuff.
Like I remember, like it waslike I don't know when, like
COVID time, when it was reallybecoming a big thing or whatever
.
I feel like right around thereand everyone doing all of those
crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Lifting tires, because you know I got nothing
else to do except lift a tractortrailer.
Yeah, why not?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
That made me want to sit on my couch even more.
It made me want to sit downbreak out a bag of potato chips
and watch them, and watch youguys, and you probably fit too.
I'm sweating now thinking aboutit right now.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I'm sweating.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You know what I mean.
So you're a, you're a familybusiness, you're a small company
.
What was it like to go from?
You know, hilton is is bigcorporate.
What was it like to go fromHilton to your own company,
where you have, you're, the end,all you and your wife, by the
way, who's here in studio withus?
You guys make it happen.
(16:29):
Obviously you have a team,obviously you have equipment,
but the truth is, when it's yourbaby and it's your business,
you're like the.
You guys got to make it workevery day.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
That's it.
It's hard.
It is Starting up your ownbusiness.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot more work than Ithought it was going to be, to
be honest, but we did.
We made it work.
We're a good team.
You know Kayla she still has afull-time job, which helps,
which allows me to do what I'mdoing and get the business up
and running.
But I don't know.
(17:02):
Like when I worked for Hilton, Iknew in the back of my mind I
think it's not something Ialways wanted to do forever.
I'm very grateful that I did,because I gained a lot of sales
experience, which is reallypaying off now because I do all
the sales for our company.
So I'm comfortable going in,talking to people and, you know,
giving presentations and thingslike that.
It's pretty natural for me atthis point in time.
(17:23):
So in that regard it was good.
But I always knew, like you know, from when I was young, I
always wanted my own company.
I didn't know what it was for along, long time, what I wanted
to do, but I always wanted tohave my own.
I always wanted to work formyself and you know, see it grow
and you know realize the morework you put in, the more
benefit you're going to have andit's going to be, you know, for
you personally and that'ssomething that I always wanted.
(17:45):
So, quitting Hilton, finding myway to CrossFit, which is, you
know, a bit different than thenormal path, and then finding my
true passion later in life, youknow it's exciting and really
love doing what I'm doing andmaking cheese and just seeing
the people's reaction when I goin and present my cheese.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Was it a situation where you were like on your last
set of burpees, right, and youwere just like I've had enough.
It was like you know, at onepoint Forrest Gump said I don't
want to run anymore, like I'mdone, and it's kind of I feel
like that.
You, you kind of you, you, youhit that threshold.
You're like I don't want tolift one more tire.
(18:26):
I don't want to do it, but I dowant to make cheese Like it's.
It's, it's a.
It's like the antithesis of youknow, cause you're obviously
you're, you're in fit, you're ahealthy guy and and, but you
make really delicious cheese.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
it's an eye, it's like some sort of you know
opposites sort of a thing well,I'm glad I have the crossfit
background because cheese makingit's, it's not an easy job, to
be honest.
You know it's.
It's physically demanding.
You know just the things youhave to lift.
You're on your feet all day,you do you it's.
It's quite hard.
You know, when I was working atthe factory in australia, you
(19:02):
know I was kind of low on thetotem pole so I was the man
cutting up the curd and the bigcheese vats and lifting these
huge baskets of cheese up intothe machine to stretch the
cheese and things like that.
And we would go through, oh mygosh, I think, a ton, literally
a ton of cheese a day.
So I'd be lifting all of thatcurd myself and these baskets
probably weighed about 20 poundseach and you're lifting them up
(19:24):
over your head putting it intothe machine to to get stretched.
So you know that made me fit.
So in a way it was kind ofCrossFit Cheese fit.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yes, it works, absolutely works.
I, yeah, I couldn't do it.
I mean I, I, I would be eatingthe profits of all of that.
Honestly, who's shocked.
Nobody, nobody's shocked,anybody listening?
Nobody, everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Everybody out there just went.
He would be eating it.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I don't know how many chins I would have.
Like seriously, this beardwould be so full to cover all of
that.
I don't even know what I woulddo with myself.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I ate my fair share when I was.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
For sure.
So what most people don'trecognize and the reason I'm
bringing this up right now isthat stracciatella is probably
one of my most favorite thingsto just sit down with a spoon
and eat Okay, a little salt andjust have a good time.
Where else do you findstracciatella?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Where is it that most people don't know where to find
it?
Well, I'm the only one thatproduces it in our area locally.
The only ones I've seen ispeople they're importing it from
italy but it's in the barada.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Most people don't know it's stracciatella.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
That's in barada, that's it right yeah, that's the
one thing, because we sell atthe local farmers markets around
tampa and saint pete and downsarasota.
Everyone knows barada.
And then I'll ask them oh, haveyou ever had stracciatella?
They'll say, no, right.
I'm like well, stracciatella iswhat's inside burrata.
So the shell of burrata ismozzarella and then the inside,
(20:48):
that gooey cheesy part.
That's all stracciatella.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, I dig that.
I want to live there, right?
So if it's me so, for example,I had a little.
There was a little plasticcontainer.
I don't know how many ouncesthat might have been I didn't
get any of that cheese, so don'tlook at me.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, you did.
Did we use it?
No, I did not, oh you didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
No, no, there were two containers, I got one.
No, I didn't get them all.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Anyway, silent John is pointing at you, and so am I
you guys don't know what you'retalking about.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Well, I will tell you this.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I sat at, I stood at my sink, I had a uh, a ball of
burrata, and then I finished thecontainer stretch teller,
because that's what I do well,it's funny that when we saw at
the market, not a lot, not a lotof people know stretch teller,
they know burrata, but theydon't stretch a teller, which,
if they know brother, they knowstretch teller.
But they always ask me what doyou use for it?
What can you do withstretchatella?
(21:41):
oh my god everything you wantreally pretty much it's like,
well, what can't you do with it?
But I always say you know, Ilike they put it on my scrambled
eggs in the morning.
Get a nice little baguette, putit on there, you know that's
red.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
That's my favorite way.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
But to be honest, I'm pretty sure most people they
keep it in the fridge, they passby the fridge, they get a
little spoon, take it out of thecontainer and just eat it
straight out of the container.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's me so the funny thing is, when we saw a
stretch of tell my mind, becauseI've been in italian cooking
for a while, I went right to thesoup and most people like what
soup I'm like?
you don't know that.
Even I, keith was like there.
I don't know that soup becauseit's italian a drop soup and
stretch tell means to stretch,and that's where it comes from.
So it all makes sense.
The validity of how you do itwith the stretch hotel, either
(22:27):
in the soup or in the the cheeseor from the container.
But well, that's right, youknow, at the sink when you were
at john's, when you ate theother container oh, is that what
I did.
Yes, I had to.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Okay, so okay.
So what nobody realized thisyear?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
is that was all in one day.
No, we do, I do yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Wow, all right, so I have a problem.
I have a cheese problem, andthanks for coming in today and
giving him his fix.
Yeah, you're giving me mycheese fix.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I can solve that problem, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Or add is fixed.
Yeah, you're giving me my, mycheese, I can solve that problem
.
Yeah, or add to it.
I'm gonna come knock it on yourwindow at about 3 am.
I just it'll be me, don't worryabout it.
Okay, so back to manufacturing.
You guys, you cut, you're kindof moving up in the
manufacturing world, right.
So everything, you, you, youexplained something to me which
I didn't know.
You did get some automatedequipment, right, yes, to help
in the process, but in the endit's still by hand.
Can you kind of explain that?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, it's always going to be an artisan process
when you're making mozzarella.
So we purchased a machine.
It's called a stretchingmachine.
It helps you stretch the cheese.
So when you're makingmozzarella, you're taking cheese
curd, you're adding nearboiling water and then you
stretch it, which draws in thehot water into the cheese and
that's how you get theconsistency that you're looking
(23:48):
for Whether it be a little bitharder, whether it be a little
bit softer, like burrata,something like that.
So what the machine does is ittakes the cheese curd, it goes
through this grinder, grinds itup into little particles and
then I start controlling theamount of hot water that goes
into the machine.
So we use water that's 90degrees Celsius I always use
(24:09):
Celsius or metric system becausethat's how I learned but it's
about 194 degrees Fahrenheit, soit's quite hot.
Just under boiling the cheesecurd gets some water and I
control how much water that goesinto the machine and it starts
warming it up.
