Solena Cheese: Mark Maurer's Transition to a Cheesemaker's Life

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 while we contrast our host's humorously declared aversion to CrossFit with Mark's dedication. As we sample Solena’s finest, we're reminded that the story behind each bite is as rich as the cheese itself.

Wrap your palate around the delicious complexities of Oaxaca cheese, a stringy delight that's breaking free from its Mexican roots and making its mark in kitchens worldwide. We'll take you through the impact of single-origin milk, cow diets, and the art

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

Hello Food Fam. This is the Walk Talk Podcast where you will find the perfect blend of food fun and cooking knowledge. I'm your host, carl Fiodini. Welcome to the number one food podcast in the country. We are recording on-site at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it. First things first. Last week on the program Jefferson my man, he was up in Boston with cookbook maven Chef Keith Saracen. Find out what they were doing. Plus, we had friend and Food Network competitor on season six of Supermarket Steakout, chef Jonathan Rodriguez. Be sure to tune in on Tuesday nights. Check their website for the exact times. It's pretty cool to see him on there.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Thank you, peninsula Food Service for supplying the proteins for today's production Chefs in the Central Florida area. Peninsula is the largest distributor of Creekstone Farms beef in the Southeast USA, complete with a fully staffed butcher shop to help solve your kitchen inconsistencies. Peninsula is the largest distributor of Creekstone Farms beef in the Southeast USA, complete with a fully staffed butcher shop to help solve your kitchen inconsistencies. Yes, check out their dry age program too. Okay, our guest this week. We have a very cool guest owner of Salena Cheese, mark Maurer. It's a Central Florida family-owned and operated manufacturer of delicious, delicious cheeses Mozzarella. Stay tuned. Selena is on deck.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Walk Talk will be at the NRA show in Chicago in just a few days. Jeff and Pooch will be doing impromptu short-form interviews with industry personalities and meeting up with some of our partners, sponsors and friends. In fact, citrus America's booth will be home base, along with Metro and a couple of others. Come say hello at booth 5463. Can't wait to see AJ from Metro, along with Tina from Rack Porcelain. Wish I could make it, but I got to send these two guys. Jeff, baby, pop the clutch.

Speaker 2: 2:59

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, so we're doing a. So it was national crap day, so I want to do something that was different. I'm going to do egg rolls, but we're going to do a riff on a duck on orange.

Speaker 1: 3:14

We're going to morph that say that again duck on orange yeah, I love it.

Speaker 2: 3:17

And then, uh, it's like saying croissants, we're going to do cardamom rubbed duck breast with shredded napa cabbage. And then we did a togarashi candied orange that you guys tried earlier. That I thought was going to be too spicy for John, but he proved me wrong. We got a little brie in there for some creaminess as well. And then the dipping sauce is a blueberry lemon thyme dipping sauce as well. Then I wanted to do something with since we have some cheese coming in, we're doing a pizza, we're going to do some barbecue sauce on that pizza pickled shallots, because I know you like pickled shallots.

Speaker 1: 3:48

I do.

Speaker 2: 3:49

Yeah, and then we actually have some stuff from my garden that's going to be on this one too as well Crispy onions. The duck is going to be kimchi and hoisin rubbed on that one. And then I wanted to do something 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 has some peppers and you put egg in it. So what I did was leave the egg out. I blended all that through to be nice and smooth. Then I'm taking shawarma spiced lamb racks, and then we're going to sear those off, put them down with some roasted zucchini as well, some mashed potatoes and then, lastly, we're going to be doing John's favorite. I brought it back.

Speaker 2: 4:33

You didn't see it, did you? It's figs. But I'm taking it to the next level. I took it some brie, put some brie inside the actual middle brie inside the actual middle little cavity inside the actual loin part of the pork chop, stuffed it with the fig and brie. Then I took the leftover fig and brie mixture, added pecans to give it some crunch, that we're going to put that on top of it afterwards and then we're going to serve that with the garlic mashed potatoes, grilled peaches, because peaches are in season right now for Florida, that's a short little window of three weeks and then we're going to do that with some charred tomatoes from my garden. I have some pickled chocolate peppers from my garden as well and I have my Marasaki peppers in throughout the whole different menus.

Speaker 1: 5:15

You know, I think this whole cookbook thing that you're doing you started off wrong. The name of the book should have been my secret, okay now, that's the next couple. Yeah, okay yeah, the craveable cookbook.

Speaker 2: 5:26

The craveable cookbook, yeah, yeah, by the jefferson starship by the way, it's uh going to be released looks like in about three weeks awesome awesome.

