Fallen Montgomery cheddar Soufflé served with cider and butter-braised Honeycrisp apples in a hot apple-sage broth with sage oil and Russian sage flowers. it's topped with a baked cheddar crisp

Second course dessert from a recent raw menu: "icewined" bosc pears with caraway "sabayon" and honeyed walnuts.

A "non-ice cream" sampler: marshmallow-based chocolate(-yogurt) ice cream (brulee'd) with grilled graham crackers and wheatberry reduction paired with whole wheat-honey raw ice cream, cocoa nibs and mead emulsion. the idea is to have one wholly cooked portion of the plate paired with a raw portion. the same idea - smores - just demonstrated two ways, both in flavor and in preparation style. also, neither of the two ice creams are traditional in any sense. no custards here. or eggs, for that matter. both require a pacojet to process. enjoi

Soursop Soup, Pomegranate marinated young coconut "noodles", crispy young coconut, lime zest, pomegranate seeds, hempseed gelato, hemp seeds, grains of paradise. for a special raw menu dessert course for Roxanne Klein ( co-author of "RAW" with Charlie Trotter), a special guest at Charlie Trotter's 20th anniversary dinner. October 7, 2007.

Pumpkin seed oil ice cream with spice-marinated pumpkin ribbons, cinnamon brisee', okinawan sweet potato "fries", ginger emulsion, salted pepitas and pumpkin jus reduction

Vermont Shepherd Cheese - A sheep's milk cheese from Vermont . It's served with a sweet sheep's yogurt and mint soup with crushed cumin seed and spelt flour-cumin streusel.

This cheese is called "montenebro", a very highly regarded spanish goat's milk cheese made by just one man, senor baez and his daughter paloma.. anyway it's served with a scorched goat's milk-vanilla bean flan, rooibos (south african red tea) foam, a sprinkling of burnt madagascar vanilla bean powder and a dehydrated flake of the cheese itself...

CALCAGNO  is a firm, aged sheep's milk cheese from salerno, italy. it's components are all in the onion family.. a puffed rice crisp of fermented black garlic (this stuff is so interesting, it's from east asia and it takes on a sweet, fruity flavor after a fermentation process). shallots in reduced port wine and petite "memo" chives. also, a dab of fresh sheep's milk ricotta seasoned with some fresh chives, sherry vinegar and salt. lastly, lamb juices round out the depth of the cheese with meaty flavors.. 

Crater lake blue from central point, Oregon. It's served with endive, Bartlett pear butter an emulsion (sort of like a light mayonnaisey consistency) made of raw milk and toasted hazelnut oil and it's finished with a hazelnut skin vinaigrette.

Italian goat cheese "candela di langa" served with orange blossom honey curd and comb and lemon verbena.

The cheese is a water buffalo's milk Italian cheese called "Tomino in Vinaccia". it's bathed in wine lees, the dead yeast and crud at the bottom of fermented wine casks. it's pretty tasty - obviously very musty and yeasty. it's served with concord grape flesh and juice, a buffalo butter and milk sponge cake that's soaked in the juice and also diced and dehydrated into little cake croutons. and to finish there's a syrup made of sorrel leaves and tearings of the leaves themselves.

Constant Bliss

The cheese is called "constant bliss", a soft-ripened (young) cow's milk cheese from vermont. I decided that since it's an American cheese the best way to present the crepes was American style - like flapjacks! or, tiny flapjacks in a "tall stack". They are layered with crabapple preserves. I decided to garnish with crabapples. They really aren't so special raw, but when I cooked them down in a sugar syrup the flavors harmonized and to my delight they turned a bright pink! They also have a slight bitter/astringent quality, which actually pairs well with the lactic curd element in the cheese and the overt sweetness of the caramel, dulce de leche (this is really just milk that has been reduced along with sugar, baking soda [helps keep everything emulsified], a little salt and some toasted coriander seeds [when toasted, these smell uncannily like lucky charms or fruit loops or something]). So it really turned out to be sort of a breakfasty-like dish. It's pretty yummy. The other elements on the dish are a little deep fried crepe (turned into a crispy little chip for some texture), a little dab of melted butter, of course, and a sprinkling of the toasted coriander seed powder

