
Wally and Terry in Italy
If there is just one thing I love about my husband (and there are many) it is his attention to detail. This trait of his is one reason he is known for his Cheese Bread. He’s made it ever since I’ve known him. Even when on the road with his band in the 70s, Wally had an electric skillet in the bus so he could make it.
Yes it is simple, but the taste is in the details. He toasts the bread (sourdough) just so, fits the cheese like a tile layer putting together a mosaic, then the salt… I’ll let him give you the full rundown, if he will indulge.
If every chef has their star dish, this would be Wally’s. It has been his staple for breakfast for many a year. Our kids grew up on it. Today I watched him as he grabbed the Point Reyes Toma, like an artist with new paint. “Ahhh…Toma and my fresh tomatoes….”
Cheese Bread. I like the fact that it still excites him after more than 35 years of making it.
But that is another thing I love about him…
Wally: How I Do It.
Ah, so much hoopla about so little.
The first and most important thing is to start with good ingredients.
Bread: No light, airy, squishy breads, please. I generally like a good sourdough although a bit of the fig bread from the Breadbar is also a wonderful choice.
(The Fig Bread is also available at Fancifull and is finding its way into many of our gift baskets.)
A good cheese: Almost any kind of cheese works – but nothing pre-sliced! Cheddar, Brie, Goat Cheese – and today’s choice Toma, are all great.
Options: Fresh tomatoes from your garden are a great addition. Fresh herbs if you like. Slices of hard boiled egg would be great, too.

Toma Cheese Bread
1) Slice the cheese thinly – 1/8th inch. Could be grated but it’s easier to use slices.
2) Slice the tomatoes, chop the herbs and have ready any other ingredients you might want.
Tomatoes need to be at room temperature. (They should never be refrigerated anyway.)
3) Turn on the broiler or toaster oven to 400 degrees.
4) Toast the bread lightly in a toaster. For a richer version you can pan fry the bread in butter lightly on each side. Mmmmmm… Today I just used the toaster.
5) Lay out the cheese slices on the bread. I try not to leave any gaps. Don’t let the cheese hang over the edge – it will melt off and fall into the oven. Cover the bread
completely with the cheese.
6) Place the bred in the oven – you can put it on a piece of foil to catch drippings.
7) Let broil for 2 – 4 minutes. Time will vary depending on the type of cheese! Watch it. When it’s melting over the entire surface it’s ready.
8) Pull the rack out and add the tomatoes.
9) continue to broil for up to 1 minute.
10) Add fresh basil if desired. A pinch of salt if desired.
11) Enjoy the aroma while the cheese cools enough to eat!
You remembered to make your tea or espresso, right?
By the way, it was delicious! And my tomatoes this year are absolutely mahvelous.
Recently, in Umbria, we bought many a bottle of local red wine at under 7 euro a bottle, some as little as 3 euro. When you are sitting on a porch in the hills, looking over Lake Trasimeno surrounded by herbs and olive trees, eating wild boar salami, peccorino cheese, focaccia and the like this wine is fine. I can’t imagine lamenting the quality of the wine – and some were better than others, and noted for the next trip to the store. It opens my taste buds to a greater variety of wines and food when I get home as well as how to enjoy them. This “far niente” is contagious. I grab a bottle of red, create a cheese plate and sit in my backyard with friends and enjoy the day, bringing a bit of Italy to them. For my formal Christmas dinner with prime rib I may opt for a better Bordeaux or perhaps a burgundy, it just seems to go with that particular flow and meal. Pairing food, wine, and atmosphere is one of my passions, so I indulge at every opportunity.
Attending the Fancy Food Show in New York is not for the weak of mind, heart or stomach. It fills a cavernous 675,000 sq ft jammed with over 180,000 products from 2500 exhibitors representing 81 countries. Whew! You have 3 days to explore and find the lucky ones that will make it back to your shop. You either want to run out screaming or sigh and take a toothpick and start tasting, regretting those reservations you made for dinner because, let’s face it, you won’t be hungry for hours after the convention floor closes.
I really am a bit crazy about tasting and finding the best. I found a fantastic cheese from Utah that is rubbed with espersso beans giving it a slightly sharp flavor that melts as you hit the more mellow cheese. Next booth over was the guy from Colorado who made wild boar sausage better than what I ate recently in Italy. Sampling, comparing and talking gives me an opportunity to get to the heart and soul of the food, rather than buying due to convenience, marketing or a glitzy package.
The number of artisan producers who had booths at the show surprised and thrilled me. This is an industry ruled by the big boys, who mass produce with often more care to the bottom line than the quality of the product. (I do have to say there are some big companies who do it right, I don’t want to slight them or anyone making a great tasting product). I am proud of the number of American Craftsmen out there who are creating cheese as good if not better than Europe and the chocolate makers sourcing fair and good chocolate as well as the many women I met starting their own baking companies. The good ones really stand out – small doesn’t always mean better which is why tasting the product is an imperitive. Their passion and dedication is contagious and I can’t wait to share their products with you. I delight in introducing you to new artisans and delicious food, it is a mission with me, and one which we can all savor.
I look at the shopping list for the dinner I am preparing for friends and see butter scribbled just under bread and above asparagus. Simple enough, go to the dairy section and grab a pound. Ah yes, for the uninitiated that may be fine. But I have a good crusty bread in my cart and would love the Vermont butter with coarse salt that comes in this cute wooden basket with blue gingham paper. I will be reducing a sauce with butter for the fish so I have to think, what do I want that flavor to be? I hate to admit this, but I love butter. I don’t dream of it, or think about it all the time, just when I need to cook with it, or when I walk by the refrigerator section of a grocery store , or am traveling to a country that specializes in dairy, or am eating toast, or …there are so many times to think about butter. Some people can’t pass by a shoe shop for danger of being lured in by footwear. My obsession is butter.
Maybe it isn’t just the butter that captivates me. It is the fascination of where products come from, how they are made, what makes each different, much to the boredom of my friends sometimes. I don’t want to eat something just because it is touted by the latest gourmet magazine or blog. I need to see for myself, form my own opinion. My shop feeds this obsession by allowing me to taste five different english toffees before deciding which I’ll carry. Recently we opened four different bags of potato chips to determine which had the best potato flavor. Today I listened to the man behind the counter at Canter’s Deli as he explained how to reheat the pastrami I had just bought to bring out the best flavor. It is the pride he had in his pastrami that delighted me. Artisan product is crafted by someone who wants to bring out the best in the material he is working with, whether that be stone, fabric, or cream.


About a month ago I volunteered to host an Eat-In at my shop, Fancifull, in Hollywood. It was part of a Slow Food U.S.A. Campaign to bring attention to the deficient Child Nutrition Act that is coming up for renewal before Congress this year. The plan was to have a string of Potlucks across the U.S. all happening on Labor Day. We wanted to show Washington that there was a movement, that people cared about childhood nutrition.












