Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: So, we're at Taliesin, home of Frank Lloyd Wright, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

And this is the kickoff event for the Art of Cheese Festival, located in the general Madison vicinity, where thousands of people come together to celebrate Wisconsin cheese and cheesemakers.

I'm gonna play it up a little gift, and today, it's a cream puff with Pleasant Ridge Reserve in the gougre dough.

This is day two of the Art of Cheese.

We're at The Deliciouser.

Deliciouser is a spice company owned by my mentor and chef Patrick O'Halloran, formerly of Lombardino's.

So, tonight, we're here honoring the dairy farmers of Wisconsin.

We're doing a dinner called Women Behind the Wheel.

[laughs] Let's give it up for the dairy farmers, the cheesemakers, the people that make this weekend possible.

All the people behind the scenes.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

[bright music] - Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

- Other sausage makers use the AI-generated voice of their namesake and founder.

Our products are finely crafted, made from time-honored recipes with ingredients you can actually pronounce.

Jones: Making breakfast better since 1889.

- The Wisconsin potato and vegetable growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they'll tell you, there's a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

Also, with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] - Luke: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[brats sizzle] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[ethereal music] So, we're at Taliesin, home of Frank Lloyd Wright, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

And this is the kickoff event for the Art of Cheese Festival, located in the general Madison vicinity, where thousands of people come together to celebrate Wisconsin cheese and cheesemakers.

We've got a lunch here today, and participants have the opportunity to be in this space with us, where myself and Kyle Adams from Wander Provisions, we're gonna make 'em a lunch that they'll never forget.

So, we have a really lovely salad for you today.

Everybody likes salad.

You eat salad, right?

You should eat your vegetables.

If you're coming to a cheese festival in Wisconsin, you're gonna have a lot of cheese this weekend.

I wanted to make sure that you get some greens in you before we get this whole party started.

So, we have the Steadfast Acres greens and braised beets, Future Fruit farmed pecans, and then we have the Roth, the buttermilk blue.

Finally, I'm gonna play it up a little gift for them before they leave.

And today, it's a cream puff with Pleasant Ridge Reserve in the gougre dough, some Organic Valley whipped cream with a little bit of maple syrup, and then some fruit that's been sourced from local orchards right here in the area.

The goal is to bring people deeper into the experience that is the Driftless region and the abundance of food and farming culture that we enjoy here.

I'm taking a riff on the Wisconsin cream puff.

Cream puff dough is actually, it's known as pte choux.

Pte choux, if you incorporate cheese into it, is known as a gougre.

So, what I've done is I've incorporated a whole lot of Pleasant Ridge Reserve into this pte choux dough.

And then, we took a little bit of whipped cream.

We're gonna place that in here, and then I'm going to hit it with some fruit preserves.

So, I have some raspberries that are coming in from some of my local farmers that I'll zhuzh over the top.

[gentle music] And last but not least, I have three consecutive make dates of Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

This one was made on July 16, 2024.

This one was made on July 17, 2024.

And this one was made on July 18 in 2024.

The beautiful part about Pleasant Ridge is even in one day's time, because those animals move to different pastures every single day, the cheese comes out remarkably different.

And so, highlighting this drastic shift in perspective is what I wanted to impart to folks after they had the opportunity to walk through Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesin, one of the greatest creative home field advantages in all of the United States.

This is my gift.

And this is the Taliesin-inspired cream puff featuring Uplands' Pleasant Ridge Reserve.

This is day two of the Art of Cheese.

We're at The Deliciouser.

Deliciouser is a spice company owned by my mentor and chef Patrick O'Halloran, formerly of Lombardino's, where he and his ex-wife Marcia put together an amazing restaurant that spanned over 20 years in downtown Madison.

Now, Patrick, with his wife Michelle, and his ex-wife Marcia, own the Deliciouser Spice Company, where they really look to make food not just delicious, but deliciouser.

[groovy music] So, tonight, we're here honoring the dairy farmers of Wisconsin.

We're doing a dinner called Women Behind the Wheel.

And there is a strong cultural tradition of master cheesemakers here in Wisconsin.

In fact, we're the only state in the United States that offers a master cheesemaker's program, and the education component is rigorous.

It includes a ten-year apprenticeship.

But tonight, we want to really call attention to the folks who are making cheese and doing it in a way that really represents the nuanced nature of Wisconsin.

Right, we're diverse culture.

