Wednesday Gourmet (Wednesday Food Talk / 수요미식회)

Welcome to the 207th episode of Wednesday Food Talk.

Welcome. - Welcome.

Today's theme used to be...

a nourishing snack...

for rich kids when I was young.

I started to enjoy this...

when I grew up and started having pizza.

Many people have it...

as finger food when they drink.

It's a bit salty and savory.

You'll smile it as you hear its name. It's cheese.

We've invited the perfect guests for today's theme.

She can't live without cheese. She enjoys it all year around.

Let's welcome Lee Hyun Yi.

Hello. Nice to meet you.

This man is from Italy, a country that's well known for cheese.

He has eaten a lot of cheese before.

Please welcome Alberto.

Hello.

I didn't know that Hyun Yi loves cheese this much.

I'm sure you have to pay attention to your diet as a model.

You can't consume a lot of cheese, can you?

I didn't gain a lot of weight when I was in my 20s.

Now I gain weight as much as I eat though.

When I was in my 20s,

I had a bowl of steamed rice with a slice of cheese.

I had it...

with mayonnaise because it would be too dry.

How come you didn't gain weight? - It's really good.

It's savory and soft.

The cheese adds that salty flavor. - I bet.

I used to mix them with rice.

And I also cut the cheese slices...

into square pieces with my chopsticks.

Have you ever put them on a plate microwaved the pieces?

The pieces would inflate and become cheese balls.

Right. - Yes.

I used to eat those as my snack.

Really? - Yes.

I used to eat that a lot. - I see.

I mean, those who like cheese...

eat cheese with simple recipes. - Right.

Actually, Italy is famous for cheese. So we have Alberto.

Just like meals without kimchi feel empty for us,

when it comes to Italian meals,

there has to be cheese, right?

That's right. We have to eat cheese.

We have to eat cheese every time we eat.

Actually, since I've been living in Korea,

I don't miss Italian food that much.

As there are many similar dishes. - Right.

But the one thing I miss from home is cheese.

Nowadays,

I can get some cheese from Italy in Korea.

But there's a limit to that.

There's still a limit? - First of all...

Let me explain. There are...

precisely 404 registered types of Italian cheese.

But I'm sure there are about 500 to 600 types of cheese.

But I can get only 10 to 15 types of cheese in Korea.

In other words, I'm missing out on many different types of cheese.

So... - You can eat all 500 of it?

That's my point. I haven't had all 500 types of cheese yet.

There are so many different types from each region.

What's your favorite cheese, Alberto?

There are so many.

I love cheese in general.

I like cheese that's been fermented for a long time.

I like hard and smelly cheese.

That's your favorite.

So Eun, I hear that you are also a cheese lover.

So you even make your own ricotta cheese at home.

You can just easily buy it.

Why do you make it at home?

It's more fun for me to make my own cheese.

And it's tastier. - It's fun? It's tastier?

Mine is moister. - They taste different.

Right. They all taste different. - Really?

Actually, it's really easy to make ricotta cheese.

If you think about making cheese, you'd assume it'd be hard.

But you can just think of making cheese as making geotjeori.

You don't have to ferment it like geotjeori,

so you don't need a lot of stuff.

Milk, whipped cream, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt.

If you don't have whipped cream, milk will suffice.

Really? - Yes.

Depending on how much of whey you remove,

the ricotta cheese might taste different.

Alberto, don't you make your own cheese at home?

In Italy, you don't buy ricotta cheese.

We use expired milk.

We don't throw it out. Like she just explained,

we only add lemon juice or vinegar. My family doesn't add whipped cream.

We just squeeze it out. - Just with milk.

It's all about your preference.

If you try to drink expired milk,

you'll find curdled milk.

I have a lot of expired milk. Would you like some?

I thought I have to throw all of them out.

If you give me, I'll make cheese. - Really?

In Italy, we don't throw out food.

We use everything. - That's impressive.

We cook with everything. - You use milk.

I see. What about you, Hyun Yi?

My favorite cheese is Brie cheese.

Let me tell you about this.

You can easily find it in Korea now, but it used to be uncommon then.

I see. - About 10 years ago,

I went to Paris to do a show for the Fashion Week.

I was at Jean Paul Gaultier's house.

And he served me Brie cheese, and it was really good.

Nowadays, it's become accessible, so people eat grilled Brie cheese.

A lot of people eat it now.

After that, Brie cheese became my favorite.

Brie cheese is tasty. I used to sell Brie cheese at my restaurant once.

Everything has an expiration date. - Okay.

We must follow it.

But Brie cheese is tasty past its expiration date.

That's true. - Right.

Expired cheese is tastier. - Yes.

After I expired, I used to eat that alone.

I couldn't sell it.

Well, that's how cheese is.

In Europe, they don't sell wrapped-up cheese.

They sell it by chunks, so there's no expiration date.

So the flavor changes over time. - Right.

Do you like cheese, Seok Jin?

I still remember this.

When I was very young, I lived in Eunpyeong-gu.

And we had a restaurant named Marronnier.

What an old name. Marronnier. - Right.

There was a restaurant named Marronnier.

I can't forget the first time I had pizza at the restaurant.

I guess I kept asking for pizza at home.

My mom put in the processed mozzarella cheese...

from the supermarket into a mug.

She melted the cheese.

She melted it in the microwave and drizzled ketchup on it.

The cheese stretched when I scooped it. It was so good.

But she said that it was so hard to wash the mug.

The cheese sticks to the mug. - It sticks to the mug.

That's the memory I have.

My gosh, you got totally hooked on cheese...

from that restaurant, Marronnier. - Marronnier.

Every towns had one Marronnier. - There were a lot.

As for you, Alberto, you grew up eating cheese since you were a boy.

I bet you love cheese by itself,

but what's your favorite cheese dish?

Actually, dishes with cheese in them are endless.

There are tons of cheese dishes.

It's summer now, and I eat this dish the most in summer.

It's the eggplant lasagna.

Eggplant lasagna? - Eggplant lasagna.

It's called "melanzane alla parmigiana" in Italian.

We eat this a lot in summer.

Or this is another dish.

Summer is a barbecue season. - Yes.

When we grill steaks,

we grill cheese too.

You grill cheese? - We just grill cheese.

Even if we grill it, it doesn't get melted.

It's chewy. - Chewy.

Some of the cheese has that texture.

The culinary world is endless indeed.

We can eat it cold at home,

but there are some cheese we must cook with to eat it.

I think the flavors, softness, and tastes from melted cheese...

are definitely different from firm cheese.

A dish you can easily cook with cheese at home is...

the hamburger steak. You can just let the grill do the work.

Grill the patty and just put the cheese on top of it.

I love that. - That way, the heat from the pan...

would melt the cheese.

The cheese engulfs the steak.

Yes, it engulfs the steak. - I love that.

You can cut a piece of it and stretch the cheese.

Even if it was a simple dish, it looks so fancy.

It feels proud to serve the dish.

Cheese can go with a lot of ingredients, but I think...

carbohydrate is the best pairing. - That's right.

Cheese is great when it's added into a sandwich.