Capriole Farms

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National Harbor, Md. (June 18, 2009) – Visit Old Hickory Steakhouse at Gaylord National Resort and spend an hour with the Capital Region’s only full-time Maitre d’Fromage, and you’ll soon realize you’re not speaking with an amateur. An expert on the complexities of fine cheese – its flavors, textures, heritages, aging processes and wine mates – Carolyn Stromberg offers for her guests’ enjoyment an ever-changing variety of more than two dozen artisanal cheeses, painstakingly nurtured in the restaurant’s own cheese cave.

But, as fine-tuned as her cheese pedigree is, Stromberg doesn’t intimidate. Instead, she’s often described as being “as approachable as her cheeses; and as lovely as the care put into making them.”
Her biggest passion is sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm. So for those times opportunities to experiment or entertain at home, she offers her tips for assembling the perfect summer cheese plate:

• If you plan to serve wine with your cheese, you should select the wine first, then the cheeses. For summer, lighter wines are de rigeur: Sauvignon blanc or a sparkling wine are perfect. For example, a rich and creamy triple-crème like Brillat-Savarin will pair perfectly with a light and sparkly dry champagne. Or, try pairing one wine with five cheeses, or five wines and five cheeses.
  

• Goat and young sheep milk cheeses are at their peak in the summer. Select a soft goat cheese such as Valençay from the Loire Valley, which has an ashed rind; a young goat’s milk cheese; or a blend of goat, sheep and cow milk like La Tur.

• A bleu cheese can also be a great choice, as some bleus lean toward flavors that are bright, clean and citrusy. Stromberg is fond of Black River Blue from Wisconsin.

• Aged cheeses are refreshing in summertime as well. Try Garrotxa, from the Basque region of Spain. An aged goat’s milk cheese, its flavor is mellow, nutty and approachable. Another is Pecorino Ginepro, an aged sheep’s milk cheese from Italy with bright, tangy flavors that is soaked in crushed juniper berries and balsamic vinegar.

• Ask the cheesemonger at your cheese shop, farmer’s market, or web vendor for their personal recommendations. Be sure to sample first if you can, and as Stromberg says, “Eat what you like!”

• Stromberg also suggests you try a themed cheese plate. For example, you can select five types of goat cheese; samplings from different regions of France; or nouveau artisanal offerings of creative domestic cheeses rubbed with spices or herbs, such as coffee or lavender.

• Serve your soft cheese selections with a plain baguette or wafer-thin plain crackers. Fruit – green apples, grapes, cherries or plums – and nuts – Spanish marcona almonds, pecans or candied walnuts – are excellent accompaniments as well.

• If serving a rustic, informal cheese board from which guests serve themselves, each cheese should be served with its own knife to avoid mixing the flavors. If presenting a more traditional, formal cheese plate to each guest, place the mildest cheese at the six o’clock position (closest to the bottom center) on the serving plate. Moving clockwise, the cheeses should progress from mildest to strongest.

• Don’t forget to give the cheese time to come to room temperature before serving. Soft cheeses should be removed from the refrigerator half an hour before serving; hard cheeses an hour.

Have fun exploring – and be sure to visit Stromber at Old Hickory Steakhouse to report back on your summer cheese plate!

About Maitre d’Fromage Carolyn Stromberg
Carolyn Stromberg is passionate about cheese – so passionate, she has made it her life’s work. The only dedicated Maitre d’Fromage in the Washington, D.C. region, she satisfies guests at the Old Hickory Steakhouse at Gaylord National Resort nightly with a hand-selected variety of cheeses from her collection housed in the restaurant’s cheese cave.
Raised in Buffalo, New York, Carolyn has lived in the Washington, D.C. region for more than 10 years, since graduating from George Washington University. She developed her affinity for fine cuisine early and began writing about it just out of college. Her fascination with cheese developed while she was working with the cheese program at Palena restaurant alongside former White House executive sous chef Frank A. Ruta. There she met Sue Conley, owner of the famed California-based cheese-maker Cowgirl Creamery, and soon went to work for Conley at the company’s Washington, D.C. store.

Carolyn works closely with her purveyors to ensure that she has on hand the “best of seasonal cheeses, and a selection of different textures and flavors from a variety of countries,” including cheese from Meadow Creek Dairy, a family-run farm in Galax, Virginia. Her presentation is personalized as well; every night she carefully arranges twenty or more varieties on a custom-made cheese trolley for the perusal of her patrons. After her entertaining and educational presentation, guests make their selections for either their starter course or grand finale.

Carolyn’s all-time favorite cheese is Sofia, a soft, bright goat’s milk cheese dusted in ash made by Capriole Farms in Indiana.

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About Gaylord National Resort
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center opened April 25, 2008 along the banks of the Potomac River, less than eight miles south of the nation’s capital, in National Harbor, Md., a new 300-acre waterfront destination. The Gaylord National Resort is the largest combined hotel and convention center on the Eastern Seaboard, offering 2,000 guest rooms, including 110 lavish suites; more than 470,000 square feet of convention, meeting, exhibit and pre-function space; acclaimed restaurants; Relâche™ Spa; Pose Ultra Lounge; and a soaring 18-story, glass-covered atrium. For more information, visit www.gaylordnational.com.