Speaker 1: 5:35

We won't be able to talk about it on this show, but, uh, all right, well, citrus america.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Thank you very much because they actually said if I wanted to put anything out on their their booth about the book, I said, yeah, that'd be great, thank you. So we're gonna do a qr code they're awesome.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Yeah, they really are. Yeah, and, by the way, yeah, we're gonna be doing some stuff. You know, I kind of I think I seeded it maybe a month or so ago, but we're gonna be doing some 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 NRA thing, or what?

Speaker 2: 6:07

I would be if I didn't go through what I went through last weekend. I'm still trying to recover that you listen.

Speaker 1: 6:11

First of all, you picked up and left Okay, the shortest notice of short notice. I was like all right.

Speaker 2: 6:16

August you're going to. I'm putting you on notice right now, 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: 6:28

Okay, yeah, we need to get that squared out. Yeah, but I also need to know which Thursday it is, because right now I arison. You hear me? All right, you're gonna have to kick in for this, if you're, you know, all right, pull on. Yeah, real quick. So you were, uh. Well, actually, before we get to that nra, yep, this is a big deal it's huge right?

Speaker 2: 6:53

yeah, 10 football fields of convention space and we're gonna have access to all of it yeah, it's amazing the amount of emails that pooch and I are getting on an hourly basis, let alone daily basis it's really cool well, I had.

Speaker 1: 7:12

I was on a call yesterday with uh, with metro, and they're super excited too. Aj and brianne are going to be there. Aj is going to be there, brianne is not okay. Yeah, it's cool to see aj 100 and yeah, there's some other cool things that are going to be happening with with metro as well. You know just some content related really cool stuff, so we'll get into that at another time. But, yeah, everybody check out metro, metro, shelving, metro, go baby. And productivity yes, it is totally productivity did. Did you see your cart?

Speaker 2: 7:42

Yeah, I can't wait to play with it. I'm going to do that tonight.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Do you want to explain, maybe? So everybody knows.

Speaker 2: 7:47

So it's a Chef mobile cart. This thing is. I mean they thought of everything so it's adjustable height. You can put it to like 32, 33 inches to 41, I think it is so somebody who's tall like Lance Cook could do it without, you know, leaning over and hurting their back. It has everything you can possibly think of. It has a rack there. You can put third pans, ninth pans or sixth pans as you're cutting with a cutting board. Slide that out, wash it. There's even a knife rack there too. When you're done, you can actually put multiple different cutting boards so that you can have that as well. There's sheet trays that you can put so that it's self-contained. So think about it. When you need to prep in a cooler because you're breaking down fish, you'd walk right in the cooler.

Speaker 2: 8:29

Listen, we were just on a site visit, or we were at that site in New Hampshire on a farm. It had a one-door region. It had four tables that were six-foot tables. It had a two-deck oven and a sink. That's it three-compartment sink. There was nothing else there. If we had that prep station where we needed to cut and we're out without killing ourselves, it would have been just super fantastic. I mean, you could have done. Carry on, you know, not for 202 people. I will tell you that team is amazing to. Keith has really lined himself up and he's a great leader, and Chris, of all, they did a fantastic job. I mean 202 people in 45 minutes we served.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Yeah, that's, that's insane. Yeah, is that what you're? Cranky pants now. Is that what this is?

Speaker 2: 9:07

Yeah, this is. This is Jeff trying to recuperate, all right.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Yeah, I remember this after the world food championship. This was cranky pants, jeff.

Speaker 2: 9:14

Right now, no, this should have been after Jeff after the nine course meal.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Oh, speaking well, did you see the video yet? Yeah, how was that?

Speaker 2: 9:23

drop dead gorgeous, right? Yeah, this guy evan is just a monster, he is it's almost not that he's sitting over my left hand.

Speaker 1: 9:30

He's like a monster hanging over your shoulder, right literally this I mean seriously.

Speaker 2: 9:35

When you, when you guys, look at this, look for it on the social media over at the walk and talk on any of those. It looks like it's a chef's table.

Speaker 1: 9:42

It really does, it's that quality what I was putting out there. So we have a little side chat with 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, a million bucks, that's what I saw, that's what I saw, that's what I see.

Speaker 2: 9:59

I love how you were teasing them like I, I want to show you and I'm like, just drive over and show them you gotta, you gotta tease oh, you were definitely teasing yeah, yeah so more teasing right now. So when they do it, when they look at this and they hear you, now they can go look at it.

Speaker 1: 10:14

I know I'm excited, I super, I am excited and it's going to be really badass when we put it out, plus all all John's photography and you know, evan's working on some. You know, don't forget, we have the tasty cam, right yeah, and that tasty cam footage will be for socials, right? So it's all in the you know portrait setting and it's. We're going to be pumping all that out. It's going to be great, and then we're going to be setting up for the next one. Got to pick the date. It's going to be good, all right. So, with that said, without further ado, mark, welcome to the program.

