SERIOUSLY
SPREADABLE
IF CHEESE SPREADS AND SPREADABLE CHEESES ARE TO GET ANY RESPECT, STARTING WITH GREAT CHEESE IS IMPERATIVE.
BY KAREN WEISBERG
hen a chef tells you he or she had a revelation
regarding the culinary application of soft cheese
and cheese spreads beyond hors d’oeuvres, you’d
surely want to hear more. W
“When I was attending a conference recently, the speaker
suggested that chefs would get awesome results by slathering
really high-quality cheese spreads on burgers, and that,
in general, they could/should be doing more with cheese
spreads,” recalls Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC,
executive director of Kendall College School of Culinary
Arts, Chicago, and vice president of Laureate International
Universities Center of Excellence in Culinary Arts.
“I certainly believe soft cheese and spreads deserve to be
looked at again, not just from a quality standpoint, but for
what you can do with it,” Koetke says. “Years ago we had
cheese spreads, but no one took them seriously or thought of
them as serious food.
“Why not whisk a semisoft cheese into a hot soup? Can you
mix it into a bread dough? Think of all the things I can stuff