We have men, women, folks of many shapes, sizes, and colors all working together in the dairy industry to make this place an agricultural powerhouse.

So, tonight, Patrick and I get the chance to really feature some of these prominent master cheesemakers, celebrate them, honor them, and give these folks a dinner of a lifetime.

[groovy music] [bell rings] It is an honor and a privilege to be here with you tonight.

I can't think of too many gifts that I've been given that are more special and sacred than my relationship to food and the people who produce it.

And this man was responsible for bringing me into that ethos and that mindset.

- Patrick O'Halloran: So, we are so thrilled to cook for you today.

We are gonna feature four really outstanding cheeses that we will start with a taste of, and then we will cook with them and do different things, how we manipulate them as chefs.

But it's really important that the ingredients that are also on the plate are so many local ingredients.

Even as you can see back here, Olivia, who works our grill, we have a charcoal grill, she is grilling retired dairy cows.

– Luke: They are.

– Patrick: In the spirit of this weekend, we thought that was appropriate that these cows that are part of the dairy industry... - Luke: Yes.

– Patrick: ...are honored one last time here tonight.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

– Luke: Let's go!

[applause] - So, the cheeses we're serving tonight, we're doing an Umamier-rubbed Fontina coming from Landmark Creamery, good neighbors of ours, rubbed with Deliciouser spices on the rind of these Italian-style cheeses.

This one's Fontina.

Then we have Roth Grand Cru.

The Grand Cru is a delicious, award-winning, Alpine-style cheese.

One of my favorites next.

Sartori's BellaVitano Gold.

BellaVitano Gold, to me, is the best expression of Parmesan meeting a Wisconsin cheddar.

And then we have Nasonville's feta cheese.

So, we have that real Mediterranean bite.

That's gonna be pairing with our dessert today, which is gonna be really interesting.

And then we have some Door County cherry tart mostarda to accompany these cheeses.

[groovy music] - Luke: Let's give it up to the cheesemakers!

[applause] - Patrick: This is Italian prosciutto cotto, so cooked ham from northern Italy.

It's gonna go with the Rushing Waters smoked trout, mayonnaise-based kind of a vinaigrette to take on the Italian vitello tonnato, but with ham and local Wisconsin rainbow trout.

[groovy music] This is a summer salad, all local vegetables.

So, we shaved all those vegetables, dressed them with our signature seasoning, French tarragon, citrus, and toasted coriander.

There's some yuzu oil and vinegar in there.

What we did is take a play on a northern Italian dish called vitello tonnato.

We got this beautiful ham from northern Italy.

And instead of a tuna mayonnaise, or tonnato, we took smoked Rushing Waters rainbow trout from Palmyra, Wisconsin, turned that into our version of a tonnato sauce with some bitter greens.

The BellaVitano Gold is the cheese that is mixed in, and I think it would pair perfectly with this dish that is inspired by the season right now in Wisconsin and northern Italy.

[applause] [groovy music] So, this salad features the Roth Grand Cru cheese, which we shaved, and we're tossing it with warm mushrooms coming from Vitruvian Farms.

It's a really good trio of mushrooms.

It's excellent.

We have micro shiitake, oyster, and lion's mane mushrooms tossed with bitter greens and parsley leaves.

And then, we made a vinaigrette with smoked morita chile, Wisconsin honey, and a little bit of Spanish sherry vinegar.

– Luke: It's good vibe in here.

Lots of these folks are really, really excited to be here, getting to learn more about Wisconsin cheese, go a little deeper into the experience.

As always, working with my man Patrick is... It's a dream come true.

[groovy music] - Patrick: Yeah, this is a baharat-rubbed retired dairy cow.

So, in keeping with our theme today of cheesemakers, master cheesemakers, we thought we'd honor that with a retired dairy cow from Organic Prairie.

We rubbed it with our baharat, which is our Arabic seven spice.

It's a really nice, fragrant, warm blend of spices.

And then we're gonna season this with a little bit of smoked sea salt, and we cook this over a charcoal grill, kind of just really gently cooked, a little bit rare.

And this should be really great.

It's served with a Fontina fonduta, kind of a Northern Italian fondue-style sauce with the Umamier Fontina from Landmark Creamery, some roasted local sweet peppers with a little agrodolce.

So, we have some... a little bit of acidity to cut through all that richness.

And then, we finish it with some local French wax beans, which are in season right now.

