There's a special kind of cheese that whose name describes exactly how to eat it.
So the instructions are in the name? Cool, but what is it and how do you eat it?
Raclette is not only a cheese, but it also means "scraped" in French. The French part of Switzerland invented the Raclette machine, which heats up Raclette and other kinds of cheeses and allows the server to scrape it off onto bread, fruit, a spoon....I digress.
Zara Ahmed and Abby Pfunder offer this experience to Utah by conveniently showing up at local farmers' markets and food truck nights, as well as private catering.
Today, they showed us some of their signature dishes: The Alpine, and The Queen Bee. The Alpine is a traditional European-style raclette, made of raclette cheese scraped over potatoes, bread, prosciutto and cornichons. The Queen Bee is the local take on raclette, and what the owners imagine it to be like if raclette was a Utah-based dish.
They use a local cheese from Rockhill Creamery in Cache Valley, called Wasatch Mountain, and scrape it into sandwiches made with 100-percent local ingredients.
Zara says, "We love working with local producers. Most of the products we use actually come directly from the farmers market where we sell. We buy all of our sauce and spreads from Salsa Del Diablo, our greens from Top Crops, honey from Hollow Tree Hone, andour bread from Crumb Brothers and Streusel, and our salami comes from Creminelli. We really value the importance of buying local, and supporting small businesses."
Find their food truck schedule or book them for a private event on social media @raclettemachine or online at www.raclette-machine.com.
ABOUT RACLETTE MACHINE
How we got started, according to Zara: "Abby and I are married, and we met in 2011 while working at a cheese shop in San Francisco, called Cowgirl Creamery. Prior to that, I spent some time living in France, where I was exposed to raclette and other Alpine style cheeses, and Abby use be an apprentice for Rockhill Creamery and learned how to milk the cows and make the cheese. Cheese and eating quality food has always been an important part of our lives and we were so happy to bring this to Salt Lake City when we moved here in 2016."
