Wisconsin Foodie | Alpinage Cheese | Birch Restaurant | Season 14 | Episode 4

August 09, 2024

- Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: [soft jazz music] - Orphee Paillotin: We try to do here, it's to make an American version of the raclette.

- Paula Heimerl: So, raclette is traditionally a French or a Swiss style of cheese.

Typically, it is melted and scraped straight off the wheel.

- Hey, hey!

- Hey, Luke, how are ya?

- Luke: Good.

Am I dressing the part?

- Orphee: You're perfect; good to see you.

We're gonna put some curd in the mold, and, yeah, we're ready to roll.

- Luke: This is so satisfying!

[laughs] We've left Kewaunee, and we're on our way to restaurant Birch in Milwaukee.

I am so excited to be in Birch today and watching a true master work with this cheese that we've seen come from the milk stage all the way through.

- Kyle: And so, we're gonna char some cabbage over the fire really hard, and then, we're gonna kind of freshen it up with some of that raclette layered in between, and then, we're gonna pour a little pork, smoky pork broth in the bowl with the cabbage.

- Luke: Yeah, that sounds delicious.

I can't wait.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: ♪ ♪ - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie, and remind you that, in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheer] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes, yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

[lively banjo music] - Announcer: Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin!

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- Twenty-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to onsite, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore.

Know your farmer; love your butcher.

- Luke: Additional support from the following underwriters... [contemplative music] Also, with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat, lively music] [butcher paper rustles] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas shaped by this land.

[meat sizzles] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink] [sharpening knife] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[soft, bright music] - My name's Paula Heimerl and... - Orphee Paillotin.

- And we're from Alpinage Cheese in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Oh, yeah.

Should I say Oak Creek?

[Orphee laughs] - Should probably do it again.

- Yeah, I should probably.

- Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Well, yeah, you can say Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

- Well, we're from Milwaukee.

- Yeah.

- Should we say from Milwaukee?

I mean, nobody knows where Oak Creek is, like- - Yeah, but let's say where we are, Oak Creek.

- All right.

- Sorry, I'm overthinking this already.

- Orphee: Do it again, sorry.

- Paula: My name's Paula Heimrel, and I am from Alpinage Cheese.

- And my name is Orphee Paillotin, also from Alpinage Cheese, and we are here today in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

So, today, we are at the aging cellar, the Alpinage aging cellar, which is a headquarter, a very big headquarter, but that's where we focus on aging the cheese.

We do some packaging as well, cutting, preparing for farmer's markets, stores, and shipping, too.

So, it's a very small space.

- Paula: So, raclette is traditionally a French or a Swiss style of cheese.

Typically, it is melted and scraped straight off the wheel onto a plate of potatoes, pickles, dried meat.

You can add in some sliced baguette, some fresh fruit.

It's melted and scraped or poured.

- It's actually a very good table cheese, too.

You don't have to necessarily melt it, but if you want to melt it, you can, obviously.

That's the whole purpose of this cheese.

Usually in France, we don't really eat this cheese as a table cheese, but what we try to do here, is to make an American version of the raclette.

I'm not trying to make a French raclette; I'm not trying to make a Swiss raclette, but really the first, you know, American-based raclette, and we work on a flavor profile that is gonna please as much people as possible, so really sweet, buttery, soft, with a little hint of punchiness, you know, to please the cheesemongers, obviously, so.

Excited to jump into this world, like, a couple years ago, when we started this company.

And now, we're full-time.

We quit our job, so we are making cheese on a daily basis and, yeah, just trying to grow the company and trying to showcase raclette cheese, which is not very common yet in this part of the country.

But we're really trying to push it and having as much possible people, you know, to eat it, try it, and adopt it, so... [people chatter indistinctly] - Adult: Kennedy, you get one?

- Paula: I got into the world of cheesemaking at a young age.

My parents were some of the founders of Saxon Creamery, which was in Cleveland, Wisconsin.

So, I grew up as part of the sixth generation on our family dairy farm, kind of grew up in the cheese world, and I always found it very fascinating.

It was a really fun world to be a part of.

And, yeah, my parents retired in about 2014, about the same time that I met Orphee.

We've been talking about cheese ever since.

And so we started our own little cheese company three years ago, where we focus on making raclette cheese.

- I really got involved in the cheese industry, in the cheese world, I would say, when I met Paula.

Her parents have a very deep passion for cheesemaking and dairy farming, in general, and they really kind of grew me into becoming a cheesemaker.

When I first moved here, I was actually working for a French company in IT, so a really complete different world.

I am currently washing a couple wheels of our raclette cheese.

So, this one here, this batch is approximately a month old, and you can see the color of the rind is slowly changing from white to yellow reddish.

So that's what we do with all the wheels.