My first dish on the menu at Charlie Trotter's. It's for the kitchen table menu sorbet course:

The dish is entirely raw (even though the seeds are toasted, the essential fatty acids are not denatured until heated to 325 degrees) and vegan, save for the gelatin in the kombucha. also, it's suitable for diabetics.

Colston-Basset Stilton

Yellow tomato-black pepper marmalade

Toasted brioche crumbs

Veal jus

10 year balsamic

Memo chives

Grains of paradise

Perhaps Great Britain’s most famous cheese and certainly it’s most famous blue, we serve with a non-traditional marmalade, which brings a welcomed sweetness along with the latent bite of crushed black peppercorns. The buttery brioche provides texture and compliments the ripe, creamy characteristics of a fine Stilton. A very “animal forward” cheese, the dish is finished with warm veal jus for the meaty tones and aged balsamic to weave both the acidity of the tomatoes and the heady, brown notes of the overall dish.

Candela di langa

Goat’s milk-propolis pudding

Sunflower honey “brittle”

Dandelion greens

Chamomile powder

This stunning Robiola-styled goat cheese from the Piedmont region of northern Italy comes coated in beeswax and pressed with a variety of local mountain flowers and herbs. Its texture is quite unique and somehow perfect for a goat – somewhere between cream and crumble – ethereal. The pudding brings it back into the realm of creamy while adding the unexpected “nose” of the propolis. As soon as you decide to bite you are struck with the airy crunch of candied sunflower honey. Chamomile finishes light, sweet and beautifully while the dandelion touches on subtle bitterness.

Wabash Cannonball

Blueberry puree

Reduced goat’s milk-lavender panna cotta

Brown goat’s butter vinaigrette

Freeze-dried blueberries

Fresh lavender and micro peppercress

From America’s heartland in Greeneville, Indiana, this young, delicate chevre is presented simply with another American staple: blueberries. The reduced milk panna cotta is a sexy counter point and provides an avenue for the infusion of fresh lavender as well as a pedestal for the crunchy freeze-dried berries. The browned goat’s butter and lemon vinaigrette add depth to this otherwise light summer cheese offering.

Montagnolo

Paprika gougere, opened and filled with Montagnolo fondue

(solid cheese spread across plate, too)

Tokaji meringue (powdered egg whites, dehydrated and crumbled)

Tokaji gelee

Tokaji granite, all three wine components stacked together

This Bavarian delicacy is quite unique in that it’s both a double cream and a blue. For a pairing within a dish the cheese is set in tandem with Hungarian Tokaji. For the cheese we make a fondue simply by melting the cheese over a bain marie and adding only a touch of wine and pouring it into a profiterole made with sweet paprika. We create the wine component using textures: icy in the form of a granite’, gelled, and crispy in the form of a dehydrated meringue, all of which melt in the mouth differently.

Nisa

Sheep’s butter-black walnut praline

Yakitori-grilled fig quarters

Fig puree

Rosemary

This rich, full-bodied sheep’s cheese from east-central Portugal has distinct butter and nut characteristics. We serve it thinly sliced to really expose the paste and get a good whiff of what’s inside. For bite we make a praline of black walnuts and sheep’s butter, which is so intense it almost seems like a cheese itself! The figs are ever intensified by briefly grilling them over a Yakitori. A puree is also made to add the proper moisture to the dish. A sprinkle of chopped rosemary adds a full herbal quality.

