Page 120 - Southern Oregon Magazine Spring 2018

chow | local habit
OPEN to a drink, which is what makes it a “triple” pairing, and more

DAILY complicated to wrap your mind around. The first step of the
process is to taste the cheeses—in this case 40 of them. Executive
Year-Round Chef Maggie Trujillo sat down with her sous and pastry chefs to
begin the tasting.

Our Estate is Family, “It’s almost like a brainstorming session,” says Trujillo, who has
Pet and Picnic Friendly worked for Lark’s for three years, and participated in the Cheese
Makers’ Dinner each year. At this first stage she is looking for
cheeses that would go well for each course. The bigger cheeses
go better with a main course, and the lighter cheeses are good
contenders for salads or first courses. She made a special effort
to bring in her pastry chef for the project since, as she says in the
humble understated tones of someone who has done this before,
“pairing cheese in a dessert can be…challenging.”

For each cheese, they analyze the structure and flavor and begin
thinking about how it could be used. Trujillo says it’s a moving
target as they sample cheeses and discuss ideas about which ones
might make sense for each course. With so many great cheeses it
can seem daunting, but it’s also definitely one of those projects that
falls under the “tough job, but someone’s gotta do it” category.

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK FROM 11AM to 5PM The next stage is probably the most crucial. “Once we narrow it
222 Missouri Flat Road, Grants Pass, OR 97527 down to the favorites,” says Trujillo, “we begin thinking about where
www.serravineyards.com 541-846-9223 they would place in a meal.” This trajectory is vitally important. At
every stage they are thinking about how our palates respond to
different cheeses and how those cheeses would mix with a coursed
meal.

Once the order of the cheeses is established, they are paired with a
dish that also follows the same kind of trajectory. “It’s important that
the character of the cheese still shows through,” says Trujillo. These
meals are a journey, and they’re meant to take us in many different
directions, but with an underlying focus. Generally speaking you
travel from lighter to heavier, just like most meals. If every dish is a
beautiful sprint, the entire meal has to be a magnificent marathon.

One of the things that Trujillo and her team did at this dinner was
a palate-cleansing course. This was accomplished through the third
course champagne sorbet. Think of it as “Foodie Half Time.” The
palate needs a break, especially when you’re using ingredients like
cheese that are rich and flavorful, and the crisp acidity and chill of
the sorbet gets you reset for the Petit New York Steak and the Dark
Chocolate Porter Cheesecake.

The final piece to a pairing like this is the drink. Once the courses
are set, Trujillo and her team begin tasting wines and beers, looking
for either complimentary or contrasting flavors that will match
with the chosen courses. They’re looking for wines or beers that
will match the weight of the dish, but also add something to it. Just
like when creating a dish, the rule is that one plus one equals three.
All parts should stand on their own, but make something greater
when combined.

For this dinner, they chose local beverages that were represented

118 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | spring 2018