Speaker 3: 10:47

Yeah, thanks, guys, really appreciate you having me here.

Speaker 1: 10:50

It's our pleasure and thank you for coming out. We always we really do appreciate when folks get to come and experience, you know, walk and talk podcast in house, in studio. You get the feel for what we're doing typically or historically, I should say. You know there'd already be food cooking and and it it brings a different element to to the show itself. But you're going to see that just after the show you'll experience some of that.

Speaker 2: 11:17

And you get to eat a lot more than when normally yeah, right, yeah right, thanks, I can't always always, always with the shots always with the shots.

Speaker 3: 11:25

This guy.

Speaker 1: 11:25

Hey, so you have a very interesting. First of all, we met you and I about a year and a half ago. We did right and you were doing a tasting at uh pizzecki's produce farm fresh over in saint pete, and I happened to be there the day you came in to uh to do the tasting, so I got to experience your product and you're basically in the very beginnings of the company.

Speaker 3: 11:47

That was my first sales call.

Speaker 1: 11:48

That was your first sales call. Yes, you broke the barata right there. You know that was your first call, that was it. Yeah, so between then and I don't know, was it a couple of weeks ago when we sent what? Two weeks ago, couple of weeks ago, when we sent what two weeks ago three weeks ago, about a month, a month now, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Time is upside down. So about a month ago you came with here to ibis images and and did a photo shoot with john, which was amazing, amazing, yes, and but we got to eat product and sample product again, and man your consistency is fantastic. I want to say it's improved, it's even gotten better. It was good then and it's even better now.

Speaker 3: 12:26

Oh, it definitely has. You know that was about a year and a half ago we met and that was at the very beginning of our company, so the consistency has changed a lot. We've gotten better at making the cheese, got some new equipment that helps us with the production, adjusted the recipes a little bit and just got a little bit more experience under our belt making the cheese. So a lot's changed in that year and a half.

Speaker 1: 12:52

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 cheese company. I'm going to manufacture cheese Like nobody really does that it's rare and to do it in a, to execute it in a way where it makes any kind of sense and where you're where you actually do have consistency in your manufacturing and your quality and all. Why don't you go ahead and take a minute to kind of explain like how it is that you broke into the cheese business?

Speaker 3: 13:23

Well, it's a different story, that's for sure. I kind of fell into my passion of making cheese. I used to work for Hilton for hotels for 20 years and I did sales and business development for them. So I started here in Florida. That's where I began my career with Hilton, moved up to Chicago for a while, worked at a hotel up there and then I got transferred to Sydney in Australia. So I decided I was single and why not? Just moved to Sydney, started working for Hilton there and then just after a while just kind of got burned out with the corporate life and decided to move on from that. At that time I met my wife, kayla, and I was heavily into CrossFit at the time, which is a bit different. So I decided to quit my job with Hilton and become a CrossFit coach and did that for a little bit.

Speaker 3: 14:20

And that's where I met my good friend, giuseppe, giuseppe Minoglia, and he worked for his dad. They had a company that they made mozzarella in Sydney and they're one of the main producers throughout all of Australia there and very good high-end cheese. And I started working for them and really fell in love with it. So I was able to find my passion and they taught me the trade, which I was very grateful for because they make the cheese the true Italian way. So Giuseppe's dad, vito. He's worked and made cheese for over 50 years, so I think he's 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 we decided after a little while Australia is far away, so we moved our family halfway around the world, decided to move back to Florida, be a little bit closer to home and start up our, our company, selena cheese, and then got that rolling and here we are today.

Speaker 1: 15:27

So so that's an. So whenever somebody says, hey, you know what, I'm going to learn something and I'm going to try something new, I'm going to go from my career path that I've been on and I'm going to jump ship and I'm going to get into, like your manufacturing cheese. You know it's not like, oh, I bought a, been on and I'm going to jump ship and I'm going to get into like you're manufacturing cheese. You know it's not like, oh, I bought a cheese company and we, you know we buy it from. You know different purveyors and we or other other manufacturers, and we just sell it. You're making it and that's a big deal and your product is really good.

Speaker 1: 15:56

Okay, so I'm comfortable saying that because I've had it. I've had it in two separate occasions, in two different timelines in the history of your operation. So I'm saying that it's good and I know you brought some goodies here today as well. So you know we're going to jump into that. By the way, I am I took a little bit of a different path than you. I saw CrossFit and I ran the other way you know, completely in the other direction.

Speaker 2: 16:21

He went and sit fit. That's where you sit and get fit by eating.

Speaker 1: 16:24

I was. I'm sit fit and I can hardly butt in my pants, but I'm happy. Do you know what I mean? Happy, by the way, that's crazy stuff. Like I remember, like it was like I don't know when, like COVID time, when it was really becoming a big thing or whatever. I feel like right around there and everyone doing all of those crazy.

