cheezefactory

Curry Parmesan: Sikhs rescue Italy's famous cheese

2011-10-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

A master in the art of making Parmesan cheese, Manjit Singh is part of a large community of Sikhs in northern Italy who are shoring up an industry under threat of extinction.

Since moving from India seven years ago, the former taxi driver has become the main cheesemaker in a small family-run factory that produces thousands of rounds of the world-famous cheese.

Many of Italy's 25,000-strong Sikh community originate from India's Punjab region but have found their calling producing Parmesan and prosciutto ham in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.

Most are employed as dairy hands but some, such as Singh, are taking over key roles in preparing the sharply flavoured hard cheese grated onto pasta dishes and shaved into salads the world over.

"I looked for any work when I first arrived, even as a dishwasher. I was ready to do anything, but I like being a cheesemaker a lot," said the 34-year-old father of two. Graziano Cacciali, who runs the Parmesan plant in Zibello, took Singh on as help in 2004 after undergoing a heart bypass operation and said he has enjoyed teaching him skills that Italians were no longer prepared to learn.

"There aren't Italians in the industry any more. Making Parmesan means long hours: you have to work weekends, holidays, every day of the year. Italians have money and the young won't do the job any more," he said.

"I've stayed because I'm passionate about it, you have to be," said the 71-year-old as he supervised Singh stir vat after vat of slowly heated cow's milk, breaking up the curds with a huge, unwieldy whisk.

"We're really lucky to have found foreigners to milk our cows".

At the dairy in nearby Novellara, which specialises in producing milk for making Parmesan, half the labourers are Sikhs, prized as methodical, hard workers who are eager to fill the posts that open as Italians desert the industry.

By Italian standards, the money is very good too, with Sikh cheesemakers earning up to 2,000 euros (USD 2,800) a month.

"Most of our workers are Indian," said farmer Stefano Gazzini. "They are more dedicated to their work. They seem to have integrated well into the community, and even have their own temple."

The first Sikhs arrived in the region at the end of the 1980s. While a few opened their own import-export businesses, many found work in cattle farms or cheese factories – and tasted Parmesan for the first time, Singh said.

Source http://www.indianexpress.com/news/curry-parmesan-sikhs-rescue-italys-famous-cheese/865773/

A broken vow, and wasteful excess, on business subsidies

2011-08-02T01:07:00.000-07:00

Ah, summer.

It’s the season of lakes, loons, lazy days and, of course, federal ministers doling out pork across the land.

There are almost too many announcements to keep track of these days.

Here’s a sampling of just one day’s work by the Harper cabinet last week:

Transport Minister Denis Lebel hands $225,000 to the Gatineau, Que., hot-air balloon festival as part of an effort to “raise the visibility of Canada’s attractions on the international stage.”

Treasury Board President Tony Clement drops into the Thornloe Cheese Factory near New Liskeard, Ont., to hand out $1.2-million to a smattering of local small businesses.

Revenue Minister Gail Shea attends the opening of a new tourist attraction in Cap-Egmont, PEI, called the Bottle Houses – a clutch of small structures built entirely of empties – to check in on last year’s $49,000 federal grant. A sum of $49,000 apparently buys a lot of empties.

Earlier this month, Ottawa gave a total of $2-million to a New Brunswick doughnut maker and a Quebec coffee roaster – in both cases, so the businesses could buy new equipment.

The summer spending smorgasbord is a time-honoured tradition, gleefully practised by successive Conservative and Liberal governments.

What’s different is that Stephen Harper once vowed to end the practice. He even ran an election on it, promising to get out of the business of business subsidies.

Campaigning in Toronto in 2004, Mr. Harper challenged the business community to stop receiving government subsidies, making it a condition of lowering business taxes.

“I won’t lower one without lowering the other,” Mr. Harper assured members of the Toronto Board of Trade. “That is what I mean by low-tax solutions rather than high-spending solutions.”

It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Once in government, the Conservatives cut the corporate tax rate from 22.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent, with a further reduction to 15 per cent slated for next year.

Business subsidies weren’t cut. Instead, they soared, partly as a result of the government’s Economic Action Plan, designed to offset the impact of the recession.

Even the regional development agencies – the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, the Economic Development Agency for Quebec Regions and Western Economic Diversification Canada – are still in the subsidies business in a big way. The agencies will hand out more than $1-billion this year, with a chunk of that money going to businesses that could, and probably should, be getting the money from their local banker.

Governments insist repeatedly that these kinds of subsidies are good economics.

