Paula Lambert, Mozzarella Company Owner & Cheesemaker

In our long road to gastronomical sophistication, we have recently discovered cheese, in particular artisan cheeses. Yet, it wasn’t anything so bucolic as a fondness for cows or goats that led Paula Lambert to the cheesemaking business. It was a taste.

Paula wanted fresh mozzarella; the moist kind that oozed milk when cut with a knife, the kind that she’d savored on numerous trips to Italy. Such mozzarella was not to be found in Dallas.

Whenever a new Italian restaurant opened near her, Paula would call and ask, “Do you have fresh mozzarella?” When told “yes,” she would rush over to taste it. But it was never right: not like the mozzarella that sold in every corner market in Italy or straight from the cheese factories. It was always old and dry and sour.

So Paula became a mozzarella cheesemaker herself. (She had a will to find whey.)

Her training began by traveling to the source of great cheesemaking: Italy. Her first stop at a small, family-owned cheese factory at the foot of the hills in Assisi. “It wasn’t a place where the milk went into a tube and you never saw it again,” she recalls. The family welcomed her to spend time and learn the process.

“They just let me put my hands in it and let me touch the cheese and ask all the questions and make notes and take photographs,” says Lambert, who spent a month observing and learning.

From there she went to visit a renowned professor at a government-run cheesemaking trade school in northern Italy. He, in turn, referred her to a young professor, who was excited by the idea of a trip to Texas to help set up a cheese operation.

Back home, Lambert set to work converting an old drugstore in a warehouse district on the edge of downtown Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood and in 1982, The Mozzarella Company was born. Paula was ahead of her time but her will still held. After three years of losing money, it moved into the black.

When asked what made her successful, Paula replies, “Owning a business is always harder and takes more time than you anticipate,” Lambert says. “But if you love what you do, it’s not really work.”

Today, Paula’s hand-crafted, award-winning specialty cheeses are sold throughout the United states to restaurants, hotels and gourmet shops, as well as to cheese lovers. She and her staff of 18 produce 27 different cheeses. A James Beard Foundation “Who’s Who,” Paula can be credited among the earliest artisanal cheesemaker pioneers in the United States.

Over the years Paula’s cheeses have become famous. They have been featured in publications such as Gourmet, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit and The New York Times. And they have been served at the Academy Awards.

Best of all, Paula’s work has enabled her to travel extensively, to teach, to write and to become a leader in the hospitality industry and a respected community leader too. She has created a life.

Getting Started:

If you’re like Paula and have a passion to make cheese, you may have to chart your direction, find your own way. It may be as simple as taking course and getting started.

Besides investing in Paula’s book, may I also suggest The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table by Liz Thorpe.

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Jacques Torres

The enormously talented and exuberant Mr. Chocolate, Jacques Torres of Jacques Torres Chocolate, has had a career rich with many firsts, lovingly wrapped in chocolate. (World-class pastry chef, Dean of Pastry Arts at the French Culinary Institute, James Beard Foundation Award Winner, TV host, author, humble chocolatier, to name a few.)

Why chocolate? “Chocolate is a magical product, the food of gods and lovers,” he says.

When asked: What is the best training to follow to become a chocolatier?

He answers: “Education trains your mind. Practice trains your hands. You have to be willing to make lots of mistakes and that will undoubtedly lead to many discoveries. Work in the best quality places—start where you want to end up.”

And: What advice do you have for someone looking to follow your footsteps?

He responds: “Work hard, stay late, arrive early, never compromise on quality, try to learn from the people who are already in the profession and are having success, ask questions, listen to the answers.

You must have passion for this business. You can’t learn to have passion. You either have it or you don’t. Don’t get into this business unless you have that passion. If you do, then the long hours and hard work won’t matter to you.

Always stay positive. Your mind has great power. If you continually think positive thoughts, you will be more likely to succeed. Never let those around you know when you’re stressed or tired. Take control of your emotions by focusing on the good.”

