A passion for cheese

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Students from the New England Culinary Institute, clad in white chef coats and black clogs, gamely pat cows, swat flies and step carefully through the grass. They are on a field trip to Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, about 25 miles northeast of the institute’s Montpelier campus. This small farm produces handcrafted cheeses served in upscale restaurants and sold in specialty stores in New York, Boston and beyond.

Brothers Andy and Mateo Kehler, owners of the farm, are taking the culinary students out in the pasture to meet their girls, the 27 Ayrshire cows who are the source of their Bayley Hazen and Constant Bliss cheeses.

The cows are known by name; they include Gizmo, vigorously licking Mateo Kehler’s hand; Jude; Nellie; Pepper; Gabby.

In case the students didn’t get it when they were touring the cheese-making facility, they understand it now. This is the heart of the operation: 27 happy cows. The farm’s credo: Happy cows make good milk. And good milk makes good cheese.

“Keep eating, girls. Back to work,” Mr. Kehler calls to his well-cared-for, much-loved herd. Their barn is spotless. They are offered a fresh patch of green pasture after each milking. They are brushed, cleaned and nurtured. Twice-daily milking in the barn is accompanied by gentle music; during the winter, when they spend all their time inside, the cows get music all night long.

This kind of passion for the land, for the animals, for the cheese, is what chef Mark Molinaro, executive sous-chef at the institute, wants his students to see. He has brought them here today, he says, because he believes that they are looking at America’s culinary future and he wants them to be part of it.

“American cuisine is being redefined right now, just as you are entering it,” Mr. Molinaro says to his students. “This is your future.”

The growing popularity of regional and traditional foods, often locally grown or produced, has created a booming niche in the culinary world. Crusty artisan breads, smoked sausage, organic and heirloom vegetables, and wines from local grapes are sought by restaurants and, increasingly, by home cooks.

The culinary institute, which has an apprenticeship style of teaching, supports this food movement by including among its courses hands-on training with leading artisanal producers such as the Kehlers at Jasper Hill.

Entering the farm’s cheese-making area is like walking into an operating room. Visitors must don booties and caps and wash their hands carefully. The facility itself, built by the Kehlers, is spotless and gleaming. Milk is piped directly from the cows in the barn through a milking machine and stainless-steel tubing into a stainless-steel vat.

On the day of the students’ visit, Bayley Hazen blue cheese is being made, and they see the process from start to finish. They taste the sweet curds forming in the vat of milk and watch the whey stream out as the curds drain. As a round of cheese gets drier and more compact, its sides are grooved and scraped. Then comes a sea-salt rub designed to further reduce moisture — a hand operation that reminds Mr. Molinaro of other cooking techniques.

“Think of how we sweat vegetables or reduce a sauce,” he tells students. “We are modifying the moisture content to intensify the taste.”

They see a bluish mold blooming on top of the cheeses; this is the mold spore Penicillium roqueforti, added earlier to the vat of milk. It is the principal ripening agent, breaking down the protein matrix of the cheese and giving Bayley Hazen its unique flavor and texture.

The Bayley Hazen cheeses have their own climate-controlled room in the cellar, where they are pierced numerous times with a stainless-steel needle to make passages and airways for the mold spores to colonize and bloom, giving the cheese its deep marbling.

Although this cheese-making migration from cow to vat, through saltings and piercings, is watched over scrupulously and attended to with discipline, Mateo Kehler says much of cheese making is “a feel thing.” And that feel is developed through the kind of hands-on experience the students are getting. As they and their instructor tour the operation and ask questions, they are already planning to put this field trip to good use in the kitchen.

A few days later, the class meets again, this time in its Montpelier classroom, to plan a menu featuring the Jasper Hill cheeses.

They decide to begin the meal with an amuse-bouche, a quick bite of something delightful to arouse the palate. This will be a bit of Bayley Hazen, but how to present it? What will accompany it? Should there be a drizzle of maple syrup reduction over it? Should it sit on Belgian endive or arugula? How will it be plated?

The class goes on to discuss a salad with heirloom tomatoes and slices of Constant Bliss cheese: “Let’s make nice clean slices showing off the beautiful rind and soft heart of this cheese,” Mr. Molinaro says.

The students wax enthusiastic about a hot appetizer of Bayley Hazen croquettes deep-fried and served with pepper jam — until they decide it might be too heavy and rich before the entree. They tone it down to a slightly less rich “Everyman’s BLT” with Bayley Hazen, homemade bacon, local organic greens and heirloom tomatoes on a thin slice of grilled brioche.