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar

Cheddar-red peppercorn soufflé, baked in ring mold to be lifted out and placed atop

Grated, baked cheddar crisp

Hot honeycrisp apple-sage broth

Cider and butter-braised apple dice

Hard cider emulsion

Micro sage leaves

An American version of the British classic, this Vermont Cheddar has all the bragging rights of the original. The cheesy soufflé becomes the lightest cheese biscuit you could imagine and almost melts into to hot apple sage broth, were it not for the braised apples between them. The yeasty quality of the cider brings together the age of the cheese and the freshness of the apples. The most delicate baked cheddar crisp provides a textural backbone to the light feel with bold flavors.

Sola tre latte Castagna

Cheese to be whipped and quenelled.

Espresso biscotti bits

Milk chocolate soup (temperature??)

Toasted milk anglaise

This Brie-style treat from northern Italy truly demonstrates the deliciousness of the local milk – cows, goats and sheep, respectively. Its youth and creamy mouth feel make it an excellent candidate to pair with some otherwise avoided flavors. Sweet milk chocolate soup and toasted milk anglaise bring the cheese into a “brown realm” as it is punctuated by the bitterness of crumbly espresso biscotti bits.

Monterey Dry Jack

Cheese grated and rolled thinly into sheets and formed on plate (some crisped in oven?)

Compressed watermelon

Pickled watermelon rind

Basil seed-watermelon pickling juice vinaigrette

Aztec blossom syrup

The rare fruity quality of certain aged cheeses is no more apparent than in this true California classic. Succulent watermelon flesh provides balance in the form of sweetness and moisture, the pickled rind utilizing a unique and underused portion of this delicious fruit. Aztec blossom syrup elevates the melon-cheese combination to an altogether unexpected realm.

Krummenswiler Forsterkase

Porcini, thinly sliced (foldable), seared lightly w/ Thai bird chili, shallots and garlic

Ale-olive bread crisp

Dehydrated olive vinaigrette

This dynamic and impressive Swiss-made cheese features an intense and unexpected flavor profile partly due to the fir bark that encircles the wheel. Porcini mushrooms lightly seared with butter, shallots and Thai bird chilies add additional “woodsy” notes and a bit of heat to play off the fatty, luscious paste. A delicate ale-olive crouton adds textural lightness while the dehydrated olive vinaigrette counters with acidity and salt.

Bourboule

Cheese peeled, layered and rolled into cylinder; filled with

Crispy bacon bits

Sunberries, whole and puree

Bacon fat-verjus reduction vinaigrette

Silver thyme leaves

This medium-bodied French wheel might make a fine snacking cheese all on it’s own, but instead we complete the picture with equally hearty and satisfying flavors. Lardons bordering on crispy and chewy parallel the richness of the paste. Fresh summer sunberries cut through with the addition of a verjus-bacon fat vinaigrette.  Silver thyme sprinkled over the plate uplifts the combined weight and assertiveness of the major flavors.

Robiola due latte

Quince mostarda (w/ mustard seed)

Melted Savoy cabbage

Mustard greens

This is perhaps the staple of Italian soft cheeses. In this case we’ve chosen a two-milk version using both cow’s and sheep’s milk. It is prepared simply using a classic “mustard fruit”, in this case quince but with the addition of whole mustard seeds for texture. The acidity and heat of the mostarda is set against buttery “melted” cabbage for its vegetal depth and subtle sweetness.

Rogue River Blue

Petite fresh endive leaf

Pear butter

Hazelnut oil-raw milk foam w/ toasted nuts

Hazelnut skin powder

An Oregonian treasure and arguably the best blue made in America today, this cow’s milk cheese is styled after the famous Roquefort of France. Fresh baby endive acts as a vessel for the cheese and adds a fresh, cleansing quality. The rich pear butter counters the mellow saltiness of the paste and accents the pear brandy-soaked leaves the cheese comes wrapped in. Toasted hazelnuts and a silken “foam” made of the nut’s oil and raw cow’s milk adds textural complexity at both ends of the spectrum while paying homage to the state’s official nut. The mildly bitter skins accentuate the bite of the mold element.