Speaker 2: 16:44

Lifting tires, because you know I got nothing else to do except lift a tractor trailer. Yeah, why not?

Speaker 1: 16:49

That made me want to sit on my couch even more. It made me want to sit down break out a bag of potato chips and watch them, and watch you guys, and you probably fit too. I'm sweating now thinking about it right now.

Speaker 3: 17:02

I'm sweating.

Speaker 1: 17:02

You know what I mean. So you're a, you're a family business, you're a small company. What was it like to go from? You know, hilton is is big corporate. What was it like to go from Hilton to your own company, where you have, you're, the end, all you and your wife, by the way, who's here in studio with us? You guys make it happen. Obviously you have a team, obviously you have equipment, but the truth is, when it's your baby and it's your business, you're like the. You guys got to make it work every day.

Speaker 3: 17:37

That's it. It's hard. It is Starting up your own business. It's a lot of work. It's a lot more work than I thought 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 a full-time job, which helps, which allows me to do what I'm doing and get the business up and running. But I don't know.

Speaker 3: 17:58

Like when I worked for Hilton, I knew in the back of my mind I think it's not something I always wanted to do forever. I'm very grateful that I did, because I gained a lot of sales experience, which is really paying 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 things like that. It's pretty natural for me at this point in time. So in that regard it was good.

Speaker 3: 19:04

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 a long, long time, what I wanted to do, but I always wanted to have my own. I always wanted to work for myself and you know, see it grow and you know realize the more work you put in, the more benefit you're going to have and it's going to be, you know, for you personally and that's something that I always wanted. So, quitting Hilton, finding my way to CrossFit, which is, you know, a bit different than the normal path, and then finding my true passion later in life, you know it's exciting and really love doing what I'm doing and making cheese and just seeing the people's reaction when I go in and present my cheese.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Was it a situation where you were like on your last set of burpees, right, and you were just like I've had enough. It was like you know, at one point Forrest Gump said I don't want to run anymore, like I'm done, and it's kind of I feel like that. You, you kind of you, you, you hit that threshold. You're like I don't want to lift one more tire. I don't want to do it, but I do want to make cheese Like it's. It's, it's a. It's like the antithesis of you know, cause you're obviously you're, you're in fit, you're a healthy guy and and, but you make really delicious cheese.

Speaker 3: 20:19

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 making it's, it's not an easy job, to be honest. You know it's. It's physically demanding. You know just the things you have to lift. You're on your feet all day, you do you it's. It's quite hard. You know, when I was working at the factory in australia, you know I was kind of low on the totem pole so I was the man cutting up the curd and the big cheese vats and lifting these huge baskets of cheese up into the machine to stretch the cheese and things like that. And we would go through, oh my gosh, I think, a ton, literally a ton of cheese a day. So I'd be lifting all of that curd myself and these baskets probably weighed about 20 pounds each and you're lifting them up over your head putting it into the machine to to get stretched. So you know that made me fit. So in a way it was kind of CrossFit Cheese fit.

Speaker 1: 21:11

Yes, it works, absolutely works. I, yeah, I couldn't do it. I mean I, I, I would be eating the profits of all of that. Honestly, who's shocked. Nobody, nobody's shocked, anybody listening? Nobody, everybody.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Everybody out there just went. He would be eating it.

Speaker 1: 21:25

I don't know how many chins I would have. Like seriously, this beard would be so full to cover all of that. I don't even know what I would do with myself.

Speaker 3: 21:32

I ate my fair share when I was.

Speaker 1: 21:34

For sure. So what most people don't recognize and the reason I'm bringing this up right now is that stracciatella is probably one of my most favorite things to just sit down with a spoon and eat Okay, a little salt and just have a good time. Where else do you find stracciatella?

Speaker 3: 21:55

Where is it that most people don't know where to find it? Well, I'm the only one that produces it in our area locally. The only ones I've seen is people they're importing it from italy but it's in the barada.

Speaker 1: 22:03

Most people don't know it's stracciatella.

Speaker 3: 22:05

That's in barada, that's it right yeah, that's the one thing, because we sell at the local farmers markets around tampa and saint pete and down sarasota. Everyone knows barada. And then I'll ask them oh, have you ever had stracciatella? They'll say, no, right. I'm like well, stracciatella is what's inside burrata. So the shell of burrata is mozzarella and then the inside, that gooey cheesy part. That's all stracciatella.

Speaker 1: 22:30

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 plastic container. I don't know how many ounces that might have been I didn't get any of that cheese, so don't look at me.

Speaker 2: 22:45

Yeah, you did. Did we use it? No, I did not, oh you didn't.