Then it goes into this othercompartment of the machine where
it has these big like hands,that kind of it's like a
(24:29):
kneading, like if you'rekneading dough, and then I start
putting more water in there.
So I'm always controlling howmuch water you put into the
machine.
And that's the key when you'remaking mozzarella.
So if you want softermozzarella, you're going to add
more water.
If you want harder mozzarella,you're going to cut back the
water a little bit to get theconsistency that you want.
(24:49):
And that's what you're alwaysdoing.
So I always have to feel thecheese.
I always have to touch thecheese to see what the texture
is, to get the consistency ofwhatever I'm making at the time,
whether it be fiora latte orlike our pizzarella, which is
our pizza cheese, which is alittle bit more firm because
it's going to be melted.
So you don't want a lot ofwater in it.
(25:10):
So, even though the machine ismaking the cheese, it's pretty
much just taking the manuallabor out of it, because I'm
always controlling the waterthat goes into it.
And that's the hardest partabout cheese making Cheese
making.
You can't just say, okay,here's a pound of cheese, add,
you know, a half a gallon ofwater and you're going to have
perfect mozzarella.
That's not how it works,because the cheese curd and the
(25:30):
milk it's always absorbingdifferent amounts of water.
You never know what you'regoing to get, even though I do
the same thing every single day.
Every single day is differentbecause I never know how that
batch of cheese is going toabsorb the water because there's
so much that goes into it.
Especially with, like the cows,like change of seasons, it's
hard for a cheesemaker becausethe cows are starting to eat
different things, they'restarting to be outside a little
(25:52):
bit more, they're starting torun around, they might become a
little bit more lean, milk,might have a little bit more fat
and that's all going to affectthe way that the cheese is being
stretched so it might absorbmore water.
Some days I'll put to put themachine on and just add a little
bit of water and boom, I'mgetting the desired result.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Some days it's just like man, I have to just crank
up the water into this, intothis curd, because it's so
different so, as you're doingthis process, the, the feeling
part of the cheese is so thatyou can control the consistency
to keep it the same through eachbatch, exactly.
So, even though the elementsmight be different, whether it's
(26:32):
temperature, what the cows areeating or seasonality of things
you can still take that product,which is going to be different
in its creation.
You can still manipulate it tocome out in the same format.
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Yeah, see that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And where are you getting most of the milk from?
Is it local?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It will be.
I need to buy a cheese vat,which is they're quite expensive
.
So once I have that, then Ihave a local farmer that's going
to be giving me the milk andthen, yeah, them will be 100%
Florida made.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Jeff, should I have a cheese vat?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I think you do have one.
It's your stomach, oh.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I own it.
Yeah, I carry it around Right,right, right, of course, a
cheese vat.
What does that look like?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Just like a big, open , stainless steel drum.
So what you do is you put themilk in there and it's hooked up
to a boiler, so you put steam.
Steam heats up the milk to aspecific degree.
You add the rennet, which isthat's what coagulates the milk
to make it solid.
You add you can either addcitric acid or vinegar, and that
(27:40):
kind of speeds up the processand that's how you get your
cheese curd.
So then you cut it, the wheyfalls off and then you have a
solid product.
So you take that solid productand that's how you get your
cheese curd.
So then you cut it, the wheyfalls off and then you have a
solid product.
So you take that solid productand that's how you start making
mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
To make one ball of burrata?
How long does it take theprocess?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
By hand.
I can make well by hand thewhole process.
I can stretch about 10 poundsof cheese in about 15 minutes.
And then you start making theburrata.
Burrata is hard because onethere's a lot of technique
involved in it and it takes acouple of days.
So to kind of backtrack, tomake stracciatella which is in
the burrata, that's a two-dayprocess.
(28:18):
So you have to make thestracciatella, which is shredded
mozzarella, and I pull big longsheets of it, it and then you
take that, you cool it down andthen you shred it, and you shred
it by hand.
So to get those little shredsof mozzarella in there, it's all
shredded by hand.
So it's it's not my favoriteprocess are the larger companies
(28:39):
.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Is that automated in the larger outfits or no?
They are.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
There is a machine that does it, shreds it, that
that does work pretty.
But you have to be able to butyou know you buy it but just for
the Stracciatella part.
So then the Stracciatella, you,you, it has to sit overnight,
so it has to absorb the creamthat you put in and salt, and
then the next day then you startmaking the burrata.
So the way I make a burrata isI take a little about three
(29:03):
ounce ball of mozzarella, Iflatten it in my hand like a
pancake, I close it, or I put ascoop of stracciatella in there,
I close it and I tie I hand,tie a knot, and that's how you
get the burrata.
So that's why everyone's like,oh, the burrata is so expensive.
But you know it takes two daysto make and there's quite a lot
of labor involved in it.
Just, and there's quite a lotof labor involved in it, just in
(29:25):
tying the knot.
There's a lot of labor there is,and to me that's the most
important for the burrata is tohave the hand-tied knot.
There are machines that do it,but it doesn't come out as
consistent.
So when I make the burrata,you'll notice my burrata.
You'll cut it open and the skinof the burrata is really thin.
And that's how you tell a goodartisan burrata is how thin that
(29:48):
skin is.
Because when they make it witha machine they just take a ball
of mozzarella, they shove it upinto this cone that shoots
stracciatella in it and thenthey just kind of pinch it shut.
So the outside, the skin part,tends to be quite thick and I
find it a little bit chewy.
I don't like it as much.
And there's not a hand-tiedknot, which I think is important
, especially when you are giving, selling it to restaurants and
things like that.
When a barata comes to thetable and there's a hand-tied
(30:10):
knot, you know exactly whatyou're getting.
At that point you're like oh,this is barata there's nothing
like barata at all.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Well, when he's talking about the hand tie, I
think, I think for optic, Ithink it's beautiful because it
you, you mentioned artisan.
That's the difference.
I mean, let's just say qualityfor quality.
But if you, you know, let'sjust say quality for quality is
the same, which I don't.
But let's just say but then yougo to the, to the end user, you
go to the restaurant or hotelor wherever that you know eatery
(30:40):
is, and they put out thisbeautiful plate.
When you have something thatyou can tell is like handed,
that just ups the level, ups theante a little bit, I think you
can command a little bit moredollars for the plate.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well, I think the other problem is that most
people think that because it'slocal, it's going to be cheaper,
and that's not the case,especially when you're putting
the time and the effort in, likehe's doing, with the hand tying
it and it's labor intensive twodays to make you you that that
(31:14):
commands, I think, a betterprice.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So in in the world of oddball tipping as it is now, I
think you should carry an ipadaround and flip it around and
have people tip you for tyingthe knot.
I'm just saying I would, Iwould tip for that versus
through, you know, versus the uh, the coffee shop.
I'm kidding, I shouldn't havesaid that.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
I'm going to get emails.
What's the?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
tip inflation, oh tip inflation, oh my goodness, it's
nice we have.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
We have a few restaurants that know our story
and they educate their staff,their servers and things like
that, and when they bring outthe burrata and things like that
to the table, you know, theykind of say a little blurb about
where this came from.
It's local, you know, familyowned.
Everything's handmade.
So it is nice and I thinkthat's one of our best features
that we have is that it ishandmade, it's family owned,
(31:54):
it's local here and some peopleeven put you know, it's made by
Selena G's on the menu, which isnice.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
So a lot of our listenership.
I mean, we're all over theplace.
We're 90 countries, 1,600cities around the planet.
Obviously, we're here incentral Florida, we're in the
Tampa area, so we deal with alot of the chefs locally.
I understand that a couple ofweeks ago you had your first
order to Pizzecki's Produce,which is a friend of the show.
(32:23):
Pizzecki's Produce, which is afriend of the show, and they can
.
You know chefs and you know F&Bdirectors, buyers, whatnot.
You can find this product atPizzecki's Produce, correct.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Correct.
Yeah, they carry our full lineand yeah, we just had our first
order.
A few weeks ago, they startedbuying some of our burrata, some
of our Oaxaca.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, let's talk about that, because I've been
waiting for you.
So you have burrata, you havestracciatella, you have the
pizza, then Oaxaca.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Oaxaca, yeah, and then many different forms of the
mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
He went Mexitalian, right.
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah, it's funny.
Everyone asks like do you haveItalian?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
cheese.
