GO AMSTERDAM:Fancy yourself as a connoisseur of cheese or chocolate? In Amsterdam you can indulge in cheese-tasting or make chocolate in a mouth-watering masterclass, writes
CIAN TRAYNOR
IN THE CELLAR of a boutique cheese shop along Amsterdam’s Singel canal, Ron Pieters is waiting for his cheese-tasting masterclass to begin.
Distracting conversations are hushed; latecomers feel the room’s temperature drop. Those with unsatisfactory tasting scores, we are warned, risk not having their masterclass certificate endorsed.
With glasses, a bow tie and a professor-like tuft of receding hair, Cheese Master Ron (as he likes to be known) clearly takes the process seriously.
As if to test our discipline, the screening of an introductory film about cheese production means the stacks of thick, succulent-looking cheeses atop each desk must wait.
In Reypenaer’s 100-year-old warehouse on the Oude Rijn river in Woerden, each wheel of cheese is cleaned by hand and allowed to mature in a microclimate designed to develop a sufficiently complex taste.
Here, in the brand’s tasting rooms, we begin measuring those subtleties in a four-month-old chèvre affiné, a hefty chunk of which is poised under a guillotine on every table. Strips must be sliced thinly, for optimum flavour, and those who can’t resist wolfing down the first bite will be set straight by Cheese Master Ron.
The cheese’s colour must be noted first, then its aroma. Once it has been allowed to melt in the mouth, pithy descriptions are expected under the categories “taste” and “consistency”. The process is then repeated, this time with a sip of an appropriately matched wine, before one settles on an overall impression and a grade out of 10.
Getting past the first category proves surprisingly difficult: the chèvreseems odourless, its taste light and fleeting.
In the search for an adjective that will please Cheese Master Ron, glances are stolen over shoulders; answer sheets are spied upon. “Salted . . . butter?” one pupil asks hopefully. It’s the right answer. Cue the sound of pencils scribbling away dutifully.
By the time we’ve graduated to a year-old Gouda that sparkles to life with a mouthful of Shiraz, our pronouncements are gaining in confidence (“Honey!”, “Citrus!”, “Chocolate!”) and Cheese Master Ron is chortling in approval. Clearly, we’re cracking the codes of the connoisseurs.
But there has been a mistake. The person beside me lined up the wrong cheese in the previous round, mucking up the order.
The Cheese Master gasps. “But now you have drunk the port with the Reypenaer XO instead of the Reypenaer VSOP,” he says, as titters of laughter break out behind him.
In a place where failing to cleanse the palate between tastes is the hallmark of philistines, this is an offence too far. “And what’s this? You gave the Wyngaard Affineur a six and then changed it to a five?” This does not bode well for our final marking.
But over the course of the hour-long session, Cheese Master Ron’s passion for detail is more playful than precise. He’s just pleased if you discover something you like – and if it happens to be one of Reypenaer’s medal winners, your certificate will be signed with aplomb.
A SHORT CYCLE away, in Haarlemmerstraat, one can partake in a master class of another kind: chocolate making at Unlimited Delicious.
Upstairs, the shop’s display teems with balsamic vinegar bites, rosemary bonbons, caramel cayenne and pine-flavoured white chocolate.
Downstairs in the kitchen, groups can learn the fundamentals under the hands-on tutelage of Mariëlla Erkens, a well-travelled chef, painter and former flight attendant, who wears an apron with “chocoholic” across the front.
It doesn’t take long to warm to Erkens’s charm. She encourages us to nibble on the raw ingredients – cocoa beans, milk chocolate chips and cacao butter – while she illustrates the journey from pod to bonbon. But just as a tray of lemongrass- and jasmine-centred tasters are polished off, Erkens lets us down gently: the gourmet stuff requires two years of chocolate school, so today we’ll be aiming for something simpler.
And with that, she uncovers two mouth-watering vats of molten chocolate. “You want to dip your face into it, don’t you?” she says.
But Willy Wonka fantasies quickly fade as arm-deadening labour ensues.
Rotating shifts are required to polish the moulds so that the bonbons will slide out intact, while a bowl each of milk and dark chocolate must be stirred until they cool to the right temperature.
Given that this takes up most of the workshop, some can’t resist dipping fingers into mixtures, licking spatulas and sneaking bites.
Noticing that effort levels are on the wane, Erkens leaves a pan of sugar cooking into a thick, golden liquid and grabs the spoon from my hand. “Come, loosen your wrist, drop your shoulder, put your hips into it,” she enthuses. “Pretend you’re an artist!”
When the time comes to let the chocolate flow, things get messy: so much is smeared, scraped and spilled that there seems hardly any left in the moulds.
But after the outer layer sets, an orange ganache is squeezed into the moulds and smothered with another blanket of chocolate.
Much of this, it has to be said, is done by Ersken, who zips about the room, a multitasking whirlwind.
With a final flourish, she cracks the moulds against the counter top and sends chocolates scattering across a sheet of wax paper – each glistening bonbon perfectly intact.
The results are put into pouches, wrapped in ribbon, and taken home as gifts we can say we played a small, indulgent part in creating.
Tasting Times
De Reypenaer Tasting Rooms, Singel 182, 00-31-20-3206333, reypenaer.com
- Tasting workshops take place at the following times and booking is recommended: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday: 1pm, 2.30pm and 4pm. Friday and Saturday: 12 midday, 1.30pm, 3pm and 5.30pm
There are three types of workshops:
- The Connoisseur Class combines wines and port with six cheeses: €12.50 each.
- The Exceptional Class matches cheeses with whisky or Bols liqueurs: €15 each.
- Special offer: Connoisseur Class plus a Reypenaer cheese (one year matured) to take home: €20 each.
Unlimited Delicious chocolate workshops, Haarlemmerstraat 122, 00-31-20-6224829, unlimiteddelicious.nl
Specialised workshops are organised on a regular basis. Check the website for dates. Workshops can be arranged for groups of eight or more, at a convenient time.
Cian Traynor was a guest of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions