#formaggio kitchen

L.A. Burdick’s coffin box of chocolates.  

This year, for the grown ups at least, I decided we could go beyond the basics and have some locally made chocolates on hand.  I popped into L.A. Burdick’s in Harvard Square (and got a cup of my favourite tea) and then went to town with all the seasonal chocolates.  There were ghosts and bats. There were one of L.A. Burdick’s year round favourite cute little mice but they look more possessed than cute in the Halloween boxes (and that’s a good thing).

Pumpkins two ways.  There are the chocolate covered oreo medallions form the Pocasset Pretzel Co. for the ultimate sugar rush or the more delicate marzipan pumpkins with an onlooking chocolate mouse from L.A. Burdick’s. 

I also stopped into Formaggio Kitchen and picked up some gâté comme des filles coffee chocolates.  They were on the pricey side, but they are a perfect combination of coffee and chocolate and they use one of my favourite coffees: George Howell.  Formaggio Kitchen also had some eery Halloween lollipops from the Melville Candy Co. and I loved this gruesome looking tablet from Chocolat Moderne out of New York City.

Splattered tablet from Chocolat Moderne with a marzipan filling.  Around the back are L.A. Burdick’s ghosts, gâté comme des filles coffee bonbons and a deep red raspberry heart from Praliné. 

There are delicate marzipan pumpkins from L.A. Burdick’s and then there are the more playful chocolate oreo medallions from the Pocasset Pretzel Co.  Isabelle and I are kind of obsessed with their chocolate and candy covered pretzels too.  My favorite was the turtle and Isabelle’s was the Reese’s.

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New to me, were also are Beth’s Chocolates out of Newton.  Chocolatier Beth Kirsch has a variety of flavours and some amazing hand painted chocolates as well.  I think my favourite was the Spicy Hot. A dark chocolate bonbon with spicy cinnamon and cayenne.

Lollipop from the Melville Candy Co. purchased at Formaggio Kitche. 

So whether you bring a box along for the adults as you go trick or treating, are having a party, or are going to a party, it is easy to go beyond the basic boo this year and get some ghoulishly good ganache for your crew.

Happy Halloween

When it comes to choosing wines I end up doing the same thing I do with books.  To choose a book I often judge it by it’s cover, I rely on a good librarian to help find something just right, or I recall a little blurb or review I read.  For wines I rarely remember what I liked or bought for some reason I just can’t recall wine names.  I am influenced by the way the wine label is designed.  My…

Dog Town: Boston’s Best Hot Dogs

I love a good hot dog.  I’m just as likely to stop for one out on the town as I am to make one at home.  If I’m cooking at home my go to dogs are these ones.

My son likes the Hebrew National Reduced Fat hot dogs (Not the 97% lean – those are too chewy.)  These are not my first choice but they’re not too bad.

My daughter likes the paler hot dogs that are not all beef from Market Basket.  They are…

Originally published Sept 23, 2013 on bostonmagazine.com

It’s a brisk, sunny morning, and a few people zip down Cambridge’s Huron Avenue on their bikes, the street mostly clear except for a construction crew down the way. Inside Formaggio Kitchen, however, it’s creeping up on lunchtime and there’s a steady hum beginning to build. For a few brief minutes, the cheese counter is wide open.

I meet buyer and wholesale manager (and part-time cheesemonger) Julia Hallman, a redhead with a wide grin and fizzy energy, in the bakery kitchen in order to leave the narrow aisles free for perusing early lunchers.

Ihsan and Valerie Gurdal’s—who took over the shop in the early 90s—Formaggio Kitchen is many things. It is, on the surface, a 30-year-old neighborhood specialty shop where you can find a reliable cup of coffee, killer scones, and a great bottle of wine for dinner. But it’s also a fromagerie in a small French village, a dusty spice market in Istanbul, a damp Alpine cheese cave (yes, there is a cave, sitting right beneath your feet), and an Italian olive grove, for starters. For its regulars, this is not a surprise.

“The goal is to be a specialty food store where every item is handpicked and has a story behind it,” Hallman says, the smell of baked goods in the oven beginning to snake through the air around us. “Clearly the focus is cheese, but it goes well beyond that.”

One cursory glance at the shelves, lined with rows and rows of products approaching the ceiling, each bottle or box or tin looking more enticing than the last, proves her point. The shelves of their South End and New York locations give off the same impression.

“Ihsan didn’t want to just work with distributors, which is very easy for a lot of chefs to do,” she continues. “He wanted to be a direct importer and work one-on-one with the farmers, cheesemakers, and producers.”

Working directly with individuals has become Formaggio’s trademark and not-so-secret secret to success over the years, endearing them to customers whose tastes run towards the small-batch, the hard-to-find, and the international. It is the sole engine behind the selection of more than 200 varietals of cheese and three stores’ worth of edible treasures from around the globe. It’s also the reason that over 100 restaurant accounts, in Boston and beyond, seek out the little storefront.

“Some chefs come in every day. Journeyman, for example. They come in almost every day and taste through cheeses and hand-select everything,” Hallman says. “The cheese buyer for No. 9 Park is very similar. He is very meticulous about what cheeses he brings in, and he understands that the wheels are constantly varying.”