Jacques Torres shop, NYC

According to a 2009 Forbes article, Jacques Torres Chocolate, launched in 2000, today comprises 50+ employees, two factories and five retail stores in New York, Atlantic City and Michigan, while pulling in $10 million in revenue in 2008, up 43% from 2007.

Forbes further reports: “That’s some tasty growth in a crowded $16 billion industry, especially at the high end where Torres plays. Small gourmet shops have caught fire in the last decade. About a dozen niche chocolatiers have popped up in New York City in the last five years. Even Hersey has piled on: spending $60 million to acquire Joseph Schmidt Confections and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, two San Francisco chocolatiers, and a year later, scooping up Dagoba Organic Chocolate in Portland, Ore.”

If you think the sweet smell of chocolate  is calling your name toward pastry arts school, it is only a matter of finding a place to learn.

Matters Of Fact:

• Many Americans believe that chocolate has a positive influence of their psychological and physical well-being — 52% say chocolate boosts morale and 46% say it revitalizes them.
• New advertising messages suggest that chocolate is heart-healthy (especially on Valentine’s day).
• When people say they’d kill for a chocolate bar, they don’t actually mean what they say: strictly speaking, an addict may kill for a fix but chocoholics experience a craving — not an addiction.
• Video game makers have developed a series of chocolatier adventures with sweet success similar to the Farmville experience.
• The Lindt chocolate company has annual sales of $2.1 billion. The Barry Callebaut company has annual sales of $3.5 billion.

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Bocuse d'Or Award

This past weekend, a most important culinary competition was held at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. Twelve finalists–five of whom are CIA alumni–competed for the honor of representing the U.S. in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or World Cuisine Contest, that will be held January, 2011 in Lyon, France.

The competition takes place only every two years, and was established in 1987 by world-renowned French Chef Paul Bocuse. It is the preeminent international culinary competition in which teams of one chef and one commis from 24 countries compete for top honors and international acclaim. (It is the equivalent of winning the gold medal at the 2010 Olympics-winter or summer.)

These 12 finalists had a mere three hours to do the early preparation work on Friday prior to the final contest that was held Saturday. They had five-and-a-half hours to complete one Scottish wild salmon platter and one American lamb platter. The chefs were required to make a total of 12 servings for each platter, which also had to have three garnishes.

At the competition’s end, James Kent, 30, was chosen as winner. He is currently employed as the sous chef at Eleven Madison Park in New York City.

Jérôme Bocuse, the son of Paul, is a chef and a CIA graduate. He serves as a judge for the cooking contest along with other chef luminaries including Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud.

Yet, I think I am safe in saying that none of the 800 spectators at the CIA knew about a (prior) dinner that was staged at a rented villa in the south of France.

The hosts were a couple of wealthy New Yorkers. The guests included the legendary Paul Bocuse and nine famous multi-starred French chefs. The hosts had dined in the various chefs’ restaurants for many years. They would leave generous tips at the conclusion of each meal. Thus they were remembered — vividly.

One year, the New Yorkers decided to turn the tables and invite the illustrious chefs to a “home-cooked” dinner at their rented villa. The main course was roast lamb.

Paul Bocuse was invited to carve the lamb. He walked slowly to the head of the table. He grasped the carving knife. He rested the fork on the surface of the lamb. A moment passed. Then another…

Sadly, he shook his head. “Madame,” he murmurred, “C’est terrible.”

“What?!,” wailed the hostess. “What’s terrible?”

“Ah, Madame…,” replied Bocuse mournfully. “You see, when the little lambs are in the field, the flies come. The lamb uses his right hind leg to brush away the flies. The right leg therefore gets more exercise than the left leg so it is more muscular. The left leg is more tender…”

“Madame,” he explained (with a twinkle in his eye), “you have chosen the wrong leg.”

The assembled chefs roared with convivial laughter.

The dinner was a huge success.

Paul Bocuse, (now 84?), lives on while all who know him tell stories of his genius, and his legendary sense of humor.

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