A Time-Honoured Tradition

Italian-style fresh cheeses fior dilatte and burrata are as delicious as they are finicky to make. Mastering this ancient craft are Louise Dawood and her husband, Stephen Ngqwebo, of Curds and Whey Artisanal Foods in Johannesburg

- Susan Reynard

Louise has taken the scenic route on her journey to becoming one of an extremely select few, Italian-style fresh cheesemakers in South Africa. Having first tasted the products she now makes from scratch while dining at True Italic Osteria del Capo restaurant in Cape Town, Louise fell in love with the delicious spheres of silky soft creaminess, as well as their romantic Italian names like fior di latte and burrata.

Housed at the Riversands Industrial Park in Fourways, Johannesburg, Curds and Whey Artisanal Foods produce fior di latte (which directly translates to flower of milk) – a semisoft mozzarella – and burrata cheeses. All it takes is cow’s milk, salt, rennet, water and a lot of hard work. Rising at 3 am and spending long hours on her feet, stretching cheese in hot water with aching hands, is a far cry from Louise’s previous life as a banking IT professional with a computer science degree from University of the Witwatersrand. And yet, after a journey of self-discovery, this is what she loves doing.

It all started when Louise decided to step away from the rat race and her high-paying yet highly stressful career in the corporate world. Staying at home for months with no immediate plans, it dawned on her that she spent most of her time thinking about food, watching food channels, reading food magazines, researching food online and deciding what to make next, then shopping for the ingredients.

“My husband started to gain weight and I realised that I needed to transfer this elsewhere, as his waistline would not be able to hold all my creativity!” Louise recalls. “I was spending all my free time making food and planning to make more food. Suddenly, I had time to try my hand at recipes from scratch, which I could never do before.”