Cheese pairs well with an array of food and drinks—everything from fresh jalapeños to smoked duck has a perfect, cheesy match. Even sweets go well with certain cheeses, and one Brooklyn restaurant is playing with this combination in a surprising way.
Italian restaurant Faun, located in Prospect Heights, recently added sprinkles to its cheese plate. The sprinkles are placed on top of a cut of gorgonzola piccante, an Italian blue cheese. Also known as “mountain gorgonzola,” this cheese has an especially robust flavor for a blue, developed as it matures. Blue cheeses like this usually pair well with sweet flavors as a complement, but when assembling plates, chefs usually opt for sugar in the form of a fruit preserve.
While the sprinkles certainly stand out on Faun’s normally traditional menu, executive chef Brian Leth enjoys elements of playfulness in his food. “There’s a lot of humor in the food that I do,” he told Grub Street. The humor in this case also comes from the surprise factor, as the sprinkles aren’t included in the menu’s description of the plate.
2016 is indisputably the year of rainbow food (remember this grilled cheese from the summer?), ever since a Brooklyn bakery’s rainbow bagels became an Internet sensation. The visual component is a huge part of consumption, especially when considering cheese (plate composition really is everything), but many have criticized rainbow foods for not looking … well,edible. Faun’s addition of sprinkles avoids many of the dangers of putting food coloring where it doesn’t belong, and opts for a whimsical, nostalgic approach.
Previously, the strangest use of sprinkles I’d seen was on toast while I was in the Netherlands (verdict: pretty good!), so maybe I’ll have to give this pairing a chance sometime.
Feature Photo Credit: Pink Sherbert | Wikimedia cc
Casey Walker
Casey Walker is a Boston-based writer, constantly scoping out new recipes and restaurants.
