3 classic, ooey, gooey cheese recipes get a modern makeover from a Top Chef champ | Feast and Field: Food Begins in the Field

Cheese may perhaps be a staple of southern cooking, but it was not right up until chef Kelsey Barnard Clark started off training in the French fashion that she began to comprehend its culinary electrical power outside of the convenience of its ooey, gooey goodness. “It opened my planet, introducing me to the reality that there were being a ton of different kinds of cheeses and that you could use it in diverse means,” suggests the owner of KBC restaurant in Dothan, Alabama.

One particular of her preferred tips, for case in point, is simmering a Parmesan rind in soups, stews and broths. “You’re not technically including an ingredient, but the way it makes [the food] really feel in and coats your mouth helps make every little thing occur alive,” she clarifies.

Soon after returning to the south from New York Metropolis to open up her catering enterprise and restaurant, Barnard Clark employed her working experience with cheese to elevate southern favorites, capturing the perfect harmony amongst what individuals be expecting and expanded, interesting and nuanced flavors. “Using a ripe cheese adds some brininess or a sourness that ordinarily wouldn’t be there, when a quite aged cheese adds umami you can get this total layer of taste you couldn’t if not create or get from nearly anything else,” states the Top rated Chef season 16 champ. “It’s easy, but there is depth there, and to me, which is what tends to make the best food — it is just easy and nicely performed.”

Barnard Clark shares three typical recipes, every with a straightforward but modern twist: A pimiento grilled cheese with bacon that gives a hint of smoke and Cajun kick, grits with a trio of cheeses that keep its possess future to savory grillades, and a Caesar salad built specific (and uniquely southern) with a top secret ingredient in the dressing and a crispy-outside the house-melty-within sidekick. Prepared to dig in, y’all?