Speaker 1: 22:48

No, no, there were two containers, I got one. No, I didn't get them all.

Speaker 2: 22:53

Anyway, silent John is pointing at you, and so am I you guys don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 22:58

Well, I will tell you this.

Speaker 3: 22:59

I sat at, I stood at my sink, I had a uh, a ball of burrata, and then I finished the container stretch teller, because that's what I do well, it's funny that when we saw at the market, not a lot, not a lot of people know stretch teller, they know burrata, but they don't stretch a teller, which, if they know brother, they know stretch teller. But they always ask me what do you use for it? What can you do with stretchatella?

Speaker 3: 23:20

oh my god everything you want really pretty much it's like, well, what can't you do with it? But I always say you know, I like they put it on my scrambled eggs in the morning. Get a nice little baguette, put it on there, you know that's red.

Speaker 1: 23:32

That's my favorite way.

Speaker 3: 23:33

But to be honest, I'm pretty sure most people they keep it in the fridge, they pass by the fridge, they get a little spoon, take it out of the container and just eat it straight out of the container.

Speaker 2: 23:42

That's me so the funny thing is, when we saw a stretch of tell my mind, because I've been in italian cooking for a while, I went right to the soup and most people like what soup I'm like?

Speaker 2: 23:52

you don't know that. Even I, keith was like there. I don't know that soup because it'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 it with the stretch hotel, either in the soup or in the the cheese or from the container. But well, that's right, you know, at the sink when you were at john's, when you ate the other container oh, is that what I did. Yes, I had to.

Speaker 1: 24:15

Okay, so okay. So what nobody realized this year?

Speaker 2: 24:25

is that was all in one day. No, we do, I do yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Wow, all right, so I have a problem. I have a cheese problem, and thanks for coming in today and giving him his fix. Yeah, you're giving me my cheese fix.

Speaker 3: 24:36

I can solve that problem, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:46

Or add is fixed. Yeah, you're giving me my, my cheese, I can solve that problem. Yeah, or add to it. I'm gonna come knock it on your window at about 3 am. I just it'll be me, don't worry about it. Okay, so back to manufacturing. You guys, you cut, you're kind of moving up in the manufacturing world, right. So everything, you, you, you explained something to me which I didn't know. You did get some automated equipment, right, yes, to help in the process, but in the end it's still by hand. Can you kind of explain that?

Speaker 3: 25:06

Yeah, it's always going to be an artisan process when you're making mozzarella. So we purchased a machine. It's called a stretching machine. It helps you stretch the cheese. So when you're making mozzarella, you're taking cheese curd, you're adding near boiling water and then you stretch it, which draws in the hot water into the cheese and that's how you get the consistency that you're looking for Whether it be a little bit harder, whether it be a little bit softer, like burrata, something like that.

Speaker 3: 25:33

So what the machine does is it takes the cheese curd, it goes through this grinder, grinds it up into little particles and then I start controlling the amount of hot water that goes into the machine. So we use water that's 90 degrees Celsius I always use Celsius or metric system because that's how I learned but it's about 194 degrees Fahrenheit, so it's quite hot. Just under boiling the cheese curd gets some water and I control how much water that goes into the machine and it starts warming it up. Then it goes into this other compartment of the machine where it has these big like hands, that kind of it's like a kneading, like if you're kneading dough, and then I start putting more water in there. So I'm always controlling how much water you put into the machine. And that's the key when you're making mozzarella. So if you want softer mozzarella, 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 the consistency that you want. And that's what you're always doing. So I always have to feel the cheese. I always have to touch the cheese to see what the texture is, to get the consistency of whatever I'm making at the time, whether it be fiora latte or like our pizzarella, which is our pizza cheese, which is a little bit more firm because it's going to be melted. So you don't want a lot of water in it.

Speaker 3: 26:49

So, even though the machine is making the cheese, it's pretty much just taking the manual labor out of it, because I'm always controlling the water that goes into it. And that's the hardest part about cheese making Cheese making. You can't just say, okay, here's a pound of cheese, add, you know, a half a gallon of water and you're going to have perfect mozzarella. That's not how it works, because the cheese curd and the milk it's always absorbing different amounts of water. You never know what you're going to get, even though I do the same thing every single day.

Speaker 3: 27:17

Every single day is different because I never know how that batch of cheese is going to absorb 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 because the cows are starting to eat different things, they're starting to be outside a little bit more, they're starting to run around, they might become a little bit more lean, milk, might have a little bit more fat and that's all going to affect the way that the cheese is being stretched so it might absorb more water. Some days I'll put to put the machine on and just add a little bit of water and boom, I'm getting the desired result.

