C’est Cheese Owner on Pairings, Business in the Village and His Favorite Team

We recently sat down with owner Joe Ciardullo to have a virtual chat about his business and some advice on cheese pairings.

Ciardullo – who – talked about his biggest challenges and successes opening a business in Port Jefferson village. He also gave us some really sweet advice on picking out cheese for our next party or a night on the couch watching our favorite television program.

You can visit him at 216B Main Street in Port Jefferson village to get the suggested cheeses below or to ask for your own.

I want to come into C'est Cheese and pick out five different cheeses, I'll take them home and sit down with a box of Triskets and try them all. Two questions: 1) Are you cringing right now? 2) Do I eat them one after another or is there a technique to cleanse my pallet between cheeses?

Definitely not, I love Triskets. You can eat them one right after another as long as some thought was involved in the order you are eating them. You don’t want to start with the strongest blue or you won’t taste any of the other cheeses.

I need some cheese appetizer suggestions. Can you give me two types of cheeses that make me look like I know what I'm doing and give me a few sentences I can rattle off about them to back up that claim at my next dinner party? 

1. Epoisses (pronounced eh pwahz) – A wash rind (stinky) cheese from the town of the same name in the Burgundy region of France. Raw Cows milk in France, we get the pasteurized version. It is washed in the local brandy, Marc de Bourgogne, which gives its orange color. Pungent, but creamy and buttery.  Heaven in a little round wooden box.
2. Jasper Hill Farm Constant Bliss – A bloomy rind cheese (the mold sprayed on during the cheese making process, puffs up while it ages – blooms) from a rockstar creamery in Vermont. Flavors of mushroom and truffles in this Pasteurized Cows milk button. Constant Bliss was named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed during battle.

OK. Some quick cheese pairing suggestions:

Sunday night, living room, with my significant other, kids in bed, Game of Thrones marathon on the DVR.

Delicie de Bourgogne – soft triple crème cheese, imagine eating the most delicious butter and Cypress Grove Midnight Moon – a goats milk gouda from a California company.

Picnic on the beach, high noon, with a white wine (taking both wine and cheese suggestions here.)

Vermont Butter and Cheese Bijou – a soft ripened goats milk button with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.

I'm throwing a cocktail party and I want to buy some cheese from your store for varying tastes. What do I pick up? 

A mix of textures and milks – Caprico de Cabra (a fresh goat cheese), Beemster Classic (Cows milk Gouda), Raw Milk Manchego (Sheeps milk cheese from Spain), Grafton Village 2 year cheddar (For the “I’m not a cheese person” – this is a fantastic cheddar), and Roquefort (a big spicy pungent sheep’s milk Blue).

If I were to open a small business in Port Jefferson what advice could you give me from the challenges and successes you have experienced so far?

Challenges:

• Dealing with the village and their code
• Fickleness of Port Jefferson being dependent on weather
• Parking

Successes:

• Overwhelming positive reviews (4.5 stars on Yelp)
• Number of repeat customers
• Distance customers will travel to get here
• Comradery and helpfulness between local businesses here

What book are you reading right now?

Unfortunately I’m too busy to read a book beginning to end right now, but my night table is stacked with books about cheese like Cheese Primer by Steve Jenkins, Mastering Cheese by Max MacCalmam and French Cheese by Patrick Rance. 

What one question do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it? 

Do I think the Yankees will make the playoffs this year? I hope so, both the pitching and hitting have been inconsistent, but the AL East is very tight right now, so if either the bats or arms get hot it won’t take much to vault to 1st.