Pierre Robert

Cheese to be (thinned with milk or cream, then) puffed with N2O charger

Crispy-spiced chicken skin

Stewed Fraises de bois

Swiss chard puree

This relatively recent addition to the French arsenal of fine cheeses is unique in that being a triple cream it is aged about twice as long as its contemporaries – about 3-4 weeks, thus giving it a richer and more complex flavor and slightly denser texture. We thin it slightly with cream and puff it artificially using a whipped cream charger to give it a hauntingly unique mouth feel. The crispy chicken skin adds a dainty crispness and spice. Stewed wild French strawberries add an intoxicating floral bouquet and juiciness while the chard puree rounds the overall melody with “green”.

Tomino in Vinaccia

Sponge cake made with buffalo butter and milk, soaked in concord grape juice

Buffalo butter cake diced and dehydrated into croutons

Concord grape flesh

Boiled grape juice as sauce

Sorrel syrup and sorrel leaves

We like to serve this cheese in the early fall when we harvest the amazingly floral Concord grapes from right in front of the restaurant. They form the perfect bridge to the wine lees that bathes petite Italian buffalo milk morsel. The paste is mild yet complex by virtue of the milk and yeast, respectively, with a semi-firm consistency that is well balanced by fleshy grapes and crunchy buffalo butter cake croutons. A nugget of cake is also used as a sponge for the intense grape juice. Sorrel adds  light herbal and acidic points to highlight the grape’s natural profile.

A study of fresh cheeses:

Small Curd Cottage Cheese (Cowgirl Creamery, California)

Tempura fried pineapple (w/ togarashi)

Pineapple powder

Sheep’s Feta

Honeydew-arugula gelee

Micro arugula

Mozzarella

In cherry-Thai basil salad

Basil buds

Goat’s Fromage Blanc

Lucknow fennel cake toast

Micro bronze fennel

Here we delve into the wide world of fresh, rindless cheeses. Each to demonstrate just a small example of the vast array of techniques applied to the manipulation of milk.  We begin with cottage cheese. A small curd version made by Cowgirl Creamery in California is dressed with clabbered cream – a naturally tart byproduct of raw milk. The sweet, crunchy tempura-fried pineapple offsets its rich texture and a little heat from the togarashi and natural acidity complete the pairing, here. Next, we use a sheep’s milk version of the ancient Greek artifact, Feta. Its briny, crumbly goodness is paired beautifully with a silky-sweet honeydew and arugula gelee’. Tiny arugula greens add a peppery bite. Then we experience an Italian classic, fresh Mozzarella made of water buffalo’s milk – the original “pasta filata”-style cheese. Light, delicate and oozing with whey, we prepare this tasty cheese simply with a salad of fresh cherries and aromatic Thai basil. It really needs nothing else. Finally we do an American version of a French tradition: goat’s milk fromage blanc. It’s really more of a creamy spread with a delicious tang that is ever present due to the goat’s milk.  Creamy and cleansing, we serve a simple dollop atop a piece of crusted Lucknow fennel seed cake. It’s moist, delicious and full-flavored.

Coulommiers

White truffle

Elephant garlic emulsion

Iberico ham crisps

Soft poached quail egg yolk

Duck egg yolk/Sherry-chive vinaigrette

Acorn skins

Red wine essence

This young, savory French triple cream has a somewhat breakfast-like profile. So we step it up with the addition of the finest breakfast staples: White truffles for depth and aroma, Iberico ham crisps for texture and succulence. We make a vinaigrette of duck egg yolk and sherry vinegar with the addition of chives for acidity and piquancy. Sweet elephant garlic encircles the melody, rounding it out while acorn, the sole diet of Iberian pork, punctuates with bitterness.

Roomano

Cooked to separate curds and whey

Tomme de Chevre au Muscadet

Valencay

Montrachet

Paco-tized cheese????