“Our government continues to support Quebec producers, driving the economy and helping them access new markets,” Industry Minister Christian Paradis said as he gave Montreal coffee roaster and retailer Van Houtte Inc. $1.8-million to buy equipment. The “repayable contribution” comes from a special fund to help agrifood processors modernize.

Ottawa’s inability to kick the subsidies’ habit is more about politics, and demonstrating that Ottawa has a direct role to play in the economy.

If these businesses are viable, they should be getting the money privately. The government’s involvement merely crowds out private lenders and transfers risk to Canadian taxpayers.

Governments need to be far more strategic about how they spend money, particularly as they work to eliminate swollen budget deficits incurred during the recession.

In his recent budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty vowed to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations” and get “value for taxpayers” as he pursued spending cuts.

The summer pork parade suggests otherwise.

If Canada had a budget surplus and there weren’t other more crying needs, maybe the spending wouldn’t seem so glaringly wasteful.

But that’s not the case. Access to family doctors and specialists remains inadequate in much of the country. Common shared infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and sewers, is crumbling and requires every dollar Canadian taxpayers can afford. And businesses aren’t investing enough in productive R&D.

It’s about choices.

Surely, Canada’s economy of the future isn’t about balloons, cheese, bottles, coffee and doughnuts.

Source http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/a-broken-vow-and-wasteful-excess-on-business-subsidies/article2115668/

Cheezburger cats swallow Know Your Meme

2011-03-30T22:19:00.001-07:00

And the Cheezburger empire continues to expand. According to Marc Hustvedt over at tech site Tubefilter, Cheezburger Network – the meme factory behind sites such as The Daily What, Fail Blog, and flagship I Can Has Cheezburger – has acquired Know Your Meme, a Web series which investigates various Internet trends. (If this all sounds like a lot of Cheez, check out this helpful explainer about the Golden Age of the Internet Meme.)

"There was a vacuum in our publishing portfolio," Cheezburger founder Ben Huh told CNN today. Huh did not discuss specifics, but Cheezburger Network is said to have forked over something in the area of low seven figures for Know Your Meme. That's a lot of cheezburgers.

"Before diving into the sale, I entertained another serious buy-out offer, entertained an offer for investment from a premier investor," Know Your Meme founder Andrew Baron wrote on his blog, "and even considered turning it into a 'double bottom line' company, but all in all, everyone advised and I agreed that this was by far the best deal to be done (esp. because I was 100% owner of the company with no other investors or partners involved)."

Baron said he cleared the idea with his staff, and "got everyone’s complete conviction." According to TechCrunch, all the members of the Knew Your Meme team – save Baron himself, who will remain at video blog site Rocketboom – will be moving to Cheezeburger HQ.

Source http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/0330/Cheezburger-cats-swallow-Know-Your-Meme

Local man becoming a big cheese

2011-03-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

A cheesy post-graduation idea has become a reality for a local entrepreneur.

Upon graduating with a business degree from a liberal arts university in Iowa, Shep Ysselstein had a quick-witted response for everyone who asked the predictable question, "What are you going to do now that you're done school."

"I told people, I'm going to go make cheese," the 28-year-old Norwich Township man said Tuesday, following a funding announcement at the site of his new factory.

Ysselstein received a $250,000 loan from the Sand Plains Community Development Fund to help get his cheese factory, Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese, up and running.

The 560-square-metre cheese factory located on Gunn's Hill near Highway 59 in Norwich Township is expected to be complete by June, with the first wheels of cheese rolling off the production line as early as August.

"Telling people that I was going to open my own cheese factory was just something funny to say at first, but then it became a thought. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. But I soon realized I was just being young and crazy and didn't know anything about making cheese, so I decided to go learn."

Ysselstein first took classes teaching the art of making cheese at the University of Guelph and then the University of Vermont.

He describes artisan cheese making as a unique, small-scale and hands-on process.

"When cheese is made industrially, we expect the same product made each time, but the milk that comes from the cows isn't the exact same everyday," he said.

"This more hands-on process allows me to work with that and make the best flavours I can all the time. It's very much like soup made in factories in a large scale. They use the same ingredients, it tastes the same, but everyone always prefers the homemade soup you make right on your stove."

After learning the basics in class, Ysselstein was looking for a more active approach to learning his cheese-making skills. He spent three months in up-state New York working at a small cheese factory. And with luck on his side, the young man with cheese wheels instead of stars in his eyes ended up working with someone heading off to make cheese in Switzerland – a Mecca for cheese lovers.

