The Cheese Board by Cheese Board Collective Staff Page A
Authors: Cheese Board Collective Staff
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making by hand, add the salt and orange sugar to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add the butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter or 2 dinner knives until it is the size of small peas. Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. With a few strokes of the spoon, gently combine, taking care not to overmix the batter. Gently fold in the berries.
With an ice cream scoop or large soup spoon, fill the prepared muffin cups until the batter just peeks over the top of the pan. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown, firm, and springy. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Unmold the muffins onto a wire rack to cool.
THE FIRST CHEESE BOARD TEENAGEINTERN
Being a teenage intern here was hard because of the cultural differences. I was in a different world, getting kicked out of a lot of classes at Berkeley High. I didn’t consider myself racist, but I had a lot of anger toward America. For me, the Cheese Board was the perfect place because there was every kind of “white person” here. Everyone was so nice and worried about my well-being. They offered me whatever I needed. And I thought, “Why are all these white people wanting to help me? They just want to put their name out there that they are helping some little kid out of the ’hood.” That’s what I said to myself and I thought, “Well, let it be, as long as I get paid, that’s all I care about.” The checks started coming in, and it was good money for a teenager; I could buy clothes and give my mom money for food. Then I started noticing how this place works, how people have meetings and they talk over things with everybody else before they decide to do something. I’d say, “Why don’t you just go out and buy it? Why do you have to ask ten people? Just go out and buy it!”
Working here molded me into the kind of person I am now. I was so wrong about this place! It was a cultural shock for me—it was so open. Honestly, at the time I didn’t have any white friends. I certainly didn’t have any grown-up white friends. The only ones I knew were the people we stole bikes from in Albany Village. That was the closest we got to them. When I came to work here, everybody cared about each other. It did a 180 on me. It was cool.
This place changes people, but it takes time. I tell you, when I came here and they gave me the keys to this place—I was fifteen, sixteen years old! They gave me all the combinations to all the locks. I thought, “Wow, these people trust this little hoodlum!” Everyone knew where all the money was, and you could have stolen it if you wanted to. That just blew me away. Not even my own mom trusted me that well. Honest to God, maybe in some other place I would have stolen something, but everyone trusted me so much and let me be myself. That made me think, “I am not going to blow this! I am not going to blow this—this is too good to be true.” Two years ago when I came in I didn’t know what trust was. But now I feel that it’s been running through my body all this time.
—Guillermo
• … AND MORE •
Brioches
We never know quite how to explain why this pastry is called a brioche. It isn’t related to a French brioche at all; in fact, it is more like your grandmother’s yeasted cinnamon knot. Tying hundreds of these pastries is mesmerizing work in the dark hours of a morning shift. You can make the dough the evening before and refrigerate it overnight to make the brioches for brunch. The aroma of cinnamon is your first indication that the brioches are almost done and it’s time to brew your coffee.
MAKES 12 BRIOCHES
Preparation time including rising and baking: 3¼ hours; active time: 50 minutes
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup buttermilk
2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
⅓ cup sugar
2 eggs
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
⅔ cup golden
With an ice cream scoop or large soup spoon, fill the prepared muffin cups until the batter just peeks over the top of the pan. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown, firm, and springy. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Unmold the muffins onto a wire rack to cool.
THE FIRST CHEESE BOARD TEENAGEINTERN
Being a teenage intern here was hard because of the cultural differences. I was in a different world, getting kicked out of a lot of classes at Berkeley High. I didn’t consider myself racist, but I had a lot of anger toward America. For me, the Cheese Board was the perfect place because there was every kind of “white person” here. Everyone was so nice and worried about my well-being. They offered me whatever I needed. And I thought, “Why are all these white people wanting to help me? They just want to put their name out there that they are helping some little kid out of the ’hood.” That’s what I said to myself and I thought, “Well, let it be, as long as I get paid, that’s all I care about.” The checks started coming in, and it was good money for a teenager; I could buy clothes and give my mom money for food. Then I started noticing how this place works, how people have meetings and they talk over things with everybody else before they decide to do something. I’d say, “Why don’t you just go out and buy it? Why do you have to ask ten people? Just go out and buy it!”
Working here molded me into the kind of person I am now. I was so wrong about this place! It was a cultural shock for me—it was so open. Honestly, at the time I didn’t have any white friends. I certainly didn’t have any grown-up white friends. The only ones I knew were the people we stole bikes from in Albany Village. That was the closest we got to them. When I came to work here, everybody cared about each other. It did a 180 on me. It was cool.
This place changes people, but it takes time. I tell you, when I came here and they gave me the keys to this place—I was fifteen, sixteen years old! They gave me all the combinations to all the locks. I thought, “Wow, these people trust this little hoodlum!” Everyone knew where all the money was, and you could have stolen it if you wanted to. That just blew me away. Not even my own mom trusted me that well. Honest to God, maybe in some other place I would have stolen something, but everyone trusted me so much and let me be myself. That made me think, “I am not going to blow this! I am not going to blow this—this is too good to be true.” Two years ago when I came in I didn’t know what trust was. But now I feel that it’s been running through my body all this time.
—Guillermo
• … AND MORE •
Brioches
We never know quite how to explain why this pastry is called a brioche. It isn’t related to a French brioche at all; in fact, it is more like your grandmother’s yeasted cinnamon knot. Tying hundreds of these pastries is mesmerizing work in the dark hours of a morning shift. You can make the dough the evening before and refrigerate it overnight to make the brioches for brunch. The aroma of cinnamon is your first indication that the brioches are almost done and it’s time to brew your coffee.
MAKES 12 BRIOCHES
Preparation time including rising and baking: 3¼ hours; active time: 50 minutes
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup buttermilk
2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
⅓ cup sugar
2 eggs
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
⅔ cup golden
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