Pear Capri and Stephanie Izard

Prairie Fruits Farm is always coming up with new cheeses.  This week they brought a cheese to the Urbana Market that they made in collaboration with Top Chef Stephanie Izard.  She’s opening a new restaurant in Chicago named Girl & the Goat.  You can read a piece on the progression of her new restaurant, aiming to open this month, in Chicago Magazine.

Her history with Illinois’s first farmstead cheese-making facility is long.  Every article I read about her seems to mention her visiting the farm or using their award-winning cheeses.  As you could probably tell by the name of her restaurant, her love of goats extends beyond the cheese–her last name, Izard, is French for a “Pyrenees mountain goat–antelope with curved horns.”

I’ve not eaten her food, but everything I’ve seen tells me she’s a very creative and caring chef.  She is confident using flavors from around the globe, but still strives to support local producers (like Prairie Fruits).  Her ability to turn out high-quality, artisanal food will likely draw a following at Girl & the Goat.

Now, about this new cheese.  Leslie Cooperband, the “Goat Lady” at Prairie Fruits, writes in the recent newsletter that Stephanie came down to make an experimental batch of this cheese a couple weeks ago.  Pear Capri is a little 2 ounce bit of goat cheese, shaped like a little pear, covered with a bloom of white and blue molds.  It’s a beautiful cheese, as you can see.  It’s also amazingly delicious.  The sweet, creamy goat cheese inside, bolstered by the earthy ripeness from the rind, would be beautiful on a cheese plate (perhaps with some pear slices?).  I’m sure Stephanie has something more creative in mind.