He spent the summer learning and perfecting Swiss cheese-making techniques passed down for hundreds of years.

"We made cheese the same way they did 500 years ago. Farmers got together and sent cows up into the mountains. We used fire to heat the milk. We milked the cows morning and night, and turned the milk by hand to make the cheese. It was a lot of work, but so beautiful," he said.

Following the summer, Ysselstein got a job making cheese on Vancouver Island at Natural Pastures Cheese Factory. He spent nine months learning the ropes at the factory before coming home to Oxford County to start making his own dream a reality.

"I could have stayed on Vancouver Island, but in the end, I wanted to get going on my own," he said. "I knew the whole time I was out learning that I wanted to build a business here at home."

Ysselstein spent two years learning about regulations before construction started on the estimated $1-million cheese factory. The factory was designed with a viewing area so that visitors can watch how cheese is made. Visitors will also have the chance to tour the pastures where the cows that make the milk for the cheese are grazing.

Three different cheeses will be made using milk produced on the farm of John and Helen Ysselstein, the cheese maker's parents.

"With five brothers, there had to be ways to diversify the farm," he said. "I love the farm but I don't feel like milking cows for the rest of my life. I like being outside, but also like doing office work. This is a perfect fit."

Oxford MP Dave Mackenzie agreed the new factory was a perfect fit – not just for the Ysselstein family, but for Oxford County.

"This adds one more dimension to agriculture and to tourism in Oxford," Mackenzie said. "This is the kind of thing people search out. You can't just pick up this kind of cheese anywhere. People will know about this shop throughout this part of Ontario and will travel to get some of Shep's high quality offerings."

Ysselstein plans to start making cheese at the plant as soon as construction is complete. The three types of cheeses being made have different aging processes, but the first samples are expected to be ready in August. He guessed more than 60,000 kilograms of cheese will be made in the factory per year once it's fully operational.

Source http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3028331

Mobile court fines factory for adulteration

2011-02-21T02:25:00.001-08:00

A mobile court of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has fined a food processing firm for adulterating cheese at the city's Jatrabari.

Magistrate A B M Anwar Pasha, chief of the court, on Sunday traced the factory Evana Food and Chemical at Shanir Akhra Muslimbagh Baganbari of Jatrabari and fined Tk 150,000.

Owner of the factory Mohammad Kamal Hossain will have to serve a three-month imprisonment in case of his failure to pay the fines.

Pasha said apart from adulteration in manufacturing cheese, it was also engaged in diluting glucose and saline. Those products are marketed in the eastern zone of the country.

"All the possessions were seized and burnt," Pasha said.

RAB-2 official Maj Ershadul Haque and Dhaka City Corporation inspector Faiz Ahmed were also present during the raid.

Source http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=187811&cid=2

Find Out What Rodizio Is Like at SoNo's New Pasta & Pizza Factory

2011-02-11T00:38:00.001-08:00

Just-opened Pasta & Pizza Factory in SoNo serves up a new kind of dining adventure for Norwalkers. Co-owner Jackie Chrispim is introducing local restaurant-goers to Rodizio-style dining out.

This Brazilian style features an all-you-can eat experience, but not in the traditional format. Rather than expecting diners to fill their plates from a buffet or select from a menu, The Pasta & Pizza Factory asks patrons to “sit back and relax and our friendly wait staff will bring a variety of your favorite foods tableside.”

When and how does his flow of food stop? Diners use a handmade coaster, provided upon arrival, to signal when they're full. The coaster is silver on one side and black on the other. Keep the coaster silver side up to food coming, then simply “flip to black for the food flow to stop.” Until then, the serving staff will continue bringing an array of dishes.

Chrispim plans to alternate dishes regularly, so each time diners visit they can expect to try something different. Current offerings include chicken satay appetizers, artichoke margarita pizza, chicken francaise, vegetable lasagna and linguine bolognese, among others.

As is typical of Rodizio-style restaurants, prices at the Pasta & Pizza Factory are fixed. The dinner price is fixed at $19.99 per adult and $6.99 per child. For that price, diners receive unlimited bread, salad, appetizers, pizza, and entrees. The lunch price is fixed at $14.99 per adult – also unlimited.

Before 10:00 p.m., the restaurant caters to families. Chrispim, herself a Norwalker and the mother of two young boys, selected the location at 70 North Main St. largely because it's “next to the movies, Aquarium, and kids museum” and has ample parking in the Webster Street lot.

