And What of Olives?

Castelvetrano is a town in Sicily that I recently discovered has the most marvelous, sumptuous olives. I first learned of these beauties pressed to make the olive oil at Tavola and then went in for the olives themselves, so perfect for a relish tray as my parents do, accompanied by celery, carrots, a cheese of your choosing and perhaps some crackers around cocktail time. You may cook with the Castelvetrano olives as well of course perhaps for a Mediterranean dish of chicken with preserved lemons, but they are so vibrantly green, chewy and full of fruit flavor that I feel cooking them would dampen their flight. But do what you will; certainly use the olive oil for special occasions such as enlivening a salad dressing or outfitting a chilled salad itself with these plucked orbs. Mind the pits! Above all--do enjoy!

Thanks to Murray's Cheese for the photo.

Everything But The...Girolle!

I first sampled the marvellously heady Tete de Moine when Reggie and I reviewed Ayza earlier this year for Next magazine. Executive chef Sean Chudoba gets all of his cheese from Murray's cheese shop here in the city and serves it alongside a host of cured meats and small plates. Translating to Monk's Head from the French, there's a lot of history behind this Swiss delight, spreading over hundreds of years. French Revolution soldiers used to scrape the cheese with a blade that would otherwise have shaved the heads of monks, thus the name (I also suppose the frilly suggestion of a monk's coiffure had something to do with it). Only about 30 years ago, someone invented the girolle, a cunning device to elegantly unfurl the cheese. Although available at Murray's, Baby and I waited and went right to the source to purchase our girolle once we'd arrived in Switzerland!

A note on the cheese: only a throroughly chilled Tete de Moine will slice with ease.