Cheese Shop Spotlight

and three cheeses perfect for spring

With the recent closure of Lydia Clarke and Reed Herrick’s DTLA Cheese Superette, I felt I wanted to do something more direct to cover the existing niche of small cheese-focused businesses before we lose them. While you will still be able to experience their expertise at Kippered, the wine bar next door, so many of us who have had our palates expanded through Lydia and Reed deplore this loss. You will hear from them later in the year. Meanwhile, please enjoy this segment on Press Play that I’m calling “Cheese Shop Spotlight.”

Spotlight on Milk Farm

I spoke to Rw “Roo” McKenzie, who is the cheese buyer for Milk Farm. I asked him to suggest three cheeses for late spring and chose one each of goat, sheep, and cow’s milk.

Fleur Verte at Milkfarm. Photo courtesy of Milkfarm.

Fleur Verte: This is a lovely fresh goat cheese from southern France, covered all around with tarragon, thyme, and pink peppercorns. The cheese itself is mildly sweet and refreshingly tangy, and I find the aromatic bouquet of the herbs quite invigorating.

Springtime is when most dairy goats give birth to their kids, so this is also when they’re giving their richest milk. Fresh and soft-ripened goat cheeses are at their very best this time of year for this very reason, and I always look forward to enjoying Fleur Verte in April and May.

You can enjoy this cheese in much the same way you would with any other fresh chevre (breakfast toasts and beet salads are clichés for a reason), but I think my favorite dish I’ve made with it was a twist on an old standby from the Joy of Cooking, a quiche with summer tomatoes and Fleur Verte. The best!

Ossau-Iraty at Milkfarm. Photo courtesy of Milkfarm

Ossau-Iraty: This firm sheep’s milk cheese from the Basque Country typically shows rich, savory notes of browned butter, toasted hazelnuts, and green olives. It’s fabulous with cherries, either fresh or preserved, and I wanted to include it here because I just picked up my first great cherries of the season earlier this week.

I find that Basque cheeses tend to be particularly versatile in the kitchen, and this one is no exception! Ossau-Iraty is a great melting cheese; I’ve had great success using it for quesadillas, mac and cheese, fondue, and pizzas. It’s also quite lovely shaved into a salad, especially with some toasted nuts to highlight the natural nuttiness of the cheese. At Milkfarm, they sometimes serve a sandwich of smoked turkey breast, Ossau-Iraty, and fig jam on a baguette from Bub & Grandma’s — easy and delicious!

Montgomery’s Cheddar at Milkfarm in Eagle Rock. Photo courtesy of Milkfarm.

Montgomery’s Cheddar: Montgomery’s is one of the great English clothbound cheddars. I’m always amazed by the layers of flavors that develop; in a single wedge of this cheese, you can often find notes of sour cream, cultured butter, brothy umami, roasted meat, freshly cut grass, and mustard! I love this cheese year-round, but it’s especially nice to have on hand this time of year because it is such an excellent picnic cheese! Because of its complex flavor, this is a really satisfying cheese to pair with different kinds of pickles, preserves, meats, and beverages.

Beyond the “girl dinner” of it all, though, I do really love Montgomery’s in a grilled cheese sandwich, or melted into a cheesy egg scramble with some fresh chives.

Rw “Roo” McKenzie is the cheese buyer for Milkfarm in Eagle Rock. Photo courtesy of Milkfarm.

Of course, I had to ask Rw a bunch of questions about such a niche job.

Do you only work for Milkfarm, or do you have other cheese stores you buy for?

I only work for Milkfarm at the moment; indeed, it is the only cheese store I’ve ever worked for. I’ve been the buyer since 2021, and a cheesemonger since 2018. Prior to that, I was working in restaurants, bakeries, and catering kitchens for about 15 years.

How did you learn so much about cheese? Did you go to cheese university?

I didn’t go to cheese university; everything I know I’ve learned either on the job, or by studying at home, or in conversations with friends in the industry, or by going to cheese shops and buying countless wedges of cheeses I’d never even heard of to try them out (this last one has been a sustaining hobby of mine for 20+ years). I actually first met Leah before she opened Milkfarm, when she was working at the Cheese Store of Silverlake. I used to live in a punk house right across the street; I loved walking over to the shop once a week to try something new!

I took on my current role as buyer once Milkfarm got busy enough that it became clear we needed a dedicated employee for that position (Leah used to do all the buying herself), and once I’d spent enough time behind the cheese counter to have an intuitive understanding of what would make Milkfarm an enjoyable place for our clientele to come back week after week. Leah is a wonderful mentor and has given me so, so much invaluable guidance over the years.

What do you particularly like about your role at Milkfarm and the customer base there?

There are many things I love about working at Milkfarm, but what makes the buying role especially satisfying is how holistic and old-school the process is. We’re a relatively small shop, with limited refrigeration space and no digital inventory system, but we manage to sell a staggering amount of cheese for how small we are! So, each week, I’m asking myself:

-What do I think our customers will be excited about?
-What will our team of cheesemongers (myself included) be excited to sell?
-Which producers do I want to support?
-What do we actually have room for at the shop, and what’s actually available in the distribution network?

It feels very much like doing a puzzle, and I love a puzzle! I think it would be a lot less enjoyable, for me at least, to perform this role at a more data-driven establishment, where you’re mostly just looking at numbers on a spreadsheet.

As far as our customer base, they’re the best. We have tons of friendly, funny regulars who’ve been coming to the shop for years. It’s a lot of fun getting to know their palates and seeing how their tastes and knowledge change and grow over the years. Some of my favorite cheeses would have been way too funky to sell in Eagle Rock back when I started at Milkfarm, but that’s not really an issue now. I think it’s really cool that our customers are adventurous and trusting enough to let us introduce them to all sorts of new, delicious bites.

They’re also very supportive. With so many shops and restaurants in LA closing their doors over the past few years, I feel deeply grateful to the people who keep coming back, and it warms my heart to see how many people show up to our events.

Milkfarm
2106 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041
(323)892-1068
Open Monday-Saturday 11 AM–7 PM
https://www.instagram.com/milkfarmla