Fragrant, robust blue cheese with ripe quince and home-made brioche – this is what SALT’s new per-dessert is made of. What is a per-dessert, you might ask – not a starter, not a dessert, but something unusual in between that started as a kitchen experiment and ended up becoming one of the most exciting items on the menu.
Since the beginning, it has become quite common in the SALT kitchen that ingredients are not provided by suppliers but the result of internal experimentation.
This was the case with our blue cheese as well, which now has its own spot on the menu: Áron Oberritter’s blue cheese is served as a transitional course before the dessert.
We have been experimenting with creating homemade cheese before, using a different technique. The blue cheese that has earned a spot on the menu was born in the summer of 2024, based on the idea of Áron, who is responsible for plating.
During the development, the cheese was “only” supposed to be an element of our iconic bread dish, however, after the initial tasting, the team unanimously agreed that it couldn’t just have a supporting role on the menu.
This is how our per-dessert was born, in which the matured cheese is accompanied by pastry chef Veronika Kuzmich and Gabriella Kiss’ brioche, quince cream, compote, and a quince glaze.
The dish served before the dessert is a transitional bite to balance the flavours, refresh the palate and provide a transition from the world of savoury dishes to the realm of sweets. For this role, this incredibly fragrant, robust, aromatic cheese is, without a doubt, the perfect choice.
To make the cheese, we use Penicillium Roqueforti, a saprotrophic fungus. This species creates the blueish green marbling in the cheese and is also responsible for the strong, characteristically salty, earthy, slightly tangy flavour. Our homemade cheese was first made of goat milk, however, we care about dairy seasonality, so we currently use cow’s milk. In line with our sustainability efforts, we always make just the right amount of cheese based on the number of guests we need to serve.
Even though cheese making is not traditionally part of the Szatmár peasant kitchen, the principles of SALT are still very much part of this project. The locally-made ingredient is not only more sustainable, but also makes it possible to have full control over the character, quantity and freshness of the cheese.
When it comes to cheese, our main aim is not to follow trends, but rather to concentrate on authenticity and the dialogue within the kitchen. At the same time, however, we also pay attention to the wants and needs of our guests as well as the latest kitchen technologies.
For example, our colleague Sorin Kiss is experimenting with creating vegan blue cheeses using cashew nuts fermented with king oyster mushrooms using innovative tibicos technology.
The process of making our blue cheese is a good example of how SALT’s dishes evolve organically, from internal dialogues.
