This season’s most coveted new release? A cheese with its own fanclub
Section 28’s La Primavera cheese is back in season - here's our interview with the man behind the famous recipe, made from creamy cow’s milk and topped with dried flowers.
Every morning, Kym Masters makes the most important trip of his day: seven kilometres to the dairy farm down the road in the Adelaide Hills to pick up fresh milk. The cheesemaker quit his investment banking job five years ago to start Section28, an artisan cheese business that uses traditional techniques to create uniquely Australian products.
He works closely with a single dairy farm in his neighbourhood to procure the milk that Masters will then turn into small batches of high quality and delicious cheese, offered in restaurants across the country and in specialty food stores including Sydney’s Penny’s Cheese Shop and Ciao Fabbrica, and Melbourne’s Haper & Blohm.
Masters makes the same journey most mornings, but the ones he makes in September are particularly close to his heart. The milk he collects those days is special: fresh from cows who have been feasting on the new grass, it has a “noticeably different, caramel-like flavour,” he says. “It seemed like such a waste not to make something amazing out of it.”
Which is how Section28’s La Primavera was born, a raw milk cheese using the unpasteurised product in early Spring and left to age for nearly five and a half months, ready for release in February. Topped with dried flowers to complement the cheese’s fresh flavour, La Primavera is a true showstopper.
For the past three springs, Masters has made an annual variant and each year that variant has sold out. At Penny’s Cheese Shop in Sydney’s Potts Point, one of Section28’s retail stockists and a mecca for foodies, the 2020 edition was gone by the end of March. “I’ve had customers asking when it will be back,” says owner Penny Lawson. “So to say they are excited is an understatement.”
According to Lawson, Masters’ technique of pressing dried flowers into the rind of the cheese isn’t new. Cheesemakers have been adorning their products with flowers, nuts, grapes, blueberries and even hay for decades. But Lawson has seen an uptick in floral-decorated styles of late, which she suggests might be simply “because it looks beautiful”. It also protects the rind, adds flavour and serves as an effective marketing tool, rendering the cheese unforgettable (and very Instagrammable).
“Though remember,” she says, “that petals and leaves and herbs all add to the flavour of the cheese, so they need to be added with this in mind, not just for show.”
Section 28’s La Primavera is exactly that. Masters carefully chooses the flowers to complement the tasting notes of the cheese, which begins with a fresh and floral profile, with hints of rose and violet, before moving into a “subtle, savoury umami flavour” that he likens to roast chicken skin, all balanced out with the bright creaminess of this “outstanding spring milk”. Aside from their flavour-adding properties, the dried flowers are also slightly chewy, and “the texture adds to the experience,” says Lawson.
Think of La Primavera as a dressed-up cousin to, say, popular semi-hard cheeses such as Comte or Swiss Gruyere. “The fact that [Masters] recognises the seasonal variation in flavour of the new green spring grass and wants to celebrate it – this is joy-making,” Lawson enthuses.
Keep it simple when serving such a considered product as La Primavera. Masters recommends pairing a big wedge with some plain crackers or rye bread and a glass of sparkling. Lawson suggests cutting the cheese into individual wedges, with “a little wild honey on the side” and some seasonal fruit, such as plums or nectarines. “It is a standalone cheese,” says Lawson.
For Masters, making La Primavera is truly a labour of love. Masters founded Section28 in 2015, leaving behind a career in investment banking. “It’s not a linear career path,” he jokes. His passion for rinds and pasteurisation began when Masters lived with his family in Italy for 12 months. It was a crash course in the epicurean treasure trove that is alpine cheesemaking. After returning to Australia, Masters spent five years building the groundwork for Section28, retraining with artisans both locally and abroad, all while working part-time for Bank of South Australia and Ernst & Young, and he credits the support from his former employees for allowing him the space to grow his passion project into a small business.
“My two objectives in setting up the business were ‘Can I talk about my work with a smile on my face,’ and am I better able to cope with the stresses of life and am I a nicer person to be around collectively?’” Masters recalls. Even during a year of coronavirus lockdowns, where his business was hit by the restaurant industry’s shutdown and Masters was forced to shutter his factory for ten weeks, he says that he is “achieving those aims”.
“It’s been a wild ride – and that was even before COVID hit last year,” he admits. “But it’s also been really fulfilling and really enjoyable.”