They are at different stage here.

Here, they are pretty white.

They are from like a week ago, and this one, a month ago.

So, they're gonna slowly change to a very reddish color, and that's when it's ready.

[soft electronic music] - Paula: So, we make our cheese up at Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy in Kewaunee County, and we have a partnership with the family where we can use their creamery and their milk from their dairy herd to make our raclette cheese.

We typically drive up north once a week to make our cheese, and then, bring it back down here to Oak Creek, where we age it.

So, lately, we've been making our cheese at about midnight.

So, we pretty much lose a night of sleep once a week.

- Orphee: So, today, we pour 350 gallon of raw milk.

It's coming straight from the parlor in the back here.

So, the milk is warm and raw, so we don't pasteurize it.

And we're gonna make roughly around 400 pound of raclette cheese.

We use raw milk to make a unique cheese that brings a lot of flavor.

We don't pasteurize anything, so we don't denature the milk at all.

And that's what we have been doing since day one, and we were very fortunate to find this farm that was able to provide raw milk, and, as well as, you know, the entire cheese plant here.

[machinery whirs and clicks] The make process usually lasts around like eight hours.

So, we get out when it start being light out.

It's physical.

It's a labor of love.

You know, starting a new cheese company, it's not an easy task, especially when you are not a dairy farmer.

We're extremely fortunate.

I can't say enough good thing about the Pagel's family.

I mean, they opened the door, and they're extremely proud of their operation here, and they're a dairy farm, as well, and again, they're, yeah, proud of the quality of their milk, and they let us use their facility, but also their high-quality milk.

We wouldn't be here without their help, obviously.

Really, my favorite part of this process is really, you start with a fluid milk, and then you end up with, like, an actual wheel, which is a semi-hard cheese.

I mean, it's pretty, pretty magical, especially when you're in the vat.

You use the rennet, and you see all the milk coagulate.

I mean, it's really an amazing process, and then it's really rewarding as well because you can taste your hard work at the end, which is, you know, the cheese.

We age it for like two and a half, three months, so it does take time to try it, but down the line, I mean, we're really proud of the product we make, especially when obviously we ate it with our customer, friends, and family, so... That's what we call "the dam" here.

We're pushing the curd against this wall there.

We're gonna have a mass of curd.

[traffic humming, birds chirping] - How to dress for a cheesemaking operation, step one.

So, we're gonna start with the lab coat, just to make it look official.

Step two, your favorite, my favorite: those booties!

[laughs] Fred Rogers had nothing on me.

[imitating Mr. Rogers] ♪ It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ♪ ♪ Beautiful day in the neighborhood ♪ Now, for this, I have to say, I really appreciate the beard nets, and the reason why, trying to put a hair net over your face and double hair netting between the head and your beard and mustache is sometimes a little much.

So, this, for me, is a win.

[claps hands] Let's make some cheese.

Hey, hey!

- Hey, Luke, how are ya?

- Good.

Am I dressing the part?

You're perfect.

Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

- So, I hope you're ready.

We're gonna put some curd in the mold, and, yeah, we're ready to roll.

- Luke: What am I looking at right now?

- So, right now, we're pre-pressing under the whey, the curd.

So, there is a big slab of, like, curd, just cheese, right here.

We're almost done.

We're removing all the whey here with the dam to make sure, you know, the curds stay here.

And then, we're gonna cut it in square and put them in the mold right there in the press, and it's gonna press for like four or five hours, so.

- Sweet.

- So when we're done here, we're gonna bring it back to Milw-- to Oak Creek at our aging cellar, and we're gonna age it for like two and a half to three months, so on wood board, in open air cave-like cellar.

We're gonna wash the wheel, flip them almost every day, and the flavor is really coming from the rind, the process of washing and flipping, which is pretty unique still here in America, actually.

- All right, so-- - We're ready.

So we're gonna remove the dam here, and we're gonna cut the curd first, and then, we're gonna just put one by one in the mold, okay?

- Luke: Perfect.

- All right.

- Wow.

- So, we see that's a big slab of cheese here.

So, you can tell it's pre-pressed, kind of a mass now.

Still very warm, so that's good, and then we're gonna just cut it and put it, you know, in mold, so... - This is so satisfying!

[Luke laughs] - Orphee: It is nice, yeah.

So, that's a nice mass of cheese right here.

So, that's pretty good.

- Luke: Oh, man, that's still really warm.

- It is, yeah.

- So the texture on this, I mean, it's spongy, but it has a certain body to it.

Like, there is a little bit of resistance.

I think the thing that catches me is the fact that it's still warm.

Because this is a raw milk cheese and the acidity is really high, as this cools, I would imagine that that heat really reacts with some of the natural bacteria in the raw milk, and as it cools, it allows that to bloom and create flavor, which is an amazing part of the raclette experience.

