Please join us for a once in a lifetime Cheese-centric Five Course Fundraising Dinner hosted in our Upstairs Café at Rittenhouse on June 26th. On one special evening, we’ll welcome five master cheesemakers from around the world, representing Essex Street Cheese Co. and James Montgomery from theUK. They’ll join our own Emilio Mignucci and author of our new Book, Tenaya Darlington (aka Madame Fromage), to share knowledge on cheese, pairings and more.
Di Bruno Bros. own in-house Chefs have created 5 luscious courses highlighting each featured cheese and the cheesemakers themselves will introduce each course, as well as regale guests with stories about their cheesemaking process. Each course will be paired with a Brooklyn Brewery beer selection and guests go home with a copy of Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes and Pairings. All proceeds from this unique event will benefit the Daphne Zepos Teaching Award.
Featured Cheeses and Menu:
First Course
Squash blossoms, housemade chorizo, 1605 Manchego, membrillo
Second Course
Tuscan kale salad, L’amuse Gouda, chicken liver pate, candied shallots, sour cherry vinaigrette
Third Course
Montgomery’s Cheddar Mac ‘n Cheese
Fourth Course
Warm terrine of chicken confit, Essex Comte and vegetable strata, haricots verts, chicken jus
Dessert
Di Bruno’s “Lantern”: Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano custard, Parmigiano tuille, Jersey blueberry balsamic sorbet, truffle honey
About Essex Street Cheese Co. and Daphne Zepos:
Essex Street Cheese Co. imports four cheeses and sells them directly to America’s finest cheesemongers and distributors. Comté from Fort St. Antoine, Gouda from L’amuse, Parmigiano-Reggiano from Cravero, Manchego from Sierra la Solana. Each cheese is specially selected for Essex at the source and shipped to spend minimal time in warehouse.
Essex Street Cheese Co. was founded by Daphne Zepos. Daphne was one of America’s most recognized and influential cheese educators. She was a partner in the Cheese School of San Francisco and helped establish the Cheesemonger’s Certification at the American Cheese Society. Daphne passed away in 2012. The Daphne Zepos Teaching Award is a non-profit endowment that grants an annual scholarship to one of American’s top cheesemongers to further their study of the craft.
The Rock Stars:
Phillipe Goux
Phillipe Goux has worked with Marcel Petite, France’s leading Comté affineur, for over two decades. From his home in the Jura, in Eastern France, he’s led hundreds of cheesemongers and makers through the details of making and aging the legendary eighty-pound wheels of Comté at the Fort St. Antoine, the cellars where France’s best Comté is aged.
Betty Koster
Betty Koster founded Fromagerie L’amuse in 1989 with her husband Martin. Their shops in Santpoord-Noord and Amsterdam are destinations for cheese lovers, featuring rare, small-production Dutch gems like Wilde Weide and Gouda Gris. Betty’s deep, long-term connections with Dutch farmers, cheesemakers and affineurs has given her access to an unparalleled range of cheeses. She exports a handful to America, including her signature two-year warm-cellar aged Gouda L’amuse.
José Luis Martín
José Luis Martin has been a writer, teacher, and advisor to cheesemakers and mongers throughout Spain since 1996. Before that he made award-winning farmstead organic goat cheese from his own herd for nearly two decades in his native Extremadura. He operates a renowned shop, La Fromagerie, in Madrid’s San Miguel. He works closely with the farm and maker at Sierra de la Solana Farm in La Mancha who produces one of only three raw milk, farmstead Manchegos in Spain where he selects cheeses for Essex Street Cheese Co.
Giorgio Cravero
Giorgio Cravero’s family has selected and matured Parmigiano-Reggiano in Bra, Italy since 1855. He works directly with just a few small, farmstead cheesemakers who exclusively use local forage, an increasingly rare phenomenon among Parmigiano-Reggiano makers. After a year spent on the farm, the Cravero aging rooms mature cheeses for over a year, at which time they find themselves delivered to great cheese shops in Italy, England, France and America.
Jamie Montgomery
Jamie Montgomery’s grandfather; Sir Archibald Langman, bought the farm in 1911 and continued traditional cheesemaking whilst so many gave up during and after WWII. Jamie’s family have now been farming in North and South Cadbury for three generations, making their renowned Montgomery’s Cheddar through-out the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s at a time when the growth of the supermarkets threatened the future of unpasteurised Cheddar.
Jamie remains committed to every aspect of the production of his cheese; from the quality of the grass, through to the taste and texture of the final product.
Emilio Mignucci
Emilio Mignucci, the third generation of the Di Bruno Bros. family business, received an Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts from the Restaurant School in 1986. He helped grow the cheese selection at Di Bruno Bros. from about 50 different cheeses to well over 600. Emilio has grown the family business to 4 retail stores, a major catering operation, a very successful e-commerce business, and an importing and distribution business that services over 800 customers. Di Bruno Bros. was honored as N.A.S.F.T.’s 2006 Retailer of the Year.
Emilio has been part of the N.A.S.F.T. tasting board for the SOFI awards and is also on the Retailer Network Council for N.A.S.F.T. Emilio is also very active in the American Cheese Society, particularly as a member of the committee that helped develop the ACS Certified Cheese Professional™ Exam. Emilio received an award in 2003 from the Chaine des Rotisseurs and was also honored in 2007 by the James Beard Foundation for his cheese knowledge.
Tenaya Darlington
Known fondly as Madame Fromage, Tenaya Darlington is a writer and cheese blogger based in Philadelphia. Her fridge is always stocked in case there’s cause for a party. Unlike most people who have a nibbling relationship with cheese, Madame Fromage has an obsession. Three years ago, she began a dairy diary on Blogger, and the rest is fricassee.
Contrary to popular belief, Madame does not work at a cheese counter, but she has swarthy friends who do. Together, they compiled notes on 170 artisan cheeses and turned them into a book, The Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Pairings, and Recipes (Running Press, 2013).