And what's the Oaxaca, wherethe Oaxaca come from.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah well, oaxaca is it's.
It's made the same way that youmake mozzarella, so the same
way that I make a fiora latte ormozzarella ball or whatever,
that's how you would make Oaxaca.
The only difference is I'lltake a like a one pound ball of
mozzarella, you flatten it, youknow, in a, in a long line, and
(33:25):
and then you roll it.
So you kind of roll it, kind oflike you would fold a flag, and
that's how you get, when youunravel it, you get the
stringiness of the Oaxaca.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, by the way, that's one of the best ones.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I've had.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
You can see it on the .
It's becoming more and moremainstream, like queso fresco
and cojita cheese.
So that's one of my favorites,because every so everyone knows
that's the same location wheremole came from.
So you have two, like you havethat cheese and mole and you put
the two together.
It's just incredible and youdon't have to use that cheese
just in mexican cuisine.
(33:58):
There's a lot of the things youcan do.
That wait, wait, wait.
You're saying it's not just inthat realm of the sticks into
your lane.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
All right.
So you're saying that itdoesn't just have to be in a
taco?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
No, okay it could be anywhere it wants to be because
it commands it, especially withyour flavor profile, and that
definitely has that flavorprofile.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Well, tell me, Jeff no, I'm only kidding, Chef
Jefferson what would you do witha Oaxaca?
Like what in your head now?
Cause I already know you'vebeen thinking, you've been
already thinking like what am Igoing to do?
I?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
would do a Buxuto wrapped instead of Monterey.
You're establishing somethingthat's totally different.
That's not been seen before.
I think, chefs, one of thethings that we can do, we have
the opportunity to teach andeducate our guests, and then one
of the ways to do it is notdoing something by infusion to
be confusion, but infusion toactually make that stand out.
One of the best things I'veever seen around the country as
(34:51):
far as starchy sales beenconcerned is Bufalina out in
Austin, and they were a JamesBeard award-winning restaurant.
We didn't even order it.
It came to the table and thankGod they did that and it was
literally this huge, thick pieceof this gorgeous grilled
sourdough and this fantasticlayered of complexity tomato jam
with the stracciatella on topoh my god and just, you know,
(35:13):
keith and I were like we'redefinitely going to do this and
when you guys dropped that stuffoff and did the shoot, that's
one of the things.
But somebody ate two containersof it.
So today jeff is taking boththose containers because next
week I'm going to actually dosomething with that for the
podcast.
I want to shoot that becausethere's nothing like that.
I will approve I'm sure youwill when it's going into your
(35:36):
mouth.
But I think that's one of thethings that we can do and
educate.
I mean, a lot of people, likeyou said, don't understand that,
the work involved in it, thetime that it takes to it.
You know, like you see thisthing.
Well, why does it cost thismuch?
Well, because it's so much more.
Like we talked to our farmersthat do chicken, raised chickens
, like nicole and vicky and thegoats and all that.
Why does it cost like 17, 18for a bird?
(35:59):
Well, when you taste that bird,it's different than the three
dollar one that you get in thesupermarket, because that's not
the way we should be eating.
The way we should be eating isthat bird or this cheese,
because it doesn't have all thatstuff in it when you're looking
and you're sourcing your milk.
For the product, you have acertain standard operating.
I was about to use the SOPStandard operating procedure.
(36:20):
Right that you're looking forgrass, finish Criteria and
whatever.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Yeah we do.
My main goal was to have a milkcome from a single origin.
So I didn't want to use like aco-op or anything like that,
because that's where a lot ofthe milk goes.
So farmers will sell to onespecific area and all the milk
is mixed in with, you know, allthe farmers' milks.
So I wanted one that came fromone specific farm.
(36:44):
That was really important to me.
I went to the farm, I visited it.
I saw the cows, I saw what theywere eating.
I felt what they were eating,so I knew it was a good quality
source and milk that's cheese.
So if you don't have a goodmilk, you're not going to have a
good product.
So that was the main thing thatI really wanted was a single
(37:11):
origin, because I wanted to knowexactly what was going in to
feed those cows.
And then there's othertechnical things you have to
worry about, like the fatcontent in the milk and things
like that.
So you have to use specificcows.
You can't use Jersey cowsbecause it's harder to make the
cheese curd because it's higherin fat.
So you have to watch for that.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
So when you let me back up a second when, when, a
moment ago, you were, you weredescribing, I got to see the cow
, I got to see what they'reeating, I got to feel what they
were eating, I was, Iimmediately, was thinking I was
getting snapshots in my head ofa gladiator and Marcus Aurelius
would just, you know, bend downand pick up the soil and put it
in his hands, before you know,and I'm like, oh, this is you
(37:48):
know, this is like a realfeeling, it's a real thing and
this is where the passion comesfrom.
Right, so that's really, reallycool.
Okay, I have a question for you.
You make cheese, yes, okay, areyou still eating cheese?
I do, I have to.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Not for tasting.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Not for tasting.
I don't know.
When I was doing coffeemanufacturing, I was drinking I
mean like seriously coffee fromall day, all night, and then
sometimes I'm just like, oh God,I can't do it.
I just can't have another cup,I can't do it.
Is that a similar thing?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
It's not, it's cheese .
Like, you know who doesn't likecheese.
Like, can you ever get sick ofcheese?
Can you ever get sick of pizza?
I eat a lot of it, like we eata lot of mozzarella, just
because it's there, especiallyOaxaca.
Oaxaca's my favorite.
That's the one I eat the mostof.
It melts really well.
I like to eat it fresh.
I think it's great.
You know just the saltinesswith it.
(38:46):
But you know, I've been on abig goat cheese kick lately.
I really like that.
Eventually we're going to getinto buffalo milk so we'll have
buffalo mozzarella.
Oh yeah, I'm excited for that.
That's one of my favorites.
Once we get that, we're goingto get a cold smoker, so we're
going to have smoked buffalo,which is that's the best.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
I love what you're saying.
Oh my goodness, how many soofferings right meanwhile,
john's looking at me.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I know well, we both we're both looking at you right
now?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
how many line items are you putting out?
Speaker 3 (39:17):
we have six, six, yeah, rattle them all.
All, call all cow's milk.
So well, we well, we have more,but the main ones.
We have mozzarella balls whichcome in Fiora Latte, which is
eight ounce, we haveBocconcini's, which is two ounce
, chili Gini, which is cherrysized, and Perlini, which will
(39:37):
be pearl size.
So those are all like the freshmozzarella balls that everyone
would know.
Like I said, we also do oaxaca.
We have burrata of varioussizes, stretchatella and and
pizzarella.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
So that's our we call it pizzarella, a little
moisture cheese yeah, not likethe stuff that's out there that
the broadliners sell.
I can tell you that much rightnow.
There's nothing like it becauseyou're getting something that's
artisan.
One of the things I noticedwhen I was up in boston and in
new hampshire One of the thingsI noticed when I was up in
Boston and in New Hampshire, oneof the things I loved and I
think we have to embrace it downhere is I went to Martin
butcher shop in Texas, rightoutside Massachusetts, and I
(40:14):
walk inside and they're listingwhere the duck came from, where
the cow came from, where thechicken came from, where the
cheeses came from, and I thinkif we start doing that more,
we're going to start seeingbetter products on our shelves
and inevitably we were talkingin the green room that's the
products that we're putting inour bodies now that are making
us sick because theultra-processed foods.
(40:36):
This is how we have to go backto eating, because we can find a
single source cow or milk thatis going to be producing the end
result, because inevitablythey're not farmers, are not
farmers of cattle, they're notfarmers of pigs or chickens or
whatever they're growing.
They're farmers of the soil,it's the grass or whatever
they're using.
So you have to look for a highquality farmer that's doing
(40:57):
stuff, so congrats to doing thatno, thanks.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Well, I mean, that's the flavor, right?
Whatever the cows are eating,that's going into the milk.
So it's, it's, it's you knowit's so important to pay
attention to those things youknow, same with you know the
meat that you're buying, thechicken that you're buying,
whatever those animals areeating is what's going to go
into your body 100 I feel likewe should all pick our mics up,
throw them down and walk out.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Now, mic drop it.
Everybody don't do that.
These, these are expensivestuff.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Well, you just want pizza and spring rolls.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
I do I want to get into the spring rolls and pizza?