Speaker 1: 27:49

Some days it's just like man, I have to just crank up the water into this, into this curd, because it's so different so, as you're doing this process, the, the feeling part of the cheese is so that you can control the consistency to keep it the same through each batch, exactly. So, even though the elements might be different, whether it's temperature, what the cows are eating or seasonality of things you can still take that product, which is going to be different in its creation. You can still manipulate it to come out in the same format. Yes, 100%.

Speaker 3: 28:27

Yeah, see that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 28:29

And where are you getting most of the milk from? Is it local?

Speaker 3: 28:31

It will be. I need to buy a cheese vat, which is they're quite expensive. So once I have that, then I have a local farmer that's going to be giving me the milk and then, yeah, them will be 100% Florida made.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Jeff, should I have a cheese vat?

Speaker 2: 28:46

I think you do have one. It's your stomach, oh.

Speaker 1: 28:48

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: 28:56

Just like a big, open, stainless steel drum. So what you do is you put the milk in there and it's hooked up to a boiler, so you put steam. Steam heats up the milk to a specific degree.

Speaker 3: 29:10

You add the rennet, which is that's what coagulates the milk to make it solid. You add you can either add citric acid or vinegar, and that kind of speeds up the process and that's how you get your cheese curd. So then you cut it, the whey falls off and then you have a solid product. So you take that solid product and that's how you get your cheese curd. So then you cut it, the whey falls off and then you have a solid product. So you take that solid product and that's how you start making mozzarella.

Speaker 1: 29:29

To make one ball of burrata? How long does it take the process?

Speaker 3: 29:36

By hand. I can make well by hand the whole process. I can stretch about 10 pounds of cheese in about 15 minutes. And then you start making the burrata. Burrata is hard because one there's a lot of technique involved in it and it takes a couple of days. So to kind of backtrack, to make stracciatella which is in the burrata, that's a two-day process. So you have to make the stracciatella, which is shredded mozzarella, and I pull big long sheets of it, it and then you take that, you cool it down and then you shred it, and you shred it by hand. So to get those little shreds of mozzarella in there, it's all shredded by hand. So it's it's not my favorite process are the larger companies.

Speaker 1: 30:18

Is that automated in the larger outfits or no? They are.

Speaker 3: 30:21

There is a machine that does it, shreds it, that that does work pretty.

Speaker 3: 30:25

But you have to be able to but you 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 cream that you put in and salt, and then the next day then you start making the burrata. So the way I make a burrata is I take a little about three ounce ball of mozzarella, I flatten it in my hand like a pancake, I close it, or I put a scoop 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 days to make and there's quite a lot of labor involved in it. Just, and there's quite a lot of labor involved in it, just in tying the knot.

Speaker 3: 31:04

There's a lot of labor there is, and to me that's the most important for the burrata is to have 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 skin of the burrata is really thin. And that's how you tell a good artisan burrata is how thin that skin is. Because when they make it with a machine they just take a ball of mozzarella, they shove it up into this cone that shoots stracciatella in it and then they 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-tied knot, which I think is important, especially when you are giving, selling it to restaurants and things like that. When a barata comes to the table and there's a hand-tied knot, you know exactly what you're getting. At that point you're like oh, this is barata there's nothing like barata at all.

Speaker 1: 31:56

Well, when he's talking about the hand tie, I think, I think for optic, I think it's beautiful because it you, you mentioned artisan. That's the difference. I mean, let's just say quality for quality. But if you, you know, let's just say quality for quality is the same, which I don't. But let's just say but then you go to the, to the end user, you go to the restaurant or hotel or wherever that you know eatery is, and they put out this beautiful plate. When you have something that you can tell is like handed, that just ups the level, ups the ante a little bit, I think you can command a little bit more dollars for the plate.

Speaker 2: 32:33

Well, I think the other problem is that most people think that because it's local, it's going to be cheaper, and that's not the case, especially when you're putting the time and the effort in, like he's doing, with the hand tying it and it's labor intensive two days to make you you that that commands, I think, a better price.

Speaker 1: 32:54

So in in the world of oddball tipping as it is now, I think you should carry an ipad around and flip it around and have people tip you for tying the knot. I'm just saying I would, I would tip for that versus through, you know, versus the uh, the coffee shop. I'm kidding, I shouldn't have said that.

Speaker 3: 33:06

I'm going to get emails. What's the?

Speaker 1: 33:08

tip inflation, oh tip inflation, oh my goodness, it's nice we have.

Speaker 3: 33:11

We have a few restaurants that know our story and they educate their staff, their servers and things like that, and when they bring out the burrata and things like that to the table, you know, they kind of say a little blurb about where this came from. It's local, you know, family owned. Everything's handmade. So it is nice and I think that's one of our best features that we have is that it is handmade, it's family owned, it's local here and some people even put you know, it's made by Selena G's on the menu, which is nice.

