Ihsan and Valerie own and run the Formaggio Kitchen family of stores. As is true of any folks passionate about their jobs, work intertwines throughout all aspects of their lives. Their travels – frequent and far-flung – are largely dictated by the food producers they want to meet or to revisit, by rumors of new and exciting foodstuffs and/or food conferences such as “Cheese,” the biennial Slow Food festival held in Bra, Italy. Their larder and wine cellar are stocked with favorite items they have imported or new items they are testing out. Even when on holiday, they are in direct communication with all three stores, coordinating deliveries from Europe and generally checking to make sure everything is on track. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘rillettes’
Introducing Ihsan and Valerie: Owners of Formaggio Kitchen
Posted in About Us, Cheese, Christmas, Gift Giving, Gifts & Wares, Grains, Rice, Flours & Beans, Hanukkah, Herbs, Spices, Salts & Peppers, Holiday, Jams & Preserves, Meats & Charcuterie, Olive Oil & Specialty Oils, Pasta, Staff Profiles, Wine, tagged Arraya, Bleu des Basques, Comté, food, food gifts, gift ideas, Ihsan Gurdal, rillettes, robiola, Sainte-Maure Belgique, Saveur du Maquis, Vacherin Mont d'Or, Valerie Gurdal on December 12, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Formaggio Kitchen Housemade Charcuterie
Posted in About Us, Meats & Charcuterie, Staff Profiles, tagged bacon, charcuterie, food, Meats & Charcuterie, pâté, rillettes, sausages on September 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Our kitchen takes great pride in the quality of their ingredients. Whether it is grass-fed hanger steaks, locally-grown heirloom tomatoes for a late summer chilled soup or organic Baldo rice from Lombardy in a rich risotto, we strive to let the beauty of each ingredient shine through. This pride is especially evident in our housemade pâtés, rillettes, bacon, pancetta and other cured and prepared meats. Our charcutière, Julie starts with whole cuts of pork, chicken, duck and rabbit and transforms them into small works of art displayed in our meat case.

Julie sources local, humanely-raised and in some cases, grass-fed meat for each of her creations. Pâtés are seasoned with a variety of ingredients including mushrooms, orange zest, pistachios, and golden raisins while cured meats such as bacon, guanciale and pancetta have simple herb and salt rubs that keep the meat’s flavor in the forefront. Julie also makes a variety of fresh sausages with ingredients that vary throughout the year. (more…)
From the Classroom: Pig Butchering Demo
Posted in Classes, Meats & Charcuterie, tagged bacon, BBQ, Beer, butchering, butchery, chicharrones, demo, food, ham, hominy, pig, pork, posole, rillettes, sausages on March 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On Wednesday evening, I had the good fortune to be able to sit in on a pig butchering demo here at the shop. The demo was conducted by Julie, our in-house charcutière, and Jason, the chef at our South End location. What a pair they made! Jason did the butchering and Julie spoke about how she uses different parts of the pig to create her delicious porky products.
This demo (and the one happening this coming Wednesday) were a first for Formaggio Kitchen, inspired by Cochon 555 a pig-themed event that is happening in Boston today. It turns out that there are a lot of fellow pork lovers out there and we were overwhelmed by the response to the first demo we scheduled – so much so that we scheduled a second and still had a lengthy waiting list! Hopefully we will get to do this again soon! I even hear some buzz that we may do a similar type of demo with spring lamb… Stay tuned!
A lot of careful preparation went into the class. I happened to be working on the Sunday three weeks ago when Julie and Jason broke down a small pig from Falter Farm, MA in order to figure out how they wanted to organize their presentation. (more…)







