{"id":604259,"date":"2023-02-02T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/02\/why-restaurants-should-serve-cheese-as-the-main-course\/"},"modified":"2023-02-02T12:03:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:03:00","slug":"why-restaurants-should-serve-cheese-as-the-main-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/02\/why-restaurants-should-serve-cheese-as-the-main-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Restaurants Should Serve Cheese as the Main Course"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since I reported on the\u00a0darkest corners of the meat industry<\/a> last year, I haven\u2019t been able to eat anything with a face. It\u2019s a workplace hazard, I guess. Dining on vegetables and grains and tofu is going fine, thanks, but I hadn\u2019t realized how much I\u2019ve been missing the dopamine hit that comes with something like a salty piece of fried chicken, until I was recently presented with a big hunk of cheese at\u00a0Gem Wine<\/a> in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The waiter plopped down our main dish: a voluptuous wedge of salt-flecked Gouda haloed by sturdy slices of firm-but-sweet pear, flanked by a pile of marinated peppers and a plate of roasted celery root. I can\u2019t tell you where in the world the cheese came from, or exactly how bad dairy production is for cows and the environment (fairly, probably), but I do know the sight of it made me foam at the mouth. The heft of the smooth-bottomed cheese knife felt powerful in my hand, and the thick wedge fought back, tugging at the blade in a way mushrooms could never. The flaky, misshapen bits of cheese melted in my mouth, filling the fatty, salty, meat-shaped hole in my heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the end of that meal I sat back in my chair, unbuttoned my cargo pants, and sighed with satisfaction. Then, I started to wonder: Why is large format cheese not the norm at restaurants?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before you point at the m\u00e9lange of cheese\u00a0boards<\/em> on menus around the country, please hold. Little bits of cheese just don\u2019t have the same carnal appeal as one huge chunk. They\u2019re also less equitable; while you\u2019re focusing on the aged goat, your \u201cfriend\u201d has already finished up the matchbox-size Brie sitting stage left. All is fair in love and big cheese. Whether or not you eat meat, I propose that we think of big cheese like we do a roasted branzino or a half-chicken: a sharing dish that can be easily accessorized with a rainbow of veg-heavy small plates.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Gem isn\u2019t the inventor of Big Cheese. An eight-minute walk away, the Greek restaurant\u00a0Kiki\u2019s<\/a> serves an almighty block of saganaki that\u2019s been rolled in phyllo pastry, fried to a golden crisp, and drizzled with honey. According to a colleague, the Kansas City pizza joint\u00a0Mama Leones<\/a> used to give tables giant slabs of provolone on a plate with the bread service. At\u00a0Hatchet Hall<\/a> in LA, you\u2019ll find a single big cheddar on the menu, which is served with cornbread. And I recently had my first at-home raclette experience with friends. Melting the cheese with a lamp-like grill and scraping the melty puddles onto bread was thrilling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There is freedom within the big-cheese-as-main-course framework: A single wheel of Brie baked until it loses all structural integrity (sure it\u2019s already a classic app, but it\u00a0should<\/em>\u00a0be a main); a plate of gussied up cheese curds; a wedge of Stilton, a silky log of ch\u00e8vre; hell, even the aforementioned fondue (a.k.a., dinner and a show). I have taken this vision so far in my head that I\u2019ve seen whole menus\u2014like wine lists\u2014dedicated to single servings of cheese. I\u2019ve imagined it catching on everywhere: pub salads listing grilled Halloumi or a big hunk of feta as add-ons alongside grilled chicken or shrimp; burger buns sandwiching squeaky slices of grilled bread cheese instead of beef; a resurgence of the underrated\u00a0ploughman\u2019s lunch<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am not an economist but trust me: If there\u2019s a market for entire\u00a024\/7 bacon-themed restaurants<\/a>, there is surely one ready to go in on big-ass pieces of cheese.<\/p>\n

For restaurants, the argument is simple; A wedge of cheese is no diva. It\u2019s maybe the lowest maintenance main you could serve. With or without intervention, one big piece of the good stuff is a deserving dish. It\u2019s impressive (and hearty) enough to sit proudly in the center of the table, and robust enough to be hacked apart by clumsy hands. Do nothing to it, or do everything\u2014it will still be so, so good. Because it is cheese.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Ali Francis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I reported on the\u00a0darkest corners of the meat industry last year, I haven\u2019t been able to eat anything with a face. It\u2019s a workplace hazard, I guess. Dining on vegetables and grains and tofu is going fine, thanks, but I hadn\u2019t realized how much I\u2019ve been missing the dopamine hit that comes with something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,2564,1140],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-604259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial","8":"category-restaurants","9":"category-should"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}