“We also we have chefs who will trust us and leave it in our hands. They understand that we’re eating cheese constantly, so they’ll tell us to pick out two pounds of sheep, two pounds of goat, two pounds of blue, whatever we think is best,” she adds. “It’s funny because we definitely overthink and dissect the pairings and worry about what works well together.”

Marcos Sanchez, the executive chef at Jamaica Plain tapas joint Tres Gatos, came across Formaggio 12 years ago while he was living in Arlington and working in Cambridge. He now makes the trip once a week—often loading his bike with as much as he can carry—and his regular cheese offerings on menu are a reflection of the carefully curated selection sitting atop the counter.

“The relationships that they have with their cheesemakers is, I imagine, by far better than anybody else in the world, really,” he says. “Plus, they age their cheeses really well, and keep them alive. That’s what’s so unique about them, that their cellar also imparts its own style.”

Hallman touches on this too, and explains that being so in tune with the cheese means “you just have to understand that cheese is a living, breathing thing, and constantly be tasting. It’s this ebb and flow, but that’s the fun part.”

“They’re the best source that I can find right now. I’ve tried buying from vendors, and it’s hard because you can’t see the product,” Sanchez says. “It’s so hard for me to buy off of a list. I want to see it, feel it, smell it, and I can do that at Formaggio. They’re the best at what they do.”

Back in the store, the counter is in full swing, with people queuing in small clusters and straining for a look at the minefield of little signs poking out of the hunks and blocks of cheese.

“Having a chef come in and look at you like an expert … that to me is really great for everybody on the counter,” Hallman says. “We really encourage our restaurants to come in and taste through things, and we treat them like customers.

Tranquil Tuesdays Featured on Formaggio Kitchen’s Blog

We are so excited to be featured on Formaggio Kitchen’s Blog!  Julia Hallman who is responsible for tea buying at this exclusive Boston store writes:

"I have had such a wonderful time working my way through the selection of tea from Tranquil Tuesdays. Each tea is distinct, unique and a beautiful representation of the region it comes from. With such consistency of quality in her selection, it is clear that Charlene not only knows the qualities of a beautiful tea, but that she has developed wonderful relationships with the tea growers and producers. It is these relationships that foster the growth of artisanal food and the reason why I am so excited to be adding Tranquil Tuesdays to our selection.”

For more about Tranquil Tuesday’s partnership with Formaggio Kitchen, check out their latest blog post here.

If you’d like to find a store that sells our delightfully tranquil teas and teaware, please visit the in-stores page on our website.

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You know those magical gourmet stores where you are transported into a world of wonder, deliciousness, travel, and gorgeous inspired packaging?   Where you feel like you just stepped into a treasure trove? 

That’s exactly how I felt when I first stepped into Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA.  I gazed with awe at the shelf of all these delicious jams, spices, of all sorts gourmet treats and of course the cheese!

Formaggio Kitchen has been an institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts for over 30 years - a gourmand's paradise doubling as a neighborhood grocer.

We knew they would be a great fit for debuting our tea collection in Boston because of their commitment to small scale purveyors whose products convey a sense of place:

"Each year finds us traveling to the far reaches of the planet in search of the world's finest artisan products. Our shelves are brimming with products made by individual artisans, each as wonderful as the next."

Since our teas are personally sourced to tell the unique story of China's best teas and specific historical growing regions we are so excited to be in a store filled with different products from all over the world with a similar philosophy. 

So if you're in the Boston area or have a friend who loves gourmet treats please tell them to head over to Formaggio Kitchen where you can get a tin of tea from our tea collection!

To see all the stores that carry our tea and teaware collections please visit our In stores page on our website.

Formaggio Kitchen details:

244 Huron Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138

tel: 617-354-4750

  Monday - Friday- 9:00 am - 7:00 pm

Saturday- 9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Sunday- 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

You can bet that this is right where I'll be tomorrow morning come 11:30am. I'll trek through two lines on the T, power past tourists in Harvard Square and eventually land a mile northwest at 244 Huron Avenue. It's a weekly pilgrimage that I take very, very seriously. You see, each Saturday, Formaggio Kitchen executes some of the finest barbecue to ever grace the steps of New England. It's been recognized by Bon Appétit as one of the Top 10 New Barbecue Restaurants in 2009, and it's served sidewalk style, so you can bet that the line snakes to the curb. The grillmasters at Formaggio begin smoking the lamb, brisket and chicken on Thursday until it's pulled and luscious. The bread, coming from Iggy's Bread of the World, can stand up to any slab of meat. And everything hits the grill one last time for a nice char before it winds up in your doggy bag.  

Snag a Pearl-in-the-Hole for a giant, blackened sausage in a crusty, hollowed Iggy's baguette. Or, if you're into bones, get a couple of half chickens--and make sure to ask for extra sauce on top. 

Word to the wise: come in groups so you can weather the line with a few buddies, but make sure you "accidentally" find yourself at the front come ordering time. Emotions run high when your pal (or that dude in front of you) snags the last lamb sammy, which comes steeped in rosemary and garlic and dripping in Formaggio's signature barbecue sauce. It's something that even the tightest friendships can't survive.  

I take my pulled meat sandwiches with caramelized onions and loads of barbecue sauce. I don't recommend bringing someone you're trying to impress along for this one. You'd be surprised how far this sauce can travel. 

Believe me. If the cold isn't chilling my bones, I'm gnawing on bones in Cambridge. It's my Saturday ritual.