Artisan Cheese Daily - La Formaggeria Launches in St Kilda
La Formaggeria is pleased to announce the opening of its long-awaited Micro Cheese Lab, a great place to visit in Acland Street for Italian cool. Stocking over eighty styles of cheese, the Cheese Lab is inner-Melbourne’s first micro cheese laboratory. The World Loves Melbourne's Samantha and Sidonia were at the launch to check out the cheese range and all things Italian. We learned that not only can you come here for your cheese, but also for a light meal in an iconic location in St Kilda.
Resident cheese-makers, Italian sisters Sabrina and Katia Cappadocio, have called St Kilda home since 2012, when they joined the team at Il Fornaio. In April this year, they decided to move up the road to open La Formaggeria and the Cheese Lab, where they could focus on delivering their handmade artisan cheeses to Melbourne.
Already proving popular with locals and those in the know, Cheese Lab goods often sell out before lunchtime. ‘The Cheese Sisters’, as Sabrina and Katia are also known, are making cheese daily to keep up with the demand. Customers can even watch the sisters at work through the window between the Cheese Lab and LaFormaggeria.
From the beautiful simplicity of ricotta di Bufula to the more complex flavours of canestrato al salmon e spezie (canestrato with salmon and herbs) and taleggio alla birra (beer-soaked taleggio), the Cheese Laboratory lives up to its name, with over twenty cheeses being handmade on the premises. There’s even a Melbourne-flavoured cheese: St ALi coffee-seasoned pressato.
At the launch we were treated to fresh mozzarella handmade in front of us. Simply sensational.
The Cappodocio’s have a significant family history in the cheese-making business, beginning with Sabrina and Katia’s grandfather, Raffaele Palmisciano, who opened the first cheese factory producing buffalo mozzarella in Fossanova in the 1960s.
Sabrina and Katia have studied the cheese-making process in depth, and their talent has been recognized across the globe! The Cheese Sisters have earned an impressive reputation in their homeland, having received “Premio Roma” for their cheeses; the highest accolade for cheese makers in Italy.
Modelled on the fromageries and delis found in the back streets of Rome, La Formaggeria nonetheless offers more than just cheese. Eat-in or take-home meals, such as Nonna’s beef lasagne, are on the menu alongside made-to-order baguettes and breakfast bruschetta.
This was a fun night and the "cheese ladies" Sabrina and Katia are characters. Highly recommended.
The Cheese Lab at La Formaggeria
72 Acland Street, St Kilda
(03) 9534 1111
Open Mon-Sun 8am – 8pm