Speaker 1: 33:41

So a lot of our listenership. I mean, we're all over the place. We're 90 countries, 1,600 cities around the planet. Obviously, we're here in central Florida, we're in the Tampa area, so we deal with a lot of the chefs locally. I understand that a couple of weeks ago you had your first order to Pizzecki's Produce, which is a friend of the show. Pizzecki's Produce, which is a friend of the show, and they can. You know chefs and you know F&B directors, buyers, whatnot. You can find this product at Pizzecki's Produce, correct.

Speaker 3: 34:14

Correct. Yeah, they carry our full line and yeah, we just had our first order. A few weeks ago, they started buying some of our burrata, some of our Oaxaca.

Speaker 2: 34:23

Yeah, let's talk about that, because I've been waiting for you. So you have burrata, you have stracciatella, you have the pizza, then Oaxaca.

Speaker 3: 34:30

Oaxaca, yeah, and then many different forms of the mozzarella.

Speaker 1: 34:34

He went Mexitalian, right. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3: 34:37

Yeah, it's funny. Everyone asks like do you have Italian?

Speaker 1: 34:41

cheese. And what's the Oaxaca, where the Oaxaca come from.

Speaker 3: 34:43

Yeah well, oaxaca is it's. It's made the same way that you make mozzarella, so the same way that I make a fiora latte or mozzarella ball or whatever, that's how you would make Oaxaca. The only difference is I'll take a like a one pound ball of mozzarella, you flatten it, you know, in a, in a long line, and and then you roll it. So you kind of roll it, kind of like you would fold a flag, and that's how you get, when you unravel it, you get the stringiness of the Oaxaca.

Speaker 2: 35:15

Yeah, by the way, that's one of the best ones.

Speaker 3: 35:17

I've had.

Speaker 2: 35:18

You can see it on the. It's becoming more and more mainstream, like queso fresco and cojita cheese. So that's one of my favorites, because every so everyone knows that's the same location where mole came from. So you have two, like you have that cheese and mole and you put the two together. It's just incredible and you don't have to use that cheese just in mexican cuisine. There's a lot of the things you can do. That wait, wait, wait. You're saying it's not just in that realm of the sticks into your lane.

Speaker 1: 35:46

All right. So you're saying that it doesn't just have to be in a taco?

Speaker 2: 35:50

No, okay it could be anywhere it wants to be because it commands it, especially with your flavor profile, and that definitely has that flavor profile.

Speaker 1: 35:58

Well, tell me, Jeff no, I'm only kidding, Chef Jefferson what would you do with a Oaxaca? Like what in your head now? Cause I already know you've been thinking, you've been already thinking like what am I going to do? I?

Speaker 2: 36:08

would do a Buxuto wrapped instead of Monterey. You're establishing something that's totally different. That's not been seen before. I think, chefs, one of the things that we can do, we have the opportunity to teach and educate our guests, and then one of the ways to do it is not doing something by infusion to be confusion, but infusion to actually make that stand out. One of the best things I've ever seen around the country as far as starchy sales been concerned is Bufalina out in Austin, and they were a James Beard award-winning restaurant. We didn't even order it. It came to the table and thank God they did that and it was literally this huge, thick piece of this gorgeous grilled sourdough and this fantastic layered of complexity tomato jam with the stracciatella on top oh my god and just, you know, keith and I were like we're definitely going to do this and when you guys dropped that stuff off and did the shoot, that's one of the things.

Speaker 2: 36:59

But somebody ate two containers of it. So today jeff is taking both those containers because next week I'm going to actually do something with that for the podcast. I want to shoot that because there's nothing like that. I will approve I'm sure you will when it's going into your mouth. But I think that's one of the things that we can do and educate.

Speaker 2: 37:19

I mean, a lot of people, like you said, don't understand that, the work involved in it, the time that it takes to it. You know, like you see this thing. Well, why does it cost this much? Well, because it's so much more. Like we talked to our farmers that do chicken, raised chickens, like nicole and vicky and the goats and all that. Why does it cost like 17, 18 for a bird? Well, when you taste that bird, it's different than the three dollar one that you get in the supermarket, because that's not the way we should be eating. The way we should be eating is that bird or this cheese, because it doesn't have all that stuff in it when you're looking and you're sourcing your milk. For the product, you have a certain standard operating. I was about to use the SOP Standard operating procedure. Right that you're looking for grass, finish Criteria and whatever.

Speaker 3: 38:03

Yeah we do. My main goal was to have a milk come from a single origin. So I didn't want to use like a co-op or anything like that, because that's where a lot of the milk goes. So farmers will sell to one specific area and all the milk is mixed in with, you know, all the farmers' milks. So I wanted one that came from one specific farm. That was really important to me.

