WNC Chefs Challenge 13: Cheese, please

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WNC Chefs Challenge 2011, Week 13

By Mackensy Lunsford

The media is constantly struggling to compare Western North Carolina with some better-known region. Asheville’s recently been likened to Sante Fe for our art scene, and GQ Magazine claims that we’re the next Austin—with a better view.Some even say we’re quite like Portland, what with our artisan foods, great beer, and fiercely local culinary scene (and don’t forget the hipsters, a la Portlandia).

And it may be time for you to step aside, Wisconsin: North Carolina is poised to take on your reputation as the cheese state. While you aren’t likely to find us wearing cheese hats at our next sporting event, when it comes to artisan dairies, we might just be the new cream of the crop. Williams-Sonoma is in on the secret—their latest catalogue features a collection of North Carolina cheeses from Looking Glass Creamery, a Fairview-based dairy recently showcased at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival.

So when WNC Chefs Challenge emcee Bob Bowles announced that local cheese was to be the secret ingredient in the tete-a-tete between the Lexington Avenue Brewery and Bistro at Biltmore, you can only imagine the appreciative murmurs that arose from the crowd of nearly 100 seated in Cucina24’s dining room.

That’s because those gathered for the 13th Chefs Challenge knew what lay in store (and also what didn’t)—no waxy, orange wedges would enter that kitchen, no oily, processed cheese-food would show up on our plates. We were instead treated to selections from Madison County’s Three Graces Dairy, a creamery specializing in gorgeous cheeses utilizing cow, goat, and sheep’s milk. These are not your mother’s cheeses, unless Mom tends to favor chèvre over Velveeta. Three Graces often turns out rather mature, blessedly stinky, and decidedly unbashful cheeses, like the Oh-la-la, a soft, bloomy-rind cow’s-milk variety. “Bloomy” is a lovely floral term for soft cheese that’s allowed to mold a bit on the exterior, encouraging ripening from the outside in.

And Chef Jason Roy and the LAB crew knew just what to do with that gorgeous specimen of a cheese, wrapping it in speck (cured ham from the hind leg) and baking it in pastry to a luscious, oozy consistency. Accompanied with rosemary honey, spiced-sweet pine nuts, a blueberry compote and a white-truffle and chèvre sorbet resting on a beet chip, this dish couldn’t handle one more iota of sweet. Salty speck, earthy truffle, and herbaceous rosemary found excellent bedmates with the rather gamey-pungent chèvre and the bloomy-rind, reeling in what could have been an overwhelming sweetness, making for a more balanced dish that one would assume. This was my favorite dish of the evening.

And my second favorite dish was a Bistro at Biltmore offering from Chef Michael Gonzales and team—Manchego custard with sweet pea emulsion, white figs, pickled radish, and ricotta beignet. This dish suffered only from the sparseness of white fig compote. With the fig, the custard and components nodded toward cheese-plate territory. Without it, it leaned a bit toward grandma’s homemade mac-and-cheese flan in flavor profile (if grandma happened to follow in the footsteps of Julia Child). The pickled radish cut through the fat of the custard with a bright acidity, the pea emulsion adding a breath of spring. Additional components on the plate—ricotta beignet, pistachios, a smattering of crumbling Parmesan crisps—perhaps added more clutter than flavor. Regardless, it was a world-class dish.

The remainder of the courses were just as world-class. The menu follows:

BISTRO AT BILTMORE

Team members: Michael Gonzales, Rachel vom Orde, Sean Carroll

Voted No. 1 Dish: Manchego custard with a sweet pea emulsion, white figs, pickled radish, ricotta beignet

Voted No. 3 Dish: Sweet tea-roasted pork tenderloin with cherry and goat cheese tortelloni, carrot purée, and espresso jus

Brown butter almond cake, goat cheese ice cream, candied beets, and spiced honey

LEXINGTON AVENUE BREWERY

Team members: Jason Roy, Michael Fisera, Nohe Weir-Villatoro

Baked, speck-wrapped bloomy-rind with rosemary honey, spiced pine nuts, blueberry compote, white truffle-chèvre sorbet, and golden beet chips

Six-cheese grilled brioche, wild North Carolina mushrooms, smoked-tomato purée, sweet and salty duck, chèvre risotto balls, and local greens

Voted No. 2 Dish: Chèvre nut cheesecake, goat-cheese caramel, Tome fudge crunch, candied orange, and vanilla tuille

In the end, Bistro at Biltmore held the edge over LAB, knocking a strong competitor out of the competition. As this was a semi-final round, that means Bistro at Biltmore moves on to compete at the Chefs Challenge Finale during the Asheville Wine and Food Festival Grand Tasting on Saturday, August 13. The Bistro will compete against the winner of the Chefs Challenge on June 6 between Posana Café in Asheville and Knife & Fork in Spruce Pine.

Here’s hoping for further secret ingredients as stellar as Three Graces cheese.

—Mackensey Lunsford is the food and features coordinator for Mountain Xpress.