Culture Magazine

ENTERTAINING 202 3 culturecheesemag.com 17 CHEF'S DISH P owder Springs is abuzz as the sleepy residential city only 20 miles west of downtown Atlanta awakens to a revitalization. A local bookstore, an ice cream shop, and community parks line the main thoroughfare, and Suga's Cheese Shoppe and Café is at the heart of it all. This café is the hub of Chef Stacey "Suga" West's growing pimento cheese business. Pimento cheese, aka the "caviar or pâté of the South," is a spread or dip made with shredded cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and chopped pimento peppers: mild, red, heart-shaped peppers most often found jarred versus fresh. Sometimes other ingredients, including onions and spices, are added at the cook's discretion. Its origins began in the 1870s when cheesemakers in New York first created cream cheese, a variation of French Neufchâtel cheese. At the same time, Spanish pimento peppers (sometimes spelled "pimiento") were introduced to the United States. These imported peppers were expensive, so Georgia farmers domesticated, roasted, and canned their own. Home cooks started to use cream cheese and pimentos in recipes, and eventually these ingredients were combined into a single dish: pimento cheese. The first known pimento cheese recipe came from a 1908 Good Housekeeping article, and between the 1920s to pre–World War II, pimento cheese experienced its first popularity boom from Georgia's successful pimento pepper production, which launched a new prepared food product at grocery stores. At some point in its meandering history, the sale of store-bought pimento cheese waned as consumers, especially those in the South, opted to recreate the dish with hoop cheese—a once popular southern cow's milk cheese similar to mild cheddar—and mayonnaise instead of cream cheese. CHEF'S HISTORY Chef Suga spent over 30 years as a nurse before transitioning to culinary arts. "I've always had a deep, burning passion for food," West says. It was this incessant desire that sparked her decision to enroll at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, New Jersey, where the program "ignited the embers that were already there," she says. "It caught fire. I learned about the art of cooking, about presentation, about just how you look at food…how you respect food." She moved to Georgia and completed her degree at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Atlanta, where she finally had her first taste of pimento cheese. Chef Suga recalls tasting the pimento cheese on a charcuterie board At Central Formaggi we've been making cheese in Sardinia, Italy for four generations—over 130 years. The more than 50 varieties of sheep and goats milk cheeses we produce are the result of traditional expertise blended with a spirit of innovation, experimentation, and modern technology. The flagship of our aged cheese collection is the award winning Moliterno best known as the decadent and unique black truffle- infused Moliterno al Tartufo, cra…ed using handwoven reed baskets with the name Central inscribed on each wheel to insure that you receive the authentic, highest quality product. Moliterno is also available in two other flavors: Moliterno al Vino and al Pepe; and in two sizes: Moliterno Gigante and the smaller Moliternino. Our most recent addition to the Moliterno family is Bianco, made with goat's milk. Embrace the Unique and Unmistakable Flavors of Moliterno www.central.it @central_formaggi

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