{"id":2671,"date":"2011-02-19T12:25:15","date_gmt":"2011-02-19T18:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=2671"},"modified":"2011-03-26T10:42:24","modified_gmt":"2011-03-26T16:42:24","slug":"dinner-at-letoile-cheese-tour-part-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driftlessappetite.com\/?p=2671","title":{"rendered":"Dinner at L’Etoile (Cheese Tour Part IV)"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>

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The final post in our ‘Cheese Tour’ series see Parts I<\/a>, II<\/a>, & III<\/a>) takes us to L’Etoile<\/a> in Madison for a memorable meal hosted by chef Tory Miller and with guest cheesemaker Brenda Jensen of Hidden Springs Creamery<\/a> in Westby, WI.\u00a0 Tory is the finest chef in Wisconsin and Leslie and I both love L’Etoile (if we were in a slightly higher tax bracket, we would probably eat there constantly).\u00a0 Brenda is one of the most respected farmstead sheep’s milk cheesemakers around.<\/p>\n

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Okay, for a food blogger I am reeeeaaaalllyyy bad at writing about food<\/em>.\u00a0 I’ll just end up using the same three adjectives over and over again.\u00a0 So to spare both of us that tedium, pictures of the food can be found above, and the menu below.\u00a0 As a homework assignment, you can write your own descriptions of each course.\u00a0 Or not, whatever.\u00a0 One part of the meal I must tell you about though, because it was simply one of the best things I have ever eaten.\u00a0 Pictured in the upper right hand above, the gnocchi, made with Fat\u00f4me Farms chevr\u00e8, deep fried, served on sliced of honey crisp apples along with buttermilk blue cheese (from Roth K\u00e4se) were… cosmically good.\u00a0 They were perfection.\u00a0 And I<\/em> didn’t order them.\u00a0 Leslie did.\u00a0 One perfect bite of soft gnocchi, resting serenely on a thin crunchy slice of apple was all I got.\u00a0 She ate the rest. And then she asks, “Oh, did you want another bite?”<\/p>\n

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Having Brenda there to talk to was another treat.\u00a0 Brenda was one of those people so passionate about what they do that it instantly rubs off on you.\u00a0 She hadn’t been a cheesemaker for too long, and she only became one when she found herself living with 50 sheep and nothing else to do with the milk.\u00a0 We’ve all had that problem.\u00a0 Her solution was to become one of the best cheesemakers in the Driftless Region.\u00a0 Our favorite is her Driftless cheese<\/a>, a ch\u00e8vre-like light spreadable cheese that comes in a variety of flavors (maple, pumpkin, basil and olive oil, tomato and garlic, cranberry and cinnamon, honey and lavender, and original).\u00a0 It makes a great substitute for cream cheese on a bagel. \u00a0 All of the writers on the tour were enamored with her and wished they could see her farm.\u00a0 We’re lucky enough to only live an hour or two away, so we’re planning a trip up there this spring to see it ourselves.\u00a0 Brenda, if you’re reading this, put a pot of coffee on for us!<\/p>\n

I’d like to thank the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board for inviting us on their cheese tour.\u00a0 We met many wonderful people and learned a lot about the cheesemakers in our backyard.\u00a0 I’d also like to thank our fellow cheese tourists, all of whom are much finer writers than us and well worth checking out:<\/p>\n