How to Cook Like Heston: Cheese Quiz

Answer: Jockey's Semi-firm Red Leicester

All three chefs have their cheeses melt under the lowest heat setting of an iron, and Jockey has his cheese Red Leicester melting first, quickly turning to a liquid. Heston's Parmesan struggles to even change shape, and it isn't until he increases the heat to maximum that the Parmesan melts. Otto's Goat's Cheese however doesn't even change a small bit.

It's not wrong to think that soft cheeses like Camembert or Mozzarella will melt first as they contain a lot of moisture, but a fresh goat's cheese will stay mostly intact as the fat in that cheese won't split under the heat. Fresh goat's cheese is curdled with acid, which clumps the proteins together. Traditional rennet curdled cheese have a more malleable protein structure, which is why most cheeses can melt into a liquid form and split. Goat's cheese may seem like a nightmare to melt or put in a dish, but we will use it to great effect later.

Hard and medium cheeses go through aging, which draws out moisture and give them their different textures. A general rule to keep with melting cheese is to go for the hardest cheese first, before tackling the softer ones as the fat in soft cheese will split if exposed to heat for too long.

Answer: The flour in a roux can mask the flavour of the cheese sauce.

Heston dislikes the roux method as flour will mask or dampen the flavours of cheese or anything for that matter. He wants a sauce that will highlight cheese's maximum potential without the risk of making it too gloopy or starchy.

Before making his sauce, Heston drops by the fire station to meet a few of the firefighters for a cheesy lunch of cauliflower and cheese, and saw two of the firemen cook their versions of the dish, and they both used a roux. While both tasted great, he comments that the flour was suppressing the flavour of their sauces.

Instead of butter and flour, Heston starts with reduced white wine and chicken stock. This will give much needed body to the sauce without masking the cheese.

Answer: Rind

There are three types of rinds in cheese. Bloomy rinds are from soft cheeses like brie, which typically have a white and fuzzy look due to mold caused by humidity. Washed rinds are cheeses that get bathed in a bacterial solution during the ripening process, like Fontina. Natural rinds are dry and tough, they don't get any treatment by human hands, only the elements dry it out. For this sauce, we are using the hard natural rind of Parmesan.

Cut the rind off and add it in that base of wine and stock, then let it infuse for 20 minutes, then discard the rind and reduce the heat to a low simmer.

Answer: True

The corn flour trick is a Heston top tip, this will help the cheese sauce be smooth and shiny by keeping the fat and proteins in the cheese protected from each other during melting. More often or not, cheese tends to clump during melting, which leaves your sauce with a lumpy finish. Not nice at all I say.

Now to the cheese itself, make sure the sauce base is not too hot or the cheese will split and go lumpy. Once all the cheese is added, stir the sauce till all the cheese is dissolved, and then stop stirring at once. Leave the sauce to simmer a while and don't be tempted to stir after the cheese is dissolved, or you'll clump the cheese together and basically make dumplings in your sauce.

The final step to this sauce is to add a dollop of cream cheese at the end. This will help make the sauce smooth and creamy, and there you have it, a versatile and flavour packed cheese sauce that will form the base of many dishes.

Answer: No

Normally you boil pasta and strain off the water to get rid of the excess starch. But this time, have 400g of pasta to 200ml of water and cook for 20 minutes. The reason for this is to keep as much of the starch in the pasta to further thicken the cheese sauce. The water will be absorbed by the pasta, causing a shiny surface to form. Once all the water is absorbed, add that cheese sauce we made earlier, along with cubes of that soft goat's cheese.

Since the goat's cheese won't melt, you will get lovely pockets of cheese for contrasting texture and a sharp tang. To finish off, drizzle just a few drops of truffle oil and grate some freshly ground black pepper. Be careful with the truffle oil as it is very strong, just two or three drops will do.

Answer: Serve the macaroni and cheese in a hollowed out cheese wheel.

This step is optional and pretty costly, but it can make the dinner look more extravagant. Have a hollowed out hard cheese wheel, place on a baking tray and pour all your pasta in it. Grate some cheddar on top and grill it till golden brown, then serve it to your guests. You get cheese in so many ways, from the velvety sauce with bits of goat's cheese, the golden brown topping and the cheese wheel itself. Dig your spoon in the sides and edges of that cheese wheel and you get more bits of hot melted cheese to go with your pasta.

A die hard macaroni and cheese that will make you go mad for more.