Oh my goodness, all right.
So where do we find other thanPizzecki's Produce?
Which chefs out there youshould be calling?
Give Brian a ring.
Set that up, are you allCentral Florida?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yes, we are mainly in the Tampa Pinellas St Pete area
.
We are mainly in the TampaPinellas St Pete area.
We are down in Sarasota at thefarmer's market there.
You can find us at Rolling Oatsin St Pete and there's a bunch
of different farms Meacham Farms, life Farms all around Tampa
and Clearwater.
What's your website?
Real quick.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Salamatecheesecom.
Excellent.
All right, thank you for beingon the show.
I appreciate you both comingout to the studio.
All right, thank you for beingon the show.
I appreciate you both comingout to the studio.
Jeff, john, you guys areawesome.
Evan, wherever you are floatingaround somewhere, you're
awesome too.
All right, we are.
Oh, by the way, peninsula FoodService check them out.
We are out.
(42:20):
We'll see you next time.
Hello Food Fam.
This is the Walk Talk Podcastwhere you will find the perfect
blend of food fun and cookingknowledge.
I'm your host, carl Fiodini.
Welcome to the number one foodpodcast in the country.
We are recording on-site atIbis Images Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
First things first.
(00:29):
Last week on the programJefferson my man, he was up in
Boston with cookbook maven ChefKeith Saracen.
Find out what they were doing.
Plus, we had friend and FoodNetwork competitor on season six
of Supermarket Steakout, chefJonathan Rodriguez.
Be sure to tune in on Tuesdaynights.
Check their website for theexact times.
(00:50):
It's pretty cool to see him onthere.
Thank you, peninsula FoodService for supplying the
proteins for today's productionChefs in the Central Florida
area.
Peninsula is the largestdistributor of Creekstone Farms
beef in the Southeast USA,complete with a fully staffed
butcher shop to help solve yourkitchen inconsistencies.
Peninsula is the largestdistributor of Creekstone Farms
(01:11):
beef in the Southeast USA,complete with a fully staffed
butcher shop to help solve yourkitchen inconsistencies.
Yes, check out their dry ageprogram too.
Okay, our guest this week.
We have a very cool guest ownerof Salena Cheese, mark Maurer.
It's a Central Floridafamily-owned and operated
manufacturer of delicious,delicious cheeses Mozzarella.
Stay tuned.
Selena is on deck.
(01:31):
Walk Talk will be at the NRAshow in Chicago in just a few
days.
Jeff and Pooch will be doingimpromptu short-form interviews
with industry personalities andmeeting up with some of our
partners, sponsors and friends.
In fact, citrus America's boothwill be home base, along with
Metro and a couple of others.
Come say hello at booth 5463.
(01:53):
Can't wait to see AJ from Metro, along with Tina from Rack
Porcelain.
Wish I could make it, but I gotto send these two guys.
Jeff, baby, pop the clutch.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
We didn't cook yet, but you're going to talk about
what we got go sure, I mean,we're going to do a little bit
of a study of a duck today, sowe're doing a.
So it was national crap day, soI want to do something that was
different.
I'm going to do egg rolls, butwe're going to do a riff on a
duck on orange.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
We're going to morph that say that again duck on
orange yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And then, uh, it's like saying croissants, we're
going to do cardamom rubbed duckbreast with shredded napa
cabbage.
And then we did a togarashicandied orange that you guys
tried earlier.
That I thought was going to betoo spicy for John, but he
proved me wrong.
We got a little brie in therefor some creaminess as well.
And then the dipping sauce is ablueberry lemon thyme dipping
(02:41):
sauce as well.
Then I wanted to do somethingwith since we have some cheese
coming in, we're doing a pizza,we're going to do some barbecue
sauce on that pizza pickledshallots, because I know you
like pickled shallots.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I do.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, and then we actually have some stuff from my
garden that's going to be onthis one too as well Crispy
onions.
The duck is going to be kimchiand hoisin rubbed on that one.
And then I wanted to dosomething a little bit different
, because I love shashuka.
So I wanted to take shashuka,which is basically a stew of
tomatoes and peppers, cumin,coriander, garlic, and then it
(03:14):
has some peppers and you put eggin it.
So what I did was leave the eggout.
I blended all that through tobe nice and smooth.
Then I'm taking shawarma spicedlamb racks, and then we're
going to sear those off, putthem down with some roasted
zucchini as well, some mashedpotatoes and then, lastly, we're
going to be doing John'sfavorite.
(03:35):
I brought it back.
You didn't see it, did you?
It's figs.
But I'm taking it to the nextlevel.
I took it some brie, put somebrie inside the actual middle
brie inside the actual middlelittle cavity inside the actual
loin part of the pork chop,stuffed it with the fig and brie
.
Then I took the leftover figand brie mixture, added pecans
(03:55):
to give it some crunch, thatwe're going to put that on top
of it afterwards and then we'regoing to serve that with the
garlic mashed potatoes, grilledpeaches, because peaches are in
season right now for Florida,that's a short little window of
three weeks and then we're goingto do that with some charred
tomatoes from my garden.
I have some pickled chocolatepeppers from my garden as well
(04:15):
and I have my Marasaki peppersin throughout the whole
different menus.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, I think this whole cookbook thing that
you're doing you started offwrong.
The name of the book shouldhave been my secret, okay now,
that's the next couple.
Yeah, okay yeah, the craveablecookbook.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
The craveable cookbook, yeah, yeah, by the
jefferson starship by the way,it's uh going to be released
looks like in about three weeksawesome awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
We won't be able to talk about it on this show, but,
uh, all right, well, citrusamerica.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Thank you very much because they actually said if I
wanted to put anything out ontheir their booth about the book
, I said, yeah, that'd be great,thank you.
So we're gonna do a qr codethey're awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, they really are .
Yeah, and, by the way, yeah,we're gonna be doing some stuff.
You know, I kind of I think Iseeded it maybe a month or so
ago, but we're gonna be doingsome things with uh, with, with
Citrus America coming up.
So stay tuned.
I'll drop more on that as uh,as that gets closer.
Are you excited about this NRAthing, or what?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I would be if I didn't go through what I went
through last weekend.
I'm still trying to recoverthat you listen.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
First of all, you picked up and left Okay, the
shortest notice of short notice.
I was like all right.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
August you're going to.
I'm putting you on notice rightnow, mid-august, I've got to do
it again.
August, yeah, on a.
Thursday Probably Getting dirty, don't worry, I'm going to prep
so that Sean has food.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay, yeah, we need to get that squared out.
Yeah, but I also need to knowwhich Thursday it is, because
right now I arison.
You hear me?
All right, you're gonna have tokick in for this, if you're,
you know, all right, pull on.
Yeah, real quick.
So you were, uh.
Well, actually, before we getto that nra, yep, this is a big
(05:55):
deal it's huge right?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
yeah, 10 football fields of convention space and
we're gonna have access to allof it yeah, it's amazing the
amount of emails that pooch andI are getting on an hourly basis
, let alone daily basis it'sreally cool well, I had.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I was on a call yesterday with uh, with metro,
and they're super excited too.
Aj and brianne are going to bethere.
Aj is going to be there,brianne is not okay.
Yeah, it's cool to see aj 100and yeah, there's some other
cool things that are going to behappening with with metro as
well.
You know just some contentrelated really cool stuff, so
we'll get into that at anothertime.
But, yeah, everybody check outmetro, metro, shelving, metro,
(06:39):
go baby.
And productivity yes, it istotally productivity did.
Did you see your cart?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I can't wait to play with it.
I'm going to do that tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Do you want to explain, maybe?
So everybody knows.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So it's a Chef mobile cart.
This thing is.
I mean they thought ofeverything so it's adjustable
height.
You can put it to like 32, 33inches to 41, I think it is so
somebody who's tall like LanceCook could do it without, you
know, leaning over and hurtingtheir back.
It has everything you canpossibly think of.
It has a rack there.
You can put third pans, ninthpans or sixth pans as you're
cutting with a cutting board.
(07:11):
Slide that out, wash it.
There's even a knife rack theretoo.
When you're done, you canactually put multiple different
cutting boards so that you canhave that as well.
There's sheet trays that youcan put so that it's
self-contained.
So think about it.
When you need to prep in acooler because you're breaking
(07:31):
down fish, you'd walk right inthe cooler.
Listen, we were just on a sitevisit, or we were at that site
in New Hampshire on a farm.
It had a one-door region.
It had four tables that weresix-foot tables.
It had a two-deck oven and asink.
That's it three-compartmentsink.
There was nothing else there.
If we had that prep stationwhere we needed to cut and we're
out without killing ourselves,it would have been just super
(07:51):
fantastic.
I mean, you could have done.
Carry on, you know, not for 202people.
I will tell you that team isamazing to.
Keith has really lined himselfup and he's a great leader, and
Chris, of all, they did afantastic job.
I mean 202 people in 45 minuteswe served.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, that's, that's insane.
Yeah, is that what you're?
Cranky pants now.
Is that what this is?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, this is.
This is Jeff trying torecuperate, all right.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, I remember this after the world food
championship.
This was cranky pants, jeff.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Right now, no, this should have been after Jeff
after the nine course meal.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Oh, speaking well, did you see the video yet?
Yeah, how was that?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
drop dead gorgeous, right?
Yeah, this guy evan is just amonster, he is it's almost not
that he's sitting over my lefthand.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
He's like a monster hanging over your shoulder,
right literally this I meanseriously.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
When you, when you guys, look at this, look for it
on the social media over at thewalk and talk on any of those.
It looks like it's a chef'stable.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
It really does, it's that quality what I was putting
out there.
So we have a little side chatwith the marketplace.
You know the porch market,fellas, and it's like a million
bucks.
To me it's like a million bucks.
You look at the video, amillion bucks, that's what I saw
, that's what I saw, that's whatI see.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I love how you were teasing them like I, I want to
show you and I'm like, justdrive over and show them you
gotta, you gotta tease oh, youwere definitely teasing yeah,
yeah so more teasing right now.
So when they do it, when theylook at this and they hear you,
now they can go look at it.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I know I'm excited, I super, I am excited and it's
going to be really badass whenwe put it out, plus all all
John's photography and you know,evan's working on some.
You know, don't forget, we havethe tasty cam, right yeah, and
that tasty cam footage will befor socials, right?
So it's all in the you knowportrait setting and it's.
(09:38):
We're going to be pumping allthat out.
It's going to be great, andthen we're going to be setting
up for the next one.
Got to pick the date.
It's going to be good, allright.
So, with that said, withoutfurther ado, mark, welcome to
the program.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, thanks, guys, really appreciate you having me
here.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It's our pleasure and thank you for coming out.
We always we really doappreciate when folks get to
come and experience, you know,walk and talk podcast in house,
in studio.
You get the feel for what we'redoing typically or historically
, I should say.
You know there'd already befood cooking and and it it
(10:14):
brings a different element to tothe show itself.
But you're going to see thatjust after the show you'll
experience some of that.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
And you get to eat a lot more than when normally yeah
, right, yeah right, thanks, Ican't always always, always with
the shots always with the shots.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
This guy.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Hey, so you have a very interesting.
First of all, we met you and Iabout a year and a half ago.
We did right and you were doinga tasting at uh pizzecki's
produce farm fresh over in saintpete, and I happened to be
there the day you came in to uhto do the tasting, so I got to
experience your product andyou're basically in the very
beginnings of the company.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
That was my first sales call.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
That was your first sales call.
Yes, you broke the barata rightthere.
You know that was your firstcall, that was it.
Yeah, so between then and Idon't know, was it a couple of
weeks ago when we sent what?
Two weeks ago, couple of weeksago, when we sent what two weeks
ago three weeks ago, about amonth, a month now, I don't know
.
Time is upside down.
So about a month ago you camewith here to ibis images and and
(11:12):
did a photo shoot with john,which was amazing, amazing, yes,
and but we got to eat productand sample product again, and
man your consistency isfantastic.
I want to say it's improved,it's even gotten better.
It was good then and it's evenbetter now.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Oh, it definitely has .
You know that was about a yearand a half ago we met and that
was at the very beginning of ourcompany, so the consistency has
changed a lot.
We've gotten better at makingthe cheese, got some new
equipment that helps us with theproduction, adjusted the
recipes a little bit and justgot a little bit more experience
(11:51):
under our belt making thecheese.
So a lot's changed in that yearand a half.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think it's pretty amazing.
So your story is pretty cool.
Not everybody is just like hey,you know what?
I'm going to start a cheesecompany.
I'm going to manufacture cheeseLike nobody really does that
it's rare and to do it in a, toexecute it in a way where it
makes any kind of sense andwhere you're where you actually
do have consistency in yourmanufacturing and your quality
(12:17):
and all.
Why don't you go ahead and takea minute to kind of explain
like how it is that you brokeinto the cheese business?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Well, it's a different story, that's for sure
.
I kind of fell into my passionof making cheese.
I used to work for Hilton forhotels for 20 years and I did
sales and business developmentfor them.
So I started here in Florida.
That's where I began my careerwith Hilton, moved up to Chicago
for a while, worked at a hotelup there and then I got
(12:50):
transferred to Sydney inAustralia.
So I decided I was single andwhy not?
Just moved to Sydney, startedworking for Hilton there and
then just after a while justkind of got burned out with the
corporate life and decided tomove on from that.
At that time I met my wife,kayla, and I was heavily into
(13:14):
CrossFit at the time, which is abit different.
So I decided to quit my jobwith Hilton and become a
CrossFit coach and did that fora little bit.
And that's where I met my goodfriend, giuseppe, giuseppe
Minoglia, and he worked for hisdad.
They had a company that theymade mozzarella in Sydney and
(13:34):
they're one of the mainproducers throughout all of
Australia there and very goodhigh-end cheese.
And I started working for themand really fell in love with it.
So I was able to find mypassion and they taught me the
trade, which I was very gratefulfor because they make the
cheese the true Italian way.
So Giuseppe's dad, vito.
He's worked and made cheese forover 50 years, so I think he's
(13:59):
in his 51st year now.
He started in Puglia in Italy,where Burrata was born, and they
taught me it.
So I worked for them and wedecided after a little while
Australia is far away, so wemoved our family halfway around
the world, decided to move backto Florida, be a little bit
(14:20):
closer to home and start up our,our company, selena cheese, and
then got that rolling and herewe are today.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So so that's an.
So whenever somebody says, hey,you know what, I'm going to
learn something and I'm going totry something new, I'm going to
go from my career path thatI've been on and I'm going to
jump ship and I'm going to getinto, like your manufacturing
cheese.
You know it's not like, oh, Ibought a, been on and I'm going
to jump ship and I'm going toget into like you're
manufacturing cheese.
You know it's not like, oh, Ibought a cheese company and we,
you know we buy it from.
You know different purveyorsand we or other other
(14:53):
manufacturers, and we just sellit.
You're making it and that's abig deal and your product is
really good.
Okay, so I'm comfortable sayingthat because I've had it.
I've had it in two separateoccasions, in two different
timelines in the history of youroperation.
So I'm saying that it's goodand I know you brought some
goodies here today as well.
So you know we're going to jumpinto that.
By the way, I am I took alittle bit of a different path
(15:16):
than you.
I saw CrossFit and I ran theother way you know, completely
in the other direction.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
He went and sit fit.
That's where you sit and getfit by eating.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I was.
I'm sit fit and I can hardlybutt in my pants, but I'm happy.
Do you know what I mean?
Happy, by the way, that's crazystuff.
Like I remember, like it waslike I don't know when, like
COVID time, when it was reallybecoming a big thing or whatever
.
I feel like right around thereand everyone doing all of those
crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Lifting tires, because you know I got nothing
else to do except lift a tractortrailer.
Yeah, why not?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
That made me want to sit on my couch even more.
It made me want to sit downbreak out a bag of potato chips
and watch them, and watch youguys, and you probably fit too.
I'm sweating now thinking aboutit right now.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I'm sweating.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You know what I mean.
So you're a, you're a familybusiness, you're a small company
.
What was it like to go from?
You know, hilton is is bigcorporate.
What was it like to go fromHilton to your own company,
where you have, you're, the end,all you and your wife, by the
way, who's here in studio withus?
You guys make it happen.
(16:29):
Obviously you have a team,obviously you have equipment,
but the truth is, when it's yourbaby and it's your business,
you're like the.
You guys got to make it workevery day.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
That's it.
It's hard.