For other courses, there are suggestions of incorporating Constant Bliss into a pie dough to encrust sauteed wild Pacific salmon and to pair the blue cheese with Vermont beef tenderloin and grilled peaches. Not forgetting vegetarians, the students create a free-form lasagna with local vegetables that will be picked the day the dish is served. A pear-cheese tart is served for dessert.

By the end of the class, a full menu highlighting local products has been drafted. A week later, it’s prepared and served by students to the Kehler brothers at one of the institute’s restaurants. The dinner, exemplifying the farm-to-table freshness that the school champions, is a huge success.

Mr. Molinaro is pleased that the farm visit inspired his students. “I wanted to show how important it is as a chef to support local producers. The Kehlers work hard and have sacrificed much with no days off,” he says. “I want to let the students know that their culinary dreams can come true, and they are not free.”

Mateo Kehler says Bayley Hazen blue cheese is named after a local road called Bayley Hazen, which was commissioned by Gen. George Washington to move troops to fight the English on a Canadian front during the Revolutionary War. No fighting ever took place there, Mr. Kehler says, but the road brought Greensboro its first settlers and is a local landmark.

Constant Bliss and his buddy Moses Sleeper were Revolutionary War scouts who were killed by American Indians as they were guarding the Bayley Hazen Road on the north shore of Caspian Lake in Greensboro, Mr. Kehler says.

Bayley Hazen has a rind with a nutty taste, Mr. Kehler says. “The paste of the cheese is tangy, sweet and velvet on the tongue. It doesn’t have the bite of many typical blue cheeses.”

Constant Bliss, he says, has different characteristics. “A thin rind, subtle with occasional hints of mushrooms covers a silky smooth layer of ripened paste with milky flavors. The heart of Constant Bliss should have the fluffy texture of cheesecake with a slight lactic bite.”

Jasper Hill Farm does not have a mail-order department for the public yet, but its cheeses can be ordered by visiting www.artisanalcheese.com or www.murrayscheese.com. For more information about the farm, visit www.jasperhillfarm.com.

Beef tenderloin with mesclun greens, peach vinaigrette and Bayley Hazen blue cheese

TENDERLOINS AND SAUCE:

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 beef tenderloins (5 ounces per person)

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup heavy cream

2 ounces (2 tablespoons) Bayley Hazen blue cheese, if available, or other soft blue cheese

Cracked black pepper, to taste

GREENS AND VINAIGRETTE:

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 peach, skinned and chopped

6 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

4 cups of mesclun greens

2 whole peaches (optional side dish)

To make the tenderloins with sauce: Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in saute pan on stove, or prepare grill to medium-high heat. Dry tenderloins with paper towel; season to taste with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook by searing over medium-high heat in saute pan, or on grill, about 4 minutes each side for medium-rare.

Bring cream to a boil in a separate saucepan. Add blue cheese and fresh-cracked pepper. Stir until cheese is melted.

To make the greens and vinaigrette: Blend cider vinegar, peach, 6 tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste to make a vinaigrette. Mix with mesclun greens.

For optional side dish: Cut whole peaches in half. Remove pit. Slice, drizzle with olive oil to coat, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Place on outdoor or indoor grill for 2 minutes to mark.

To serve, place each tenderloin on a plate; drizzle with blue-cheese sauce; and place dressed greens and grilled peach, if desired, on the side. Makes 4 servings.

Blue-cheese-pear tarts

8 ounces (1 cup) Bayley Hazen blue cheese, if available, or other soft blue cheese

½ cup mascarpone

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Salt to taste

2 eggs

3 tablespoons flour

6 pre-baked tartlet shells (can be bought frozen; bake and cool before filling)

3 pears, poached and sliced in half (see note)

Sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream blue cheese and mascarpone in mixer equipped with paddle until smooth. Add sugar, zest, vanilla, salt and eggs. Add flour; mix until smooth and blended.

Divide filling among tart shells. Top with pear halves. If desired, sprinkle a little sugar on top of tart. Bake at 325 degrees until golden and filling is slightly puffed, about 8 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

Note: Poach pears in white wine syrup, made with 2 cups chardonnay, 1 cup water, 3 cups sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring liquids to boil, then reduce to simmer and submerge pears completely. Poach until fork-tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.