– Luke: We're plating up the main protein course right now.

So, the Organic Prairie tenderloin, that fonduta cheese sauce, like a meunire, and then these beans.

So good, so excited.

It's time to go.

Patrick, would you tell us what a fonduta is?

- It's basically a northern Italian version of a fondue, just as they share a border with Switzerland.

So, it's, in this case, a bechamel sauce that is enriched with that Umamier-rubbed Fontina cheese, to kind of offset the acidity in the sweet and sour peppers.

The dairy cow tenderloin, we wanted to treat that very delicately, keep it more to the rarer side because there's literally no fat in that meat.

We wanted it to be very luscious.

And then those petite little French wax beans over the top, just for a little color.

Hopefully you're enjoying.

– Luke: Can I get a round of applause for Patrick and the Deliciouser crew?

[applause and cheers] - Marcia Castro: The limoncello olive oil cake featured-- featuring Zane Rhodes' house-made limoncello.

We've got some whipped feta with Herbes Provence, and a little honey, a little crme frache.

We've got... nice little fresh berries to lighten up the palate.

- This is Herbes de Provence.

So, everything you think of in the south of France with hints of lavender.

But we doubled down on that floral note with some organic rose petals.

We have all kinds of different flower, blue cornflowers in there.

So, it's very aromatic, but also really beautiful.

– Luke: We'll leave you to the last few bites, but we appreciate you deeply.

Thanks for being a part of the community tonight.

Let's give it up for the dairy farmers, the cheesemakers, the people that make this weekend possible.

All the people behind the scenes.

[applause] - Patrick: Thanks for being here.

[groovy music] - Luke: This is the last event of the weekend for the Art of Cheese.

And today, we're throwing a pizza party at the Seven Acre Dairy Company in Paoli, Wisconsin.

Because we've been on the road and pulling together all these wonderful story lines from this weekend, we've tapped some of my favorite pizza makers in all of Wisconsin, the fine folks at Flour Girl & Flame from West Allis.

They've come in, they're setting up their pizza trailer and truck, and we're gonna put on a buffet that acts as the capstone for a wonderful three-day event.

Right now, we're on our way to Verona, Wisconsin.

We have to make a last-second grocery store run because, well, frankly, sometimes I'm not very good at my job.

So, what we're doing is we are going to procure some ingredients for our ravioli, some black garlic from Black Garlic North America, and last, but certainly not least... ...apples.

You know it's a good time when it takes me that long to even think of the three ingredients that I've got to go and pick up.

[indistinct conversation] [gentle music] This is the final event of the Art of Cheese Festival, the capstone, if you will.

We have been asked to curate a pizza party, because what better way to celebrate Wisconsin cheese than with pizza?

So, we are in the Seven Acre Dairy Company in Paoli, Wisconsin.

And because I love pizza and I know good pizza, I brought in some of my friends who are absolute ringers-- Flour Girl & Flame from West Allis, Wisconsin.

These folks know how to do pie, and they can do pie in big numbers.

So, today, we've got a menu that features a whole variety of Wisconsin's finest cheeses.

And we are so excited to get everybody together for one last hurrah for the Art of Cheese.

[gentle music] - Dana Spandet: That one, you can just crumble.

- What's up, you ready to celebrate some Wisconsin cheese?

- Ooh, I'm ready, Chef.

[Luke laughs] Whoo, feeling cheesy.

Fo' cheesy.

- Are you?

Cheesy for cheesy?

- Yeah, usually.

- Yeah.

So, everything here, I mean, like, Flour Girl makes the organizational work of coming in and doing this look so easy.

- Oh, you saw that?

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, okay, yeah.

- And I'm so jealous.

Talk to us a little bit about, you know, the Wisconsin cheeses that we're using today.

– Dana: The weeks leading up to this have been so much fun.

So, we're using Landmark cheese today.

We're using Crave Brothers Mascarpone in our walking cannoli.

We're using... - Luke: Uplands, Marieke.

– Dana: All of that.

– Luke: Emmi Roth, Grand Cru.

Like, we've just-- Kingston, Breezy Blue.

- Miso mushrooms and Alpine.

- Yeah.

- Like, brown Swiss cheese.

Very excited.

- Yeah, seriously.

Is it fun to play in all this delicious cheese?

- It's been an honor.

- Yeah.

- Truly.

- Oh, man, this is great.

