Todd Maughan
A new service from Fromagination aims to promote cheese while making cooking less intimidating.
Taking a cue from CSA boxes and meal kit company Blue Apron, the downtown cheese shop is creating a service for homemade side dishes with all the ingredients and the recipe coming in one box.
“Everything you see on the recipe will be included, it will be measured out and ready to go, so it’s really convenient,” says Shannon Berry, event director at Fromagination. “The fun part is you get to put it together yourself. You get the joy of cooking it and serving it.”
The store is partnering with local farmers and cheesemakers to offer boxes in May, June and July. The boxes, which even include milk or eggs, are available the last Saturday of the month for pickup at the store or can be delivered in Dane County.
First up in May is an asparagus and cheese tart, which will include asparagus from Raleigh’s Hillside Farm near Brodhead and Roth’s Grand Cru Reserve cheese. Also on tap is a bread pudding with leeks and Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese, and a goat cheese dip with radishes and fava beans.
“Hopefully this will be a way to get people to love their cheese and vegetables without being intimidated by them,” says Berry, who is creating the recipes.
If the service takes off, Berry says, Fromagination would continue offering it through the growing season. The store is looking to partner with more farmers and is considering creating appetizer kits for the holidays, she says.
“This is the first stage of it,” Berry says. “We’re going to work up to it and hopefully next season do a week-by-week box instead of month-by-month.”
The May and June boxes cost $35; the July box (with the dip) is $25. The cost to order all three is $80. To order, call 608-255-2430 or visit fromagination.com.