It is Starting up your ownbusiness.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot more work than Ithought it was going to be, to
be honest, but we did.
We made it work.
We're a good team.
You know Kayla she still has afull-time job, which helps,
which allows me to do what I'mdoing and get the business up
and running.
But I don't know.
(17:02):
Like when I worked for Hilton, Iknew in the back of my mind I
think it's not something Ialways wanted to do forever.
I'm very grateful that I did,because I gained a lot of sales
experience, which is reallypaying off now because I do all
the sales for our company.
So I'm comfortable going in,talking to people and, you know,
giving presentations and thingslike that.
It's pretty natural for me atthis point in time.
(17:23):
So in that regard it was good.
But I always knew, like you know, from when I was young, I
always wanted my own company.
I didn't know what it was for along, long time, what I wanted
to do, but I always wanted tohave my own.
I always wanted to work formyself and you know, see it grow
and you know realize the morework you put in, the more
benefit you're going to have andit's going to be, you know, for
you personally and that'ssomething that I always wanted.
(17:45):
So, quitting Hilton, finding myway to CrossFit, which is, you
know, a bit different than thenormal path, and then finding my
true passion later in life, youknow it's exciting and really
love doing what I'm doing andmaking cheese and just seeing
the people's reaction when I goin and present my cheese.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Was it a situation where you were like on your last
set of burpees, right, and youwere just like I've had enough.
It was like you know, at onepoint Forrest Gump said I don't
want to run anymore, like I'mdone, and it's kind of I feel
like that.
You, you kind of you, you, youhit that threshold.
You're like I don't want tolift one more tire.
(18:26):
I don't want to do it, but I dowant to make cheese Like it's.
It's, it's a.
It's like the antithesis of youknow, cause you're obviously
you're, you're in fit, you're ahealthy guy and and, but you
make really delicious cheese.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
it's an eye, it's like some sort of you know
opposites sort of a thing well,I'm glad I have the crossfit
background because cheese makingit's, it's not an easy job, to
be honest.
You know it's.
It's physically demanding.
You know just the things youhave to lift.
You're on your feet all day,you do you it's.
It's quite hard.
You know, when I was working atthe factory in australia, you
(19:02):
know I was kind of low on thetotem pole so I was the man
cutting up the curd and the bigcheese vats and lifting these
huge baskets of cheese up intothe machine to stretch the
cheese and things like that.
And we would go through, oh mygosh, I think, a ton, literally
a ton of cheese a day.
So I'd be lifting all of thatcurd myself and these baskets
probably weighed about 20 poundseach and you're lifting them up
(19:24):
over your head putting it intothe machine to to get stretched.
So you know that made me fit.
So in a way it was kind ofCrossFit Cheese fit.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yes, it works, absolutely works.
I, yeah, I couldn't do it.
I mean I, I, I would be eatingthe profits of all of that.
Honestly, who's shocked.
Nobody, nobody's shocked,anybody listening?
Nobody, everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Everybody out there just went.
He would be eating it.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I don't know how many chins I would have.
Like seriously, this beardwould be so full to cover all of
that.
I don't even know what I woulddo with myself.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I ate my fair share when I was.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
For sure.
So what most people don'trecognize and the reason I'm
bringing this up right now isthat stracciatella is probably
one of my most favorite thingsto just sit down with a spoon
and eat Okay, a little salt andjust have a good time.
Where else do you findstracciatella?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Where is it that most people don't know where to find
it?
Well, I'm the only one thatproduces it in our area locally.
The only ones I've seen ispeople they're importing it from
italy but it's in the barada.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Most people don't know it's stracciatella.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
That's in barada, that's it right yeah, that's the
one thing, because we sell atthe local farmers markets around
tampa and saint pete and downsarasota.
Everyone knows barada.
And then I'll ask them oh, haveyou ever had stracciatella?
They'll say, no, right.
I'm like well, stracciatella iswhat's inside burrata.
So the shell of burrata ismozzarella and then the inside,
(20:48):
that gooey cheesy part.
That's all stracciatella.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, I dig that.
I want to live there, right?
So if it's me so, for example,I had a little.
There was a little plasticcontainer.
I don't know how many ouncesthat might have been I didn't
get any of that cheese, so don'tlook at me.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, you did.
Did we use it?
No, I did not, oh you didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
No, no, there were two containers, I got one.
No, I didn't get them all.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Anyway, silent John is pointing at you, and so am I
you guys don't know what you'retalking about.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Well, I will tell you this.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I sat at, I stood at my sink, I had a uh, a ball of
burrata, and then I finished thecontainer stretch teller,
because that's what I do well,it's funny that when we saw at
the market, not a lot, not a lotof people know stretch teller,
they know burrata, but theydon't stretch a teller, which,
if they know brother, they knowstretch teller.
But they always ask me what doyou use for it?
What can you do withstretchatella?
(21:41):
oh my god everything you wantreally pretty much it's like,
well, what can't you do with it?
But I always say you know, Ilike they put it on my scrambled
eggs in the morning.
Get a nice little baguette, putit on there, you know that's
red.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
That's my favorite way.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
But to be honest, I'm pretty sure most people they
keep it in the fridge, they passby the fridge, they get a
little spoon, take it out of thecontainer and just eat it
straight out of the container.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's me so the funny thing is, when we saw a
stretch of tell my mind, becauseI've been in italian cooking
for a while, I went right to thesoup and most people like what
soup I'm like?
you don't know that.
Even I, keith was like there.
I don't know that soup becauseit's italian a drop soup and
stretch tell means to stretch,and that's where it comes from.
So it all makes sense.
The validity of how you do itwith the stretch hotel, either
(22:27):
in the soup or in the the cheeseor from the container.
But well, that's right, youknow, at the sink when you were
at john's, when you ate theother container oh, is that what
I did.
Yes, I had to.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Okay, so okay.
So what nobody realized thisyear?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
is that was all in one day.
No, we do, I do yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Wow, all right, so I have a problem.
I have a cheese problem, andthanks for coming in today and
giving him his fix.
Yeah, you're giving me mycheese fix.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I can solve that problem, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Or add is fixed.
Yeah, you're giving me my, mycheese, I can solve that problem
.
Yeah, or add to it.
I'm gonna come knock it on yourwindow at about 3 am.
I just it'll be me, don't worryabout it.
Okay, so back to manufacturing.
You guys, you cut, you're kindof moving up in the
manufacturing world, right.
So everything, you, you, youexplained something to me which
I didn't know.
You did get some automatedequipment, right, yes, to help
in the process, but in the endit's still by hand.
Can you kind of explain that?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, it's always going to be an artisan process
when you're making mozzarella.
So we purchased a machine.
It's called a stretchingmachine.
It helps you stretch the cheese.
So when you're makingmozzarella, you're taking cheese
curd, you're adding nearboiling water and then you
stretch it, which draws in thehot water into the cheese and
that's how you get theconsistency that you're looking
(23:48):
for Whether it be a little bitharder, whether it be a little
bit softer, like burrata,something like that.
So what the machine does is ittakes the cheese curd, it goes
through this grinder, grinds itup into little particles and
then I start controlling theamount of hot water that goes
into the machine.
So we use water that's 90degrees Celsius I always use
(24:09):
Celsius or metric system becausethat's how I learned but it's
about 194 degrees Fahrenheit, soit's quite hot.
Just under boiling the cheesecurd gets some water and I
control how much water that goesinto the machine and it starts
warming it up.
Then it goes into this othercompartment of the machine where
it has these big like hands,that kind of it's like a
(24:29):
kneading, like if you'rekneading dough, and then I start
putting more water in there.
So I'm always controlling howmuch water you put into the
machine.
And that's the key when you'remaking mozzarella.
So if you want softermozzarella, you're going to add
more water.
If you want harder mozzarella,you're going to cut back the
water a little bit to get theconsistency that you want.
(24:49):
And that's what you're alwaysdoing.
So I always have to feel thecheese.
I always have to touch thecheese to see what the texture
is, to get the consistency ofwhatever I'm making at the time,
whether it be fiora latte orlike our pizzarella, which is
our pizza cheese, which is alittle bit more firm because
it's going to be melted.
So you don't want a lot ofwater in it.
(25:10):
So, even though the machine ismaking the cheese, it's pretty
much just taking the manuallabor out of it, because I'm
always controlling the waterthat goes into it.