- So we're gonna take some slab here, put them in the mold, weight it.

If we need to add a little bit of curd, we're just gonna cut a little bit and just put it in the mold, and then, we're gonna put it straight in the press right behind you, so, yeah.

We're gonna do a round, like 36 wheels today, and we're gonna have around like 400 pound of cheese for this batch, so... - Luke: Wow!

I mean, the sensation of picking up this massive cheese is kind of wild.

Like, at first, it strikes me, like, how dense it is, and it's got an inherent heaviness.

I find myself really wanting to protect those curds because I don't wanna pull 'em, I don't want to damage 'em, and, as indicated by Paula here, I mean, you can handle these things a little bit.

So, it's definitely a sensation.

They're still warm.

They feel really, really pudgy, kind of delicious.

But this process, for me, never gets old.

One of the things I love to do when I'm cheesemaking is to taste these raw curds.

I think that there's so much inherent flavor in the milk itself, and I'm really, really excited to see what these come out like.

It's inherently mild.

You definitely get the creamy, milky flavor.

One of the things that I actually really pick up on is almost that squeak, like the fresh curd squeak.

It's definitely vibrant through these curds.

[buckets thud in background] It's classic, it's sweet.

It has all the inherent building blocks of making delicious, delicious cheese.

[ethereal music, worker whistles] Thank you so much for having us in your space today, and to the wonderful people here at the creamery.

- Thank you for coming, for sure.

- Oh, of course.

- It was great.

- It's truly our pleasure, and you guys are producing something that is so, so unique.

- Thank you.

- ...And wonderful to both of you.

And it's like this homage and love letter to the worlds that both of you represent.

So, thank you.

- Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, guys.

- Of course.

- Thank you for coming.

- We'll see you soon.

- Thank you, yep.

[soft electronic music] We've left Kewaunee, and we're on our way to restaurant Birch in Milwaukee where Chef Kyle Knall takes local produce and ingredients, and elevates them using his open hearth.

I can't wait to see what he does today utilizing that raclette cheese from our friends at Alpinage.

- Yeah, I'm Kyle Knall.

I'm the chef-owner of Birch Restaurant here on The North End development of the east side of Milwaukee.

We've been open for about three years now.

The most important thing for us is using the best produce that we can get.

What that means for me is, obviously, the freshest, but that come from the community that surrounds us.

So, I grew up in Alabama, another great center of agriculture.

Grew up going to farmer's markets and meeting farmers with, like, Mom.

Moved to New York in, like, 2007 and was able to work in Gramercy Tavern for five years and run that kitchen.

Opened my first restaurant called Maysville in Manhattan.

And then, we actually opened a second restaurant in New Orleans.

You know, now I'm lucky enough to be in a totally different environment with its own, you know, agriculture and amazing things produced, and we operated Birch from the previous owner for about a year.

And then, my wife and I bought it from the old owner, and, you know, it's been, yeah, almost three years now, and it's just been truly amazing.

So, what makes Birch actually more unique than really anywhere else is that there's no actually gas in this building or restaurant.

And so, when we talk about food and what we're gonna cook, we have to think about how we're gonna cook it over fire.

The base of the whole menu and restaurant is the wood-burning fire.

It really allows us to keep things simple.

It's important, just like I said, for things that taste like themself.

We want them to stay like that through the cooking process, as well.

So, you know, I feel very lucky of how the community has supported us and what we do here.

[gentle instrumental] - Hey, Kyle.

- Hey.

- How are you?

- Good, how you doing?

- Good to see you.

- Always great to see ya.

- Yeah, good to see you.

Well, there you go.

We got a little wheel of raclette for you.

- Beautiful, so exciting, thank you.

You know, the agriculture here isn't just about produce or livestock or, actually, the most important part, obviously, is the dairy, but we also think it's extremely important to support cheesemakers.

You know, we always have a cheese course that's very simple, that shows what the cheesemaker makes and how they want it to be presented.

Fortunate as we are to be in this amazing state with agriculture, it's amazing that Orphee's here doing what he does, even though he's not native to the area, and, I mean, that's how I feel.

We always kinda start the process of creating a dish by looking at tradition, and raclette obviously is super traditional of melting and kind of scooping off the melted cheese and layering it on potatoes, and it really comes down to, like, taking this cheese, not wasting it, using it properly, and highlighting it to what it's there for.

And, like, if we can be creative with it and do something a little different with a twist, I think that's even more special, but it's really showcasing the ingredient itself.

Food can be this thing that you can't argue with.

If it's delicious and exciting, then it's just a win-win for everybody.

- Chef, it's such an honor to be here.

