Last month I met a man who doesn’t like cheese. I didn’t even know that was possible! I mean, I’ve met a bunch of people who can’t eat cheese due to lactose intolerance but this fellow doesn’t have that problem. He simply doesn’t like it.
Bizarre.
I come from a household of devout cheese enthusiasts. My boys LOVE cheese. Ted can sense cheese being unwrapped in a far off part of the house and will even rouse himself from his slumber (a rare occasion) to snaffle a morsel.
I was asked to get involved with some promotion of the Good Food & Wine Show which is happening in Melbourne from 5th to 8th of June. There are so many fantastic exhibitors but when I heard That’s Amore Cheese was participating, I jumped at the chance to learn more about their beautiful freshly made cheeses.
I met with Sylvia, the Marketing and Events Manager, at ‘La Latteria Mozzarella Laboratory’, in Elgin St Carlton, to learn more about ‘That’s Amore Cheese’.
‘That’s Amore Cheese’ is an amazing story of where our dreams can take us. Giorgio Linguanti started work in a cheese factory after moving to Melbourne, from Italy, in 2004. When the cheese maker wouldn’t share his secrets, Giorgio asked a friend to send a book on cheese making from Italy. After learning and experimenting for a few years, he began ‘That’s Amore Cheese’ in 2008 with his bocconcini leaf – a bocconcini sheet, rolled flat. The story has it that he couldn’t call it a bocconcini sheet because his thick Italian accent made ‘sheet’ sound like something quite different 🙂
His cheese proved so popular with the chefs of Melbourne that within a few years he opened La Latteria so that the rest of us could buy his cheeses.
Well worth a trip to Carlton, my friends.
Every morning mozzarella is stretched from fresh curd. You really will never taste cheese this fresh. I spent a delightful hour sampling some different products including that silky mozzarella. I also received the best sample bag (ever) filled with cheeses that I worked my way through over the next week or so.
Including:
Diavoletti- An olive and chilli centred smoked cheese; which may just be my new favourite cheese. Big call, I know.
Their famous burrata- a mozzarella ball filled with fresh cream. Divine.
Drunken Buffalo – a hard cheese that is aged in Nebbiolo skins (one of my favourite wine grapes).
I can also vouch for their amazing scarmoza (smoked cows milk mozzarella) which elevates a simple vegetarian pizza to the next level.
Aside from a few imported cheeses, meats, and some locally sourced produce, everything is made in Giorgio’s factory in Thomastown. We are so lucky in Melbourne.
You could be even luckier. This year at The Good Food and Wine Show you can visit That’s Amore Mozzarella Bar in the cheese alley. They have collaborated with local chef (and blogger) La Cucina Di Sandra, to come up with four tantalising small dishes, featuring cheese (naturally). Rumour has it there may be a stuffed Burrata in the mix. 😉
Plus I am giving you the chance to win a double pass to the Melbourne Good Food and Wine show, meaning an opportunity for some cheesy goodness with That’s Amore as well as hundreds of other exhibitors.
Win a double pass to the Melbourne Good Food & Wine Show
I always like to offer a few ways to get creative. You can enter as many times as you like by:
Leaving a comment on this post telling me what you are keen to try at the show
Post a photo of some good food and/or wine to Instagram or Twitter, tagging me – @nicole_rouge, @goodfoodwine and #goodfoodwine
Post a photo or tell me what you are looking forward to checking out at the show on Facebook by tagging me – ‘Champagne and Chips’ and ‘Good Food & Wine Show’
If you don’t want to enter the competition, please still feel free to comment, and tell me, do you know anyone who doesn’t like cheese?
Terms and Conditions:
1. Multiple entries per person allowed.
2. Include your email address or a link to your website where I can comment or find your email address.
3. This competition is open to entrants who live in Melbourne or who can get themselves to Melbourne during the Good Food and Wine Show (5-8 June 2015).
4. This competition is hosted by Nicole Bilson via the Champagne and Chips blog at http://champagneandchips.com
5. The prize consists of a double pass to the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show valued at $64.
6. Competition opens 12pm Monday 11th May 2015 and closes at 8pm Sunday 24th May 2015 AEST.
7. This competition is a game of skill and the winner will be based on the most interesting comment/photo as judged by Champagne and Chips, and notified by email (or, where relevant, a social media account) on Monday 25th May 2015.