And that's the hardest partabout cheese making Cheese
making.
You can't just say, okay,here's a pound of cheese, add,
you know, a half a gallon ofwater and you're going to have
perfect mozzarella.
That's not how it works,because the cheese curd and the
(25:30):
milk it's always absorbingdifferent amounts of water.
You never know what you'regoing to get, even though I do
the same thing every single day.
Every single day is differentbecause I never know how that
batch of cheese is going toabsorb the water because there's
so much that goes into it.
Especially with, like the cows,like change of seasons, it's
hard for a cheesemaker becausethe cows are starting to eat
different things, they'restarting to be outside a little
(25:52):
bit more, they're starting torun around, they might become a
little bit more lean, milk,might have a little bit more fat
and that's all going to affectthe way that the cheese is being
stretched so it might absorbmore water.
Some days I'll put to put themachine on and just add a little
bit of water and boom, I'mgetting the desired result.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Some days it's just like man, I have to just crank
up the water into this, intothis curd, because it's so
different so, as you're doingthis process, the, the feeling
part of the cheese is so thatyou can control the consistency
to keep it the same through eachbatch, exactly.
So, even though the elementsmight be different, whether it's
(26:32):
temperature, what the cows areeating or seasonality of things
you can still take that product,which is going to be different
in its creation.
You can still manipulate it tocome out in the same format.
Yes, 100%.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Yeah, see that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And where are you getting most of the milk from?
Is it local?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It will be.
I need to buy a cheese vat,which is they're quite expensive
.
So once I have that, then Ihave a local farmer that's going
to be giving me the milk andthen, yeah, them will be 100%
Florida made.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Jeff, should I have a cheese vat?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I think you do have one.
It's your stomach, oh.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I own it.
Yeah, I carry it around Right,right, right, of course, a
cheese vat.
What does that look like?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Just like a big, open , stainless steel drum.
So what you do is you put themilk in there and it's hooked up
to a boiler, so you put steam.
Steam heats up the milk to aspecific degree.
You add the rennet, which isthat's what coagulates the milk
to make it solid.
You add you can either addcitric acid or vinegar, and that
(27:40):
kind of speeds up the processand that's how you get your
cheese curd.
So then you cut it, the wheyfalls off and then you have a
solid product.
So you take that solid productand that's how you get your
cheese curd.
So then you cut it, the wheyfalls off and then you have a
solid product.
So you take that solid productand that's how you start making
mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
To make one ball of burrata?
How long does it take theprocess?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
By hand.
I can make well by hand thewhole process.
I can stretch about 10 poundsof cheese in about 15 minutes.
And then you start making theburrata.
Burrata is hard because onethere's a lot of technique
involved in it and it takes acouple of days.
So to kind of backtrack, tomake stracciatella which is in
the burrata, that's a two-dayprocess.
(28:18):
So you have to make thestracciatella, which is shredded
mozzarella, and I pull big longsheets of it, it and then you
take that, you cool it down andthen you shred it, and you shred
it by hand.
So to get those little shredsof mozzarella in there, it's all
shredded by hand.
So it's it's not my favoriteprocess are the larger companies
(28:39):
.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Is that automated in the larger outfits or no?
They are.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
There is a machine that does it, shreds it, that
that does work pretty.
But you have to be able to butyou know you buy it but just for
the Stracciatella part.
So then the Stracciatella, you,you, it has to sit overnight,
so it has to absorb the creamthat you put in and salt, and
then the next day then you startmaking the burrata.
So the way I make a burrata isI take a little about three
(29:03):
ounce ball of mozzarella, Iflatten it in my hand like a
pancake, I close it, or I put ascoop of stracciatella in there,
I close it and I tie I hand,tie a knot, and that's how you
get the burrata.
So that's why everyone's like,oh, the burrata is so expensive.
But you know it takes two daysto make and there's quite a lot
of labor involved in it.
Just, and there's quite a lotof labor involved in it, just in
(29:25):
tying the knot.
There's a lot of labor there is,and to me that's the most
important for the burrata is tohave the hand-tied knot.
There are machines that do it,but it doesn't come out as
consistent.
So when I make the burrata,you'll notice my burrata.
You'll cut it open and the skinof the burrata is really thin.
And that's how you tell a goodartisan burrata is how thin that
(29:48):
skin is.
Because when they make it witha machine they just take a ball
of mozzarella, they shove it upinto this cone that shoots
stracciatella in it and thenthey just kind of pinch it shut.
So the outside, the skin part,tends to be quite thick and I
find it a little bit chewy.
I don't like it as much.
And there's not a hand-tiedknot, which I think is important
, especially when you are giving, selling it to restaurants and
things like that.
When a barata comes to thetable and there's a hand-tied
(30:10):
knot, you know exactly whatyou're getting.
At that point you're like oh,this is barata there's nothing
like barata at all.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Well, when he's talking about the hand tie, I
think, I think for optic, Ithink it's beautiful because it
you, you mentioned artisan.
That's the difference.
I mean, let's just say qualityfor quality.
But if you, you know, let'sjust say quality for quality is
the same, which I don't.
But let's just say but then yougo to the, to the end user, you
go to the restaurant or hotelor wherever that you know eatery
(30:40):
is, and they put out thisbeautiful plate.
When you have something thatyou can tell is like handed,
that just ups the level, ups theante a little bit, I think you
can command a little bit moredollars for the plate.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Well, I think the other problem is that most
people think that because it'slocal, it's going to be cheaper,
and that's not the case,especially when you're putting
the time and the effort in, likehe's doing, with the hand tying
it and it's labor intensive twodays to make you you that that
(31:14):
commands, I think, a betterprice.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
So in in the world of oddball tipping as it is now, I
think you should carry an ipadaround and flip it around and
have people tip you for tyingthe knot.
I'm just saying I would, Iwould tip for that versus
through, you know, versus the uh, the coffee shop.
I'm kidding, I shouldn't havesaid that.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
I'm going to get emails.
What's the?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
tip inflation, oh tip inflation, oh my goodness, it's
nice we have.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
We have a few restaurants that know our story
and they educate their staff,their servers and things like
that, and when they bring outthe burrata and things like that
to the table, you know, theykind of say a little blurb about
where this came from.
It's local, you know, familyowned.
Everything's handmade.
So it is nice and I thinkthat's one of our best features
that we have is that it ishandmade, it's family owned,
(31:54):
it's local here and some peopleeven put you know, it's made by
Selena G's on the menu, which isnice.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
So a lot of our listenership.
I mean, we're all over theplace.
We're 90 countries, 1,600cities around the planet.
Obviously, we're here incentral Florida, we're in the
Tampa area, so we deal with alot of the chefs locally.
I understand that a couple ofweeks ago you had your first
order to Pizzecki's Produce,which is a friend of the show.
(32:23):
Pizzecki's Produce, which is afriend of the show, and they can
.
You know chefs and you know F&Bdirectors, buyers, whatnot.
You can find this product atPizzecki's Produce, correct.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Correct.
Yeah, they carry our full lineand yeah, we just had our first
order.
A few weeks ago, they startedbuying some of our burrata, some
of our Oaxaca.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, let's talk about that, because I've been
waiting for you.
So you have burrata, you havestracciatella, you have the
pizza, then Oaxaca.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Oaxaca, yeah, and then many different forms of the
mozzarella.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
He went Mexitalian, right.
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah, it's funny.
Everyone asks like do you haveItalian?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
cheese.
And what's the Oaxaca, wherethe Oaxaca come from.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah well, oaxaca is it's.
It's made the same way that youmake mozzarella, so the same
way that I make a fiora latte ormozzarella ball or whatever,
that's how you would make Oaxaca.
The only difference is I'lltake a like a one pound ball of
mozzarella, you flatten it, youknow, in a, in a long line, and
(33:25):
and then you roll it.
So you kind of roll it, kind oflike you would fold a flag, and
that's how you get, when youunravel it, you get the
stringiness of the Oaxaca.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, by the way, that's one of the best ones.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I've had.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
You can see it on the .
It's becoming more and moremainstream, like queso fresco
and cojita cheese.
So that's one of my favorites,because every so everyone knows
that's the same location wheremole came from.
So you have two, like you havethat cheese and mole and you put
the two together.
It's just incredible and youdon't have to use that cheese
just in mexican cuisine.
(33:58):
There's a lot of the things youcan do.
That wait, wait, wait.
You're saying it's not just inthat realm of the sticks into
your lane.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
All right.
So you're saying that itdoesn't just have to be in a
taco?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
No, okay it could be anywhere it wants to be because
it commands it, especially withyour flavor profile, and that
definitely has that flavorprofile.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Well, tell me, Jeff no, I'm only kidding, Chef
Jefferson what would you do witha Oaxaca?
Like what in your head now?
Cause I already know you'vebeen thinking, you've been
already thinking like what am Igoing to do?
I?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
would do a Buxuto wrapped instead of Monterey.
You're establishing somethingthat's totally different.
That's not been seen before.
I think, chefs, one of thethings that we can do, we have
the opportunity to teach andeducate our guests, and then one
of the ways to do it is notdoing something by infusion to
be confusion, but infusion toactually make that stand out.
One of the best things I'veever seen around the country as
(34:51):
far as starchy sales beenconcerned is Bufalina out in
Austin, and they were a JamesBeard award-winning restaurant.
We didn't even order it.
It came to the table and thankGod they did that and it was
literally this huge, thick pieceof this gorgeous grilled
sourdough and this fantasticlayered of complexity tomato jam
with the stracciatella on topoh my god and just, you know,
(35:13):
keith and I were like we'redefinitely going to do this and
when you guys dropped that stuffoff and did the shoot, that's
one of the things.
But somebody ate two containersof it.
So today jeff is taking boththose containers because next
week I'm going to actually dosomething with that for the
podcast.
I want to shoot that becausethere's nothing like that.
I will approve I'm sure youwill when it's going into your
(35:36):
mouth.
But I think that's one of thethings that we can do and
educate.
I mean, a lot of people, likeyou said, don't understand that,
the work involved in it, thetime that it takes to it.
You know, like you see thisthing.
Well, why does it cost thismuch?
Well, because it's so much more.
Like we talked to our farmersthat do chicken, raised chickens
, like nicole and vicky and thegoats and all that.
Why does it cost like 17, 18for a bird?
(35:59):
Well, when you taste that bird,it's different than the three
dollar one that you get in thesupermarket, because that's not
the way we should be eating.
The way we should be eating isthat bird or this cheese,
because it doesn't have all thatstuff in it when you're looking
and you're sourcing your milk.
For the product, you have acertain standard operating.
I was about to use the SOPStandard operating procedure.
(36:20):
Right that you're looking forgrass, finish Criteria and
whatever.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Yeah we do.
My main goal was to have a milkcome from a single origin.
So I didn't want to use like aco-op or anything like that,
because that's where a lot ofthe milk goes.
So farmers will sell to onespecific area and all the milk
is mixed in with, you know, allthe farmers' milks.
So I wanted one that came fromone specific farm.
(36:44):
That was really important to me.
I went to the farm, I visited it.
I saw the cows, I saw what theywere eating.
I felt what they were eating,so I knew it was a good quality
source and milk that's cheese.
So if you don't have a goodmilk, you're not going to have a
good product.
So that was the main thing thatI really wanted was a single
(37:11):
origin, because I wanted to knowexactly what was going in to
feed those cows.
And then there's othertechnical things you have to
worry about, like the fatcontent in the milk and things
like that.
So you have to use specificcows.
You can't use Jersey cowsbecause it's harder to make the
cheese curd because it's higherin fat.
So you have to watch for that.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
So when you let me back up a second when, when, a
moment ago, you were, you weredescribing, I got to see the cow
, I got to see what they'reeating, I got to feel what they
were eating, I was, Iimmediately, was thinking I was
getting snapshots in my head ofa gladiator and Marcus Aurelius
would just, you know, bend downand pick up the soil and put it
in his hands, before you know,and I'm like, oh, this is you
(37:48):
know, this is like a realfeeling, it's a real thing and
this is where the passion comesfrom.
Right, so that's really, reallycool.
Okay, I have a question for you.
You make cheese, yes, okay, areyou still eating cheese?
I do, I have to.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Not for tasting.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Not for tasting.
I don't know.
When I was doing coffeemanufacturing, I was drinking I
mean like seriously coffee fromall day, all night, and then
sometimes I'm just like, oh God,I can't do it.
I just can't have another cup,I can't do it.
Is that a similar thing?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
It's not, it's cheese .
Like, you know who doesn't likecheese.
Like, can you ever get sick ofcheese?
Can you ever get sick of pizza?
I eat a lot of it, like we eata lot of mozzarella, just
because it's there, especiallyOaxaca.
Oaxaca's my favorite.
That's the one I eat the mostof.
It melts really well.
I like to eat it fresh.
I think it's great.
You know just the saltinesswith it.
(38:46):
But you know, I've been on abig goat cheese kick lately.
I really like that.
Eventually we're going to getinto buffalo milk so we'll have
buffalo mozzarella.
Oh yeah, I'm excited for that.
That's one of my favorites.
Once we get that, we're goingto get a cold smoker, so we're
going to have smoked buffalo,which is that's the best.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
I love what you're saying.
Oh my goodness, how many soofferings right meanwhile,
john's looking at me.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I know well, we both we're both looking at you right
now?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
how many line items are you putting out?
Speaker 3 (39:17):
we have six, six, yeah, rattle them all.
All, call all cow's milk.
So well, we well, we have more,but the main ones.
We have mozzarella balls whichcome in Fiora Latte, which is
eight ounce, we haveBocconcini's, which is two ounce
, chili Gini, which is cherrysized, and Perlini, which will
(39:37):
be pearl size.
So those are all like the freshmozzarella balls that everyone
would know.
Like I said, we also do oaxaca.
We have burrata of varioussizes, stretchatella and and
pizzarella.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
So that's our we call it pizzarella, a little
moisture cheese yeah, not likethe stuff that's out there that
the broadliners sell.
I can tell you that much rightnow.
There's nothing like it becauseyou're getting something that's
artisan.
One of the things I noticedwhen I was up in boston and in
new hampshire One of the thingsI noticed when I was up in
Boston and in New Hampshire, oneof the things I loved and I
think we have to embrace it downhere is I went to Martin
butcher shop in Texas, rightoutside Massachusetts, and I
(40:14):
walk inside and they're listingwhere the duck came from, where
the cow came from, where thechicken came from, where the
cheeses came from, and I thinkif we start doing that more,
we're going to start seeingbetter products on our shelves
and inevitably we were talkingin the green room that's the
products that we're putting inour bodies now that are making
us sick because theultra-processed foods.
(40:36):
This is how we have to go backto eating, because we can find a
single source cow or milk thatis going to be producing the end
result, because inevitablythey're not farmers, are not
farmers of cattle, they're notfarmers of pigs or chickens or
whatever they're growing.
They're farmers of the soil,it's the grass or whatever
they're using.
So you have to look for a highquality farmer that's doing
(40:57):
stuff, so congrats to doing thatno, thanks.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Well, I mean, that's the flavor, right?
Whatever the cows are eating,that's going into the milk.
So it's, it's, it's you knowit's so important to pay
attention to those things youknow, same with you know the
meat that you're buying, thechicken that you're buying,
whatever those animals areeating is what's going to go
into your body 100 I feel likewe should all pick our mics up,
throw them down and walk out.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Now, mic drop it.
Everybody don't do that.
These, these are expensivestuff.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Well, you just want pizza and spring rolls.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
I do I want to get into the spring rolls and pizza?
Oh my goodness, all right.
So where do we find other thanPizzecki's Produce?
Which chefs out there youshould be calling?
Give Brian a ring.
Set that up, are you allCentral Florida?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yes, we are mainly in the Tampa Pinellas St Pete area
.
We are mainly in the TampaPinellas St Pete area.
We are down in Sarasota at thefarmer's market there.
You can find us at Rolling Oatsin St Pete and there's a bunch
of different farms Meacham Farms, life Farms all around Tampa
and Clearwater.
What's your website?
Real quick.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Salamatecheesecom.
Excellent.
All right, thank you for beingon the show.
I appreciate you both comingout to the studio.
All right, thank you for beingon the show.
I appreciate you both comingout to the studio.
Jeff, john, you guys areawesome.
Evan, wherever you are floatingaround somewhere, you're
awesome too.
All right, we are.
Oh, by the way, peninsula FoodService check them out.
We are out.
(42:20):
We'll see you next time.
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