I feel like this is an interaction that's been in the making for too long to not have it be absolutely fantastic.

Good to see you, brother!

I am so excited to be in Birch today and watching a true master work with this cheese that we've seen come from the milk stage all the way through to the dish that you're gonna put up.

Thanks so much for having us.

- Yeah, of course.

We're happy to have you here.

- One of the questions that I have, I guess, for you, and I think this is more about the live fire approach to this restaurant.

You know, so much of being a restaurateur is controlling, right?

Like, you're trying to micromanage the interactions with the staff and the customers, and the ingredients, but using a live fire for a majority of your cooking processes, there's an element of absolutely uncontrollable pieces there.

How does that affect your cuisine?

- Two parts to that.

First part is just cooking over fire.

It lets us keep things simple.

We'll buy incredible produce, incredible ingredients, fish, meat, everything.

We wanna keep it simple and cook it with great technique.

- You know, a lot of people, I think, when they think of cuisine that's fire-based, they automatically go to the meats, right, the proteins, but you're very, very vegetable focused.

- Right.

Growing up in Alabama, moving to New York as a chef, I was always irritated with people when they thought about southern food being fried chicken, and mac and cheese and, like, yeah, like, fat happens down South and all that good stuff, but it truly is about the vegetables, and honestly, it's so similar to cooking in Wisconsin.

- I take great offense to the idea that the upper Midwest is culinary flyover country, and I think your cuisine, from what I understand of it, at least philosophically, really challenges that idea, using some of these iconic ingredients, like our produce and the dairy and fusing them together.

So, I mean, with that being said, I don't wanna get in your way.

I know that you're a busy guy, but I am really, really excited for this to come together.

- I think one of our favorite things to do, obviously, we love, like, cooking fresh dishes with fresh produce, like, salads and stuff.

I think one of the coolest thing is taking a piece of produce and making it in the center of a dish that has meat.

And so we're gonna char some cabbage over the fire really hard, and then we're gonna kind of freshen it up with some of that raclette layered in between.

And then, we're gonna pour a little pork, smoky pork broth, in the bowl with the cabbage.

So, it's like, is it a piece of meat, or is it a piece of produce?

So, to make this dish kind of iconic for Birch and my style of cooking, we're gonna have a bunch of herbs in there and acidity, just to brighten the dish up, and elevate it, and make your mouth water as you're eating it.

- Yeah, that sounds delicious.

I can't wait.

Oh, man!

Chef, this looks incredible.

- I hope it tastes good.

- I'm sure it does.

I mean, there's really no way it can't.

So, would you please just describe to me what do I have in front of me?

- Yeah, so we took a beautiful head of cabbage, charred it over the fire.

We wanted to have a creative way to highlight this amazing cheese.

So, we took the raclette, sliced it thin, layered in between the cabbage with some beautiful herbs, some pickled apple.

And then, we made like a smoky pork broth to kind of go in the bowl, as well.

- Oh, my gosh.

I mean, like, it smells amazing.

You get a little bit of that char, you get a little bit of that, you know, deep Brassica in the cabbage, but the herbaceousness really does lift itself off, and that pork broth, it adds a note of richness.

This is gonna slap, I can tell.

- I hope, yeah.

- [laughs] Thank you, chef.

So, one of the first things that is immediately noticeable about this dish: the smell; it's so comforting.

You get a little bit of that raclette smell, but you get that charred cabbage, you get some of the herbs, you get the richness of that pork stock.

And there's no way that this will be anything less than showstopping with that delicious cheese as part of the base.

[gentle electronic music] Wow!

That is straight-up delicious.

This dish, while, understandably, it could go in a lot of different ways, the fact that this is a charred roasted vegetable with this delicious cheese and all these different herbs and apples and pork stock, it kind of all comes together in one big, beautiful bite.

It's outstanding.

Wow.

Being able to appreciate the raclette as it's melted through those layers of the cabbage and the apples and the herbs, specifically the mint, it's surprising.

It acts as a glue that binds it all together, and you really do taste the love and care from the folks at Alpinage all the way through to Kyle and his amazing staff at Birch's execution of this thing.

This is fantastic.

Seriously, it's like cabbage ramen.

It's so good.

Chef, thank you so much, brother.

- Great to see you.

- I appreciate you so much.

This was delicious.

- You look great.

- We're getting cheesy.

[upbeat music] You look like [inaudible].

And utilizes wild.

[laughs] We've left Kewaunee, and we're on our way to Milwaukee to visit my good friend, Kyle Birch.

[laughs] Okay, we'll get it.

Here we go.

- Crew Member: And talk before you eat, and-- - Everyone can appreciate this.

It is absolutely amazing.

It's absolutely delicious.

It's absolutely amazing and everything else, but amazing.