Well, you know, I always say that chefs can't really hang out unless they're kind of working together.

So, I'll take the "kind of" in that combination, and you can take the "working."

- I'll get the "working" on this one, yeah, okay, that sounds about right.

All right, be a pretty man.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

- [laughs] Awesome.

Well, I'm so glad that you're here today.

And I really, really appreciate everything that you and your team do.

You guys rock.

– Dana: Thank you for having us.

– Luke: Oh, my gosh, give me a break.

This is a no-brainer, awesome.

[laughter] - Worker: That's right, I made it up.

– Luke: So, one of the pies that I was really excited to feature has Marieke's Young Gouda.

This is a very soft and pudgy cheese that we are going to pair with local Honeycrisp apples and herb aioli and some Driftless Provisions pepperoni.

[groovy music] Secondly, I've got the cheese pie, and nothing spells cheese pie quite like Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Marieke Gouda, and Emmi Roth's Grand Cru to tie it all together.

And lastly, I have got one pie that I am so excited to drop on the world.

This one has a combination of Kingston's Breezy Blue, and then figs and a touch of that Marieke Gouda to kind of tie it all together.

Should be [smooches] fantastic.

Mmm, so good.

A little smoky, a little sweet.

Rich, creamy, delicious.

Boom!

Let's get this to the people.

Check this out.

- Cheers.

- Cheers, right?

So good.

The smokiness, the inherent richness.

I like the moisture content in it.

It's not like... - Creamy.

- Yeah, too soft.

The salt is really good.

[groovy music] [indistinct conversations] [ethereal music] - Worker: It's like Play-Doh.

– Luke: This weekend has been like a fever dream.

A very, very delicious fever dream.

Starting at Taliesin, working our way through that Pleasant Ridge Reserve cream puff, and really bringing the amazing spectrum of flavor that Pleasant Ridge has the opportunity to shine.

Going from there, being able to go to the Deliciouser, being able to really get into the details last night of the female master cheesemakers in Wisconsin, honoring them, celebrating them as some of the best, best cheesemakers in the entire world, hands down.

And then, being able to come out to Paoli, Seven Acre Dairy Company, see so many people, their families, their friends, really, really revel in the fact that through good food is good connection, and from good connection comes community.

And in honesty, that's what dairy farming in Wisconsin is all about.

We take care of each other, and honestly, we make the most delicious products in the world with the main ingredient, which is love.

What's up, beautiful people?

How we doing?

[scattered cheers] Okay, that was all right.

What's up, beautiful people?

How we doing?

[loud cheers] That's better!

I wanna thank our host, Seven Acre and Nick Menk.

And I also really wanna give a huge shout-out to the fine folks at Flour Girl & Flame.

Yo, what's up in that?

Who's enjoying the pizza?

People are still going through and getting pizza.

We've got some of the most amazing cheese on the planet.

People are still finding ways to come up and rediscover their love for Wisconsin cheese with every single bite.

This is a dream job.

I quite literally have the best job in this entire state, hands down.

Thanks so much for coming out for the Art of Cheese, and I can't wait to see you next time.

[gentle music] And bring folks deeper into the story line of who we are and how we eat.

[blows raspberry] The salad gets everything It's got mushrooms and frise aplenty It's got cheese and vinaigrette - We're killing everything, all right.

- Killing it.

- I love killing stuff!

[Luke laughs] - Patrick: And I don't know if you've noticed, but Arthur is here from Wisconsin Foodie.

– Luke: Arthur's here?

– Patrick: And he was doing some filming in the back.

So, we had to overfluff and fluff, keep fluffing that salad and fluff it more and more.

We took this kid in off the mean streets of Viroqua.

- Why?

[diners laugh] Why did you take me in?

Tell 'em, just get it out of the way.

- I'll tell you.

So, this was before anyone knew who Luke Zahm was.

I've never before or since had someone apply for a job with a cover letter and a full 8x10 headshot.

[all laugh] Except this 23-year-old kid who somehow knew, you know, that he was gonna become a food evangelist for the state of Wisconsin.

And this weekend, Wisconsin cheese.

[gentle music] - Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

- Other sausage makers use the AI-generated voice of their namesake and founder.

Our products are finely crafted, made from time-honored recipes with ingredients you can actually pronounce.

Jones: making breakfast better since 1889.

- The Wisconsin potato and vegetable growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they'll tell you, there's a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Also, with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.