{"id":1168,"date":"2010-07-16T16:30:30","date_gmt":"2010-07-16T21:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cheeseloverca.wordpress.com\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2010-07-16T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2010-07-16T21:30:30","slug":"the-joy-of-working-over-lunch-with-canadian-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/2010\/07\/16\/the-joy-of-working-over-lunch-with-canadian-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"The joy of working over lunch\u2014with Canadian cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>
Jamie Kennedy's take on poutine at Gilead Cafe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Planning is well under way for the first Great Canadian Cheese Festival<\/a> in 2011. That often means lunch meetings which, happily, means cheese on the table.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a chance to meet with Canadian cheese maven Kathy Guidi<\/a> over lunch at Jamie Kennedy\u2019s Gilead Cafe<\/a> recently. What a treat it was to talk to Kathy\u2014what with her decades of experience in Canadian cheese\u2014and to enjoy one of Chef\u2019s unique poutines: perfect frites with a healthy dollop of sauce bolognaise laced with Monforte Dairy\u2019s Toscano cheese<\/a>. I could have easily ordered a second serving but we had decided on a cheese plate for dessert, so I had to hold myself in check.<\/p>\n

The cheese plate featured:<\/p>\n

Le Rassembleu<\/strong>, an organic farmstead blue cheese from Fromagiers de la Table Ronde<\/a> in the Laurentides region of Quebec. It has a lively creamy flavour, with the aroma of hay. The producers are fourth-generation cheesemakers.<\/p>\n

Mouton Rouge<\/strong>, on the other hand, pleases the nose with a fresh and grassy aroma. A raw sheep-milk cheese created by Ewenity Dairy Co-operative<\/a> in Southwestern Ontario, it has a lovely buttery taste that plays against the nutty reddish rind.<\/p>\n

Grey Owl<\/strong>, a pasteurized goat-milk ch\u00e8vre from Fromagerie la Detour<\/a> in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, near the New Brunswick border, looks and tastes outstanding, from its snowy white interior to riper regions to the black ash exterior.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Le Bleu d\u2019\u00c9lizabeth, Pied-de-Vent and Louis d'Or at the home office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A working lunch in the home office with festival co-ordinator Kip Jacques isn\u2019t half bad either when the cheese plate features:<\/p>\n

Pied-de-Vent<\/strong>, from the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is an an all-time favorite of mine. Smelly, creamy and tasty, Pied-de-Vent<\/a> is my idea of a great cheese. Despite what some cheesemongers may tell you, it is<\/em> available in Ontario.<\/p>\n

Louis d\u2019Or<\/strong>, a flavourful, complex Gruyere-like washed-rind cheese is made with the raw milk of the cheesemaker\u2019s own Holstein and Jersey cows at Fromagerie du Presbyt\u00e8re<\/a> in Central Quebec. Quite possibly, it\u2019s Canada\u2019s best \u201cSwiss cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Bleu d\u2019\u00c9lizabeth<\/strong> comes from the same Fromagerie du Presbyt\u00e8re<\/a> and is an outstanding example of a Quebec blue. No, it\u2019s defintely not named after Queen Elizabeth but rather Sainte-\u00c9lizabeth de Warwick. The creamery occupies a former rectory in the village.<\/p>\n

There is one other cheese plate in my notes from another working lunch but it was so disappointing that the proper thing to do would be to return to the name restaurant for another tasting before naming names.<\/p>\n

One name I\u2019d like to mention is Ezra\u2019s Pound<\/a>, a fair-trade coffee shop on Toronto\u2019s Dupont Street. I\u2019m so glad Andy Shay<\/a>, a man of many talents when it comes to cheese, suggested we meet there as the croissants are to die for.<\/p>\n

\u2014Georgs Kolesnikovs<\/em><\/p>\n

Have we mentioned that Georgs Kolesnikovs, Cheese-Head-in-Chief at CheeseLover.ca, loves his cheese?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planning is well under way for the first Great Canadian Cheese Festival in 2011. That often means lunch meetings which, happily, means cheese on the table. I had a chance to meet with Canadian cheese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23,94,101,149,150,168,200,227,258,279,296,325,332,392],"tags":[],"brand":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andy-shay","category-artisan-cheese-marketing","category-cheese-festival","category-cheese-plates","category-events","category-ewenity-dairy-co-op","category-fromagerie-du-presbytere","category-grey-owl","category-kathy-guidi","category-le-bleu-delizabeth","category-louis-dor","category-monforte-dairy","category-pied-de-vent","category-poutine","category-toscano"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheeselover.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/brand?post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}