It's a kid-friendly spot. Paper table cloths are perfect for little artists, and multiple flat-screen televisions provide kid's with appropriate programming. Plus, any parent who has ever ordered a $7 entrée for a child only to have the young critic label the dish as “yucky” will appreciate that multiple kid-acceptable options are brought to the table. The restaurant's kid-appealing dishes include spaghetti and meatballs, cheese pizza, and macaroni and cheese, and desserts such as S’mores pizza.

The adult crowd is not neglected at SoNo’s cozy, yet sophisticated, new restaurant. It's the kind of place that lends itself to a girls’ night out or double date. Dinner is not rushed. It would be easy to spend a few hours sampling the many dishes and enjoying a bottle of wine. After 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, bar patrons can purchase unlimited appetizers for $10 plus the cost of drinks.

The restaurant seats about 100 patrons, and it is available for private parties.

In addition to owning The Pasta & Pizza Factory, Chrispim and her husband and partner, Mikhael Vitenson, co-own Sundance Cafe & Wine Bar at Stamford’s Landmark Square.

What can Norwalkers look forward to at The Pasta and Pizza Factory? Chrispim hopes to soon offer weekend brunches as well as take-out services.

Source http://norwalk.patch.com/articles/expect-the-unexpected-at-sonos-pasta-pizza-factory

Council gives $10K to neighborhood noise relief

2011-01-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

Brian Van Lehn has attended every City Council meeting he could for two years, all in an effort to get a good night’s rest.

Van Lehn says that he and his wife _ as well as several neighbors _ are kept from slumber by a noisy neighbor. That neighbor is Leprino Foods, the cheese-making facility at 2401 N. MacArthur Drive, a business that employs dozens of local residents.

Even though city inspectors have checked more than 20 times and never found Leprino in violation of noise limits, Van Lehn has complained time and again that the cheese-maker has cost he and his wife more than 400 nights worth of sleep since they started keeping track in 2008.

Since then, he has petitioned the city to re-evaluate the noise coming from the industry’s nighttime operations, specifically the refrigerated railroad cars that go to and from the factory.

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, the council decided on a 3-2 vote to spend up to $10,000in general fund money to hire a company to take several noise readings near Leprino Foods to determine if, indeed, the Van Lehn’s sleepless nights are due to violations of city code.

The outfit, Brown, Buntin and Associates, has extensive experience cataloging noise levels, according to city staff. Brown, Buntin and Associates will take readings at three different locations, including inside the Van Lehns’ house, to see if Leprino is breaking a city ordinance.

By law, Leprino cannot average a noise level above 67 decibels _ about the same noise level of a typical conversation _ for one hour, three times in the same 30-day period. And while the Van Lehns say that type of violation is a common occurrence, the city has never found the company in the wrong.

That point, as well as whether or not the city was overstepping its bounds by approving the spending, brought up serious discussion between council members before the vote.

Councilman Mike Maciel said that the city had done its due diligence responding to the matter already, and shouldn’t spend an extra $10,000 to do something the city attorney and city manager agreed that Tracy is neither legally nor morally obligated to do, especially given the city’s ongoing deficit.

“I’m sympathetic to the Van Lehns,” Maciel said. “(But) I’m concerned that we’re headed off to uncharted territory.”

Bob Elliott agreed with Maciel, and joined him in the dissenting vote.

Mayor Brent Ives and Councilmen Steve Abercrombie and Bob Rickman were the yes votes. Abercrombie and Ives said that while the city wasn’t obligated to do anything regarding the Van Lehns’ and their neighbors’ conflict with Leprino, the price was worth being responsive to residents’ needs.

“At least we’re trying to help our neighbors,” Abercrombie said.

“Part of the reason a city exists is to serve its citizens,” Ives added.

However, Rickman needed convincing before casting his vote. He asked city staff if a yes vote would set a precedent requiring the city to spend money fixing other such non-obligatory problems. He also sought reassurance from Van Lehn that, if the tests did find a violation, that the city wouldn’t be on the financial hook for any remedies.

Van Lehn assured, him, as did City Manager Leon Churchill, that the city wouldn’t be liable for a solution.

“We’re just asking for some extra help (finding what the problem is)” Van Lehn told the council. “We just want to be able to sleep.”

In the case of a violation, any final solution, he and city staff agreed, would have to be forged either via an agreement between neighbors and the company or through the courts.

“I ultimately do think the solution is a private solution,” said Churchill.

Source http://www.tracypress.com/view/full_story/11115198/article-Council-gives--10K-to-neighborhood-noise-relief-?instance=home_news_lead_story