Answer: Chocolate Digestive Biscuit

As weird as this sounds, Heston preaches of the beauty that is blue cheese and chocolate. Blue cheese has a rich nutty and slightly tangy taste due to aged mold, and that saltiness also plays well with chocolate. He even has a recipe for a blue cheese and chocolate lava cake! But today, we will do this blooming easy recipe. Have some port wine reduced to a syrup consistency and set aside to cool. Then grab and grate 200g of blue cheese, which in this case is Stilton, and 100g of Mascarpone and beat until smooth, and there you go, potted Stilton!

The mix can be served in a ramekin on a cheese board. Now the fun bit, take a chocolate biscuit and add a spoonful of that potted Stilton and a drizzle of the reduced port wine.

You would be amazed at how well they work together. You can use any blue cheese you like, I'm more of a Gorgonzola person, which is milder and has a sweetness to it.

Answer: Cold Smoking

Cold smoking is a great way of adding flavour to cheese without melting or cooking it. Have a BBQ, hotel pan or wok with a wire rack that is clean and line it with tin foil and a big bowl of ice at the side. This will keep the smoke cold so you won't get melted cheese. Now, add some herbs of your choice, for example rosemary, and for an added kick, a few drops of essential oil, in this case, it's orange oil.

Time for the power tools, or something milder if you don't have it. Grab a lighter or a blowtorch and light up the herbs until it starts to smoke. Then add your cheese on the rack and cover with a lid. Make sure that lid is sealed tight so no smoke escapes. After 20 minutes, your cheese will be infused with the herbs. Heston's pairings include Stilton with rosemary, Cheddar with bay leaves and Chevre with lemon thyme. You don't have to do this with cheese, you can cold smoke anything, like fish, ham or fruit if you like. Have fun with those flavour pairings!

Answer: Strawberry and Tomato Compote

What we first need is some cheese on toast. Toast some bread and spread with butter, then add sliced Cheddar cheese and grill till melted. Whilst Heston cuts the toast up and steels a few slices for his own, we'll take what's left and add it in a custard of milk, milk powder, egg yolks and castor sugar. Once the custard is cooked and infused with the chopped toast, blitz with a blender and strain.

While that cools down, let's make us a cheesy wafer. Grate some Parmesan cheese and melt it in a pot; you want to intentionally overheat the cheese to split the fat. Next, strain the fat out to get a soft gloop of cheese. Flatten it out between two layers of parchment paper and cut out your wafer shapes. Lay them on a baking tray and grill till crispy and golden. The compote is a mixture of strawberries, plum tomatoes, fresh mint, balsamic vinegar and sugar, simmered to a jam like consistency with no dairy in sight.

Now, you still have liquid custard, but with a little dry ice, you'll get smooth ice cream in minutes. Add in your dry ice pallets to the custard and mix in a stand mixer or with a wooden spoon for some drama, but don't worry, a normal ice cream maker can do fine. Finally, grab a glass, alternate your layers of ice cream and compote before topping with your wafer.

Heston says this is perfect for a 'starter straight main course dessert type thing', whatever that means. I say it just looks and tastes fantastic, if a little bit of a mind bender.

Answer: Camembert

Alpine cheeses are characterized by a few things. They tend to be semi-firm or hard cheeses that have been aged, and are made in massive wheels from unpasteurized cow's milk. They also melt really smooth under heat, which will do very well for our stringy fondue. Use young cheese for maximum stretch, grate some Emmentaler, Comté and Gruyère and dust the mix in corn flour.

In a pot, have 2/3 of a bottle of sharp white wine and the juice of one lemon and bring to a simmer. Acid is the key to keeping this fondue in liquid form as it will prevent the cheese protein from clumping up. Add the cheese to the reduced wine and don't overheat it, the cheese is at its stringiest at a simmer rather than a hot boil. To flavour up, add some mustard powder, ground clove and some sherry that's been reduced with garlic and thyme.

All that cheese has melted, but it isn't ready just yet. The last step now, is to get a whisk and some elbow grease, and beat that cheese fondue like you have a grudge against it! Keep stirring until it thickens up, this will line up the proteins in the cheese, which will make it really stretchy. Once it thickens up, you are ready to serve and pull. Heston and his chefs can pull out lassos and a cheese string that's 18 ft long from this fondue, you could even wrap your neighbour's house with it, not that I want you to as I cannot afford the legal fees.

Heston invited three of the firemen he met earlier for a fondue feast, with a selection of crudites, mini ham sandwiches and diced fruits, they tuck in and realize the fun they can have with fondue cheese strings that can reach the ceiling. Aside from that, it's really delicious too.