No bull: true buffalo cheese products come from only one place…
… and you can only find them at one place in America: the new Fratelli La Bufala, a Neapolitan restaurant in Miami Beach.
Miami Beach, FL – “We may be perceived as arrogant,” says Adelchi Mancusi, co-owner and manager of the new Fratelli La Bufala in Miami Beach, “but you can’t call it mozzarella di bufala unless it’s from Campania.”
He’s right. Not only does mozzarella di bufala have to come from a 50-kilometer area surrounding and including Campania, but so do 29 other bufala products recognized as “authentic” by the European Commission. These products, mostly cheeses, are inspected and certified by inspectors, and a consortium protects the brand. What this means, in a nutshell, is that the tiny blob of dense “buffalo mozzarella” many of us find at our local grocery store isn’t the real deal.
True, there are water buffalo in America and other places around the world, but it is the European diet that makes these grand beasts in Italy produce the tastiest form of this commodity. “It’s expensive to produce cheese,” says Luca D’Angelo, CEO of M6 USA, the group behind the FLB concept. “It’s difficult to find the buffalo milk because there is a shortage. Milk is incredibly expensive, especially in Shanghai, Tokyo and Dubai.”
D’Angelo also claims that 70 percent of the production cost is obtaining the milk. The “Caseificio” (bufala mozzarella factory), which is co-owned by M6, is the sole supplier to FLB restaurants from London to Naples and Rome to Milan: 30 restaurants, altogether. The factory is located in the northern part of the small town. It is a brand new plant, manned by the “casaro”. “Casari” are the artisans who have been involved in making buffalo mozzarella for five generations.
Buffalo milk is shipped to the factory from the nearby countryside where the buffalo roam. The milk is stored for 24 hours, and then workers form it into cheese by turning the milk until it gets more and more solid.
Within three hours, the mixture is shaped into snowy white globes. The globes are dunked in brine, where they will stay as they are transported to Italian markets by early afternoon, throughout Europe in a matter of hours, and to Miami Beach the next day. Regardless of where it ends up, it still remains just as fresh.
Selective buyers know that the larger the diameter of the globe, the better the taste. “Half kilo –about one pound – is the ideal size,” D’Angelo says. “That way, it retains the milk. It needs to be chewy like rubber and it must bounce back.”
Though Americans traditionally serve it sliced, as part of an appetizer layered with large slabs of tomato, leaves of basil and a drizzle of olive oil, a glance at FLB’s menu may invite them to be more daring. The chefs at FLB use mozzarella di bufala in pizzas, in pasta dishes and as a topping for buffalo burgers.
#####
Media Contact:
Quantified Marketing Group
407.936.1010
|
|
|