Speaker 3: 38:25

I went to the farm, I visited it. I saw the cows, I saw what they were 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 good milk, you're not going to have a good product. So that was the main thing that I really wanted was a single origin, because I wanted to know exactly what was going in to feed those cows. And then there's other technical things you have to worry about, like the fat content in the milk and things like that. So you have to use specific cows. You can't use Jersey cows because it's harder to make the cheese curd because it's higher in fat. So you have to watch for that.

Speaker 1: 39:05

So when you let me back up a second when, when, a moment ago, you were, you were describing, I got to see the cow, I got to see what they're eating, I got to feel what they were eating, I was, I immediately, was thinking I was getting snapshots in my head of a gladiator and Marcus Aurelius would just, you know, bend down and pick up the soil and put it in his hands, before you know, and I'm like, oh, this is you know, this is like a real feeling, it's a real thing and this is where the passion comes from. Right, so that's really, really cool. Okay, I have a question for you. You make cheese, yes, okay, are you still eating cheese? I do, I have to.

Speaker 3: 39:46

Not for tasting.

Speaker 1: 39:48

Not for tasting. I don't know. When I was doing coffee manufacturing, I was drinking I mean like seriously coffee from all 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: 40:05

It's not, it's cheese. Like, you know who doesn't like cheese. Like, can you ever get sick of cheese? Can you ever get sick of pizza? I eat a lot of it, like we eat a lot of mozzarella, just because it's there, especially Oaxaca. Oaxaca's my favorite. That's the one I eat the most of. It melts really well. I like to eat it fresh. I think it's great. You know just the saltiness with it. But you know, I've been on a big goat cheese kick lately. I really like that. Eventually we're going to get into 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 going to get a cold smoker, so we're going to have smoked buffalo, which is that's the best.

Speaker 1: 40:45

I love what you're saying. Oh my goodness, how many so offerings right meanwhile, john's looking at me.

Speaker 2: 40:51

I know well, we both we're both looking at you right now?

Speaker 1: 40:54

how many line items are you putting out?

Speaker 3: 40:56

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 which come in Fiora Latte, which is eight ounce, we have Bocconcini's, which is two ounce, chili Gini, which is cherry sized, and Perlini, which will be pearl size. So those are all like the fresh mozzarella balls that everyone would know. Like I said, we also do oaxaca. We have burrata of various sizes, stretchatella and and pizzarella.

Speaker 2: 41:30

So that's our we call it pizzarella, a little moisture cheese yeah, not like the stuff that's out there that the broadliners sell. I can tell you that much right now. There's nothing like it because you're getting something that's artisan. One of the things I noticed when I was up in boston and in new hampshire One of the things I noticed when I was up in Boston and in New Hampshire, one of the things I loved and I think we have to embrace it down here is I went to Martin butcher shop in Texas, right outside Massachusetts, and I walk inside and they're listing where the duck came from, where the cow came from, where the chicken came from, where the cheeses came from, and I think if we start doing that more, we're going to start seeing better products on our shelves and inevitably we were talking in the green room that's the products that we're putting in our bodies now that are making us sick because the ultra-processed foods.

Speaker 2: 42:15

This is how we have to go back to eating, because we can find a single source cow or milk that is going to be producing the end result, because inevitably they're not farmers, are not farmers of cattle, they're not farmers 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 high quality farmer that's doing stuff, so congrats to doing that no, thanks.

Speaker 3: 42:39

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 know it's so important to pay attention to those things you know, same with you know the meat that you're buying, the chicken that you're buying, whatever those animals are eating is what's going to go into your body 100 I feel like we should all pick our mics up, throw them down and walk out.

Speaker 1: 42:59

Now, mic drop it. Everybody don't do that. These, these are expensive stuff.

Speaker 2: 43:03

Well, you just want pizza and spring rolls.

Speaker 1: 43:05

I do I want to get into the spring rolls and pizza? Oh my goodness, all right. So where do we find other than Pizzecki's Produce? Which chefs out there you should be calling? Give Brian a ring. Set that up, are you all Central Florida?

Speaker 3: 43:20

Yes, we are mainly in the Tampa Pinellas St Pete area. We are mainly in the Tampa Pinellas St Pete area. We are down in Sarasota at the farmer's market there. You can find us at Rolling Oats in 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: 43:38

Salamatecheesecom. Excellent. All right, thank you for being on the show. I appreciate you both coming out to the studio. All right, thank you for being on the show. I appreciate you both coming out to the studio. Jeff, john, you guys are awesome. Evan, wherever you are floating around somewhere, you're awesome too. All right, we are. Oh, by the way, peninsula Food Service check them out. We are out. We'll see you next time.