Kent Rathbun and his Gourmet Cottage Cheese

by Susan Davis on 20/07/09 at 10:00 am

It's Rathbun's

It’s the Food you Love toHate

People either love or hate cottage cheese, that perennial diet food that marries up so nicely with canned pineapple or peaches.  It’s an essential component of low-calorie or vegetarian fruit plates and can be combined in many recipes to produce creamy sauces or desserts.  Plus, it’s high in protein and calcium – an extremely versatile food, but not exactly what anyone would consider “gourmet.”

However, Dallas chef Kent Rathbun was looking for just that – a gourmet cottage cheese for his new restaurant, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen.  Rathbun, already at the helm of the critically acclaimed Abacus and Jasper’s, was a winner, along with his brother Kevin, of an Iron Chef America challenge against Bobby Flay, by a score of 50 to 46.  So anything he wants or dreams up for his menus has to be taken seriously.

Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen is inspired by traditional family recipes, featuring local food and produce, paired with the best wines.  His vision of having a menu celebrating the entire cooking process, from the local harvest to the exciting culinary creations that end up on the diner’s plate, is what inspired him to seek out a cottage cheese creation to compliment his own upscale spin on southern comfort food.

Rathbun’s Inspiration Originated in Northern California

His love affair with cottage cheese began after Rathbun tasted a similar product from the Cowgirl Creamery, a northern California purveyor that produces organic and artisan cheese products.  He was smitten and instantly intrigued about the possibilities that existed for cottage cheese creations on his own restaurant’s menu.  So he began looking for a local company that would be willing to work with him to produce his dream cheese.

Rathbun contacted the Dallas-based Mozzarella Company and convinced them to help develop a cottage cheese that was rich, creamy and would fool all the naysayers who didn’t think that this age-old diet food could be gourmet.  Rathbun knows his cheeses.  In fact, he could be labeled a cheesaholic, since he’s a chef-ambassador for Wisconsin Cheeses and a member of the artisan cheese promotion team for the National Dairy Association.

Paula Lambert, the owner of Mozzarella Company assigned Mitchell Whitley the job of coming up with Rathbun’s dream cheese.  Whitley had no formal culinary training, but did manage an East Texas cooking school before coming to the Mozzarella Company, and Lambert felt she was up for the task.

“It was her first time to make a cheese from scratch, without a recipe,” Lambert says, in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.

“It’s a time-consuming process,” says Whitley, explaining that the curds must be cooked very slowly. “Cook them too fast, and the curds have a squeaky texture. The temperature of the curds can rise only one degree per minute.”

After Weeks of Work – Success!

As Whitley experimented with the recipe, Rathbun was by her side, every step of the way.  Since he knew what he wanted in the final product, he was an active participant, spending weeks mixing, tasting and recalculating recipes.  After much trial and error, and incredible collaboration between Whitley, Lambert and Rathbun, the team came up with the winning recipe that Rathbun craved.

“People don’t appreciate cottage cheese,” he told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s one of those products that people look down on and don’t expect to see in a nice restaurant.”

That misperception may be changing, though, as the newly developed gourmet cottage cheese debuts on Rathbun’s new menu.  Rathbun goes through more than 15 pounds of his designer cheese a week, using it in the restaurant’s signature green goddess dressing, as well as in some of their “light plate” specials.  The product holds a place of distinction at Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, giving the often-misunderstood cheese some much-deserved respect.

Good Enough for Pizza, Pasta and More

Dallas-area consumers can purchase the specialty cheese for $5 for an 8-ounce tub.  The cottage cheese is so rich, that Rathbun recommends using it as a substitute for ricotta, mozzarella or goat cheese in white pizza, stuffed pasta or grilled vegetable lasagna.   It’s a bit pricier than the regular supermarket stuff, but hey – that’s what you pay for a gourmet product!