Oh wow! I must try the chilli olive stuffed smoked cheese, the Drunken Buffalo, and the smoked buffalo mozzarella – genius! Lucky you to sample them. I miss the Good Food & Wine Show, it was on once in Radelaide (I had lunch with Maggie Beer!) but hasn’t returned.
Oh, that is a pity. That chilli olive stuffed thing is just so astonishingly good
I LOVE cheese…my little one {8 months} who won’t eat solids will suck on cheese! All of those cheese products look delicious. I wish the Food and Wine Show would come to Canberra.
Starting that little one off well there:) When my nephew visits his grandma, the first thing he does is go to the fridge and fetch out a Babble that she buys especially for him. That will be your little one in a few years.
I know people who like cheese but don’t appreciate it. e.g. they are happy to go and buy the $3 brie from Aldi. I am baffled, how do they have happiness in their life without good cheese?
Almost as crazy as the cheese haters 🙂
I can admit to eating (and liking) commercial cheese but I absolutely adore the good stuff.
What am I keen to try at the show? Hmmm….I will be like a kid in a candy store there. I would want to try something from every stall there but now that you have me salivating over your pics, I will definitely be trying out some Amore cheese.
So many choices. There’s wine too 🙂
Ohh my… Surely it’s worth the air miles across the globe just to visit this and go straight home again… Yes? Next year perhaps… Although if I meet that man who doesn’t like cheese I might be sent home faster than you can say Camembert 😉
Oh completely worth it. Although, I’ve seen your cheese posts too, you aren’t doing too badly.
WHAT?!?!? People who don’t like cheese exist?!?!? Nooo! Oh well, more cheese more me!
The That’s Amore cheese looks AMAZING, especially the creamy mozzarella.. My other half is Italian and they have a woodfired pizza oven in the backyard, so I’m just thinking about how pizza day could be even better with that spectacular cheese… Definitely would want to stop at that stall at the show!!
Haha, I like your attitude. Smoked mozzarella on a pizza has rocked my world. You must try it!
Who doesn’t love cheese?! I am an avid cheese eater and love the look of some of these!
Cheese haters are craziness. Very glad that none of my readers seems to be in that camp 🙂
all of the cheese oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!
I know #heaven
OMG I wished I spotted this post before my trip to Melbourne, I would have been all over that cheese. I might need to do a revisit soon.
There’s just too much choice in Melbourne (as you know 🙂 )
I can’t get my head around the fact that there are real live people who don’t like cheese. Or chocolate. I mean, what’s not to love?! Those Good Food and Wine Shows are always all kinds of awesome – we go to the one in Sydney every year. Sweet baby cheeses, it’s a food and wine lovers dream!
I know. Insane right?
What’s even more insane is that I have never been to a Good food and wine show!
I’m keen to try more of my 3 favourite “ch” friends: cheese, chocolate and champagne! I love the Show, and try to attend every year!
I love cheese and that olive and chilli stuffed cheese looks amazing. Jx
It is the best.
Ahhh not liking cheese! That poor man! His life must be so lacking. lol
Haha, he’s just crazy
Oh man – Times like this I wish I lived in Melbourne. I am practically drooling all over my keyboard right now. Good luck to everyone – you lucky buggers 😉 xx
I just adore Cheese, so the Cheese Alley will be the first place that I’ll head to, the Buffalo Mozzarella sounds delicious, I’ll definitely be trying a sample of that plus all the other tasty and unusual cheeses that are available.
I have to admit the cheese alley scares me a little – is it safe to have so much cheese in one place? 🙂
Yum yum! I was raised on stinky cheese. And I can’t fathom anyone who doesn’t like cheese. I’d love to see That’s Amore at the Good Food Show – Cheese nights are Adam and my favourite date night.
They really are the best nights, so relaxing.
Looking forwards to trying a bit of everything! Especially cheese to go with pb cups!
Cheese and pb cups?!? is that a thing? Does it work?
If there is a person who doesn’t like cheese, then I don’t think I would like to be acquainted with them. PS: Cheese Alley would definitely be our first stop too!
It’s always a good idea to start with cheese 🙂