Rinds that bind: Picking your cheese

Maria Kegel, Contributor, Jakarta

When it comes to choosing cheese, Kempinski Jakarta's executive chef Donald Pezar compares it to developing an affinity for fine wine: As people get more educated about it, they develop their own taste.

"When you start drinking wine, you generally go for the sweeter ones, but as you become more adept at it and develop your taste, you start to look for different characteristics, (ones with) more depth and flavor, and you get away from the sweetness," he said.

The same goes for cheese. "People go for the blander, mass- produced cheeses, and as they become more educated about them, they look for some different things."

Cheeses that anybody could eat and enjoy include a hard cheddar, a Gruyere, a Camazola, which is a blue-veined cream cheese with the sharpness of a Gorgonzola but creamier and not as salty, and from Australia the Red Square, which is a full- flavored, strong cream cheese.

"Nothing in these cheeses would be so strong that they would be overwhelming to anyone that is not used to cheese."

Pezar said all cheeses go well with a fresh French bread or crusty roll while some work well with cured meats, such as salami.

Although nuts, crackers, dried and fresh fruits are classic companions, Pezar does not find crackers inspiring, nor does he care much for fruit with cheeses.

The choice of an accompaniment depends on the cheese as well, he said, such as a mild form of Chevre, a goat cheese that varies in strength, shape and size. "This goes wonderful with a little olive oil, fresh thyme and a few olives."

He added that some of the varieties of Chevre were so strong, such as the Crottin, that it needed to be warmed in a broiler or in an oven at about 170 degrees Celsius for just a few minutes before serving. He suggested serving the Crottin baked on one or more small croutons, and placed on a nice salad of field greens, a little walnut oil and vinaigrette, with some pecans through it.

"Blue cheese is fantastic with beef tenderloin. Slice a piece and melt it either in the sauce or on the bottom or top of the meat."

Fresh mozzarella is traditionally served with olive oil, red tomatoes and basil, and Pezar prefers to pair hard cheeses with olives as they are saltier. "They also go well with nuts, such as some of the Emmenthal, which already has a nutty flavor, and nuts really accentuate this."

One of the most popular items served in the Bacchus wine bar downstairs at the Kempinski is the baked Camembert, which comes with an apple, watercress and pear salad.

Some suggestions Pezar gave to accompany your cheese platter include a sampling of dried fruits, such as dried apricots and figs, nuts, fresh sliced pears, sliced salami, crackers, bread sticks and olives, which go well with goat cheeses.

What to do with those little bits of leftover cheese in your refrigerator? If they are soft cheeses, Pezar suggested blending them all together with a little bit of garlic, some white wine and a few spices before leaving it to sit overnight to allow the flavors to mingle. "Spread this out on top of nice bread and it's beautiful," he said.

For Michel Camy, the executive chef at the Hilton Hotel, what to serve with your cheese comes down to the golden rule of following your own personal taste.

What is more important is when you serve the cheese, which should be right after the main meal and just before the dessert.

"We always say 'keep some room for the cheese', which is something you eat with plenty of bread -- and no crackers." However, some like to eat cheese with something sweet, such as grapes, and walnuts also go very well with cheese, Camy added.

"Anglo-Saxons like to eat cheese after dessert, but in France, the cheese comes always before the dessert. The Anglo-Saxons have done it the other way around, and this is not in the style of the flow of food, which we would serve in France."

Camy suggested offering a large selection of cheese on a tray that could include one or two varieties from each cheese family, such as the hard, semi-hard, soft-ripened, blue-veined as well as a goat cheese.

"If you are making up a tray I would include something simple, like a nice Camembert, a very rich and fat one, like a Bleu de Bresse, a munster, a nice goat cheese, such as the Crottin de Chavignol, a Mascarponne, which is a fresh cheese, a Port Salut and a Saint Maure."

Cheese can be a meal all in itself, and Camy said there were times in France when a dinner of cheese with plenty of bread was served.

Some of Camy's personal favorites include soft-ripened cheeses, the Compte and Baufort hard-cooked cheeses from France and some of the semi-hard, such as the Appenzeler from Switzerland.

Another serving suggestion was to have a fondue with three cheeses.

"The Swiss Raclette is actually a fondue cheese, so mix that with the Appenzeler and a third type of cheese, such as the Tomme, brush the pan with garlic cloves, add some white wine and black pepper. Grate the cheese, adding it slowly while it melts over a low flame until it is soft and chewy. With a fork, dip a piece of bread into the melted cheese and drink of course some white wine with it."

The choice of beverage is just as important as the food served alongside cheese.

Red wine goes very well with cheese, Camy said, although sometimes a glass of beer was served alongside cheddar.

"That all comes down to taste too, as people in England may favor beer with their cheese, or there are those who may pick a schnapps, while the French will reach for a glass of red wine," he said.

Camy said a bottle of red wine is usually served with the meal, while remembering to keep some back for the cheese at the end. Afterwards, hosts can switch to a white wine to have with dessert, and then finish off with a brandy.

"This is actually where you keep back the best bottle of wine, for at the end of the meal with your cheese, and when you open it, it becomes a religious moment, especially when you are far from home."

Both chefs said the best way to know which wine to match with your cheese is to select one that comes from the same region as the cheese.

Pezar said this was because the cheese and wine came from the same soil, vegetation, atmosphere, sunshine, and "everything about the area that produces the wine that cannot be found elsewhere".

"What the animals were eating and raised on affects the flavor of the milk and the cheese," he said, adding that different regions produced different-flavored cheeses and small nuances could be found in each.

All cheeses start out the same, that is as milk, whether it is fresh from the cow, sheep, goat or buffalo, as in the case of the soft mozzarella commonly served in fine Italian restaurants.

The milk is warmed and a bacterial culture is added, called a starter. Rennet is added to separate the milk into curds and whey. The proteins will coagulate, making the curd, such as those chunks you see in cottage cheese, and the whey is the milky substance that separates them.

"From this point on, how you treat the cheese, concentrate the curd, the size it is cut to, the types of bacteria that are introduced, how it is stored and washed, and whether it is cooked or pressed, or uncooked, all determines the different type of cheese it will wind up being," Pezar said.

France is one of the biggest producers of cheese, with about 400 types, Camy said.

The availability and variety of cheese in Jakarta leans largely on several major suppliers, with their wares largely coming from European and Australian producers.

Pezar said most of the hotels around town would have relatively the same things, with some specializing in certain types of cheese while some in others. He said he noticed the supermarkets tended to carry more Australian cheeses.

"The Australian cheese industry has grown quite a bit in the last few years, however, the majority of them, and certainly not all, lack some of the depth, flavor, complexity and character that European cheeses have cultivated over the centuries. The Australians will catch up in this aspect, and their cheeses are very, very good, such as the Red Square, which is as good as any I've ever had," he said, adding that this was one cheese that went well with fruit.