Laurent Manrique is executive chef at Aqua here in San Francisco. I cover Aqua's parent company as hospitality reporter for the San Francisco Business Times, writing on the business of restaurants, but recently had a few minutes to ask Manrique some culinary questions for one of the Business Times' brief chef profiles, a sort of cheat sheet for executives who like to power lunch.
In addition to asking about exotic hidden gems yet to appear on the menu, which you can read about in this week's Bizzy Times, I asked him about his fave fromage, which did not make it into the paper but which I will recount for you here.
Not that I have a lot to write. Laurent was friendly and, on some questions, quite responsive, but needed some prodding on cheese. (Besides, he was in the middle of fielding calls from no less than the New York Times on another topic.) So that portion of the interview went a bit like the joke series of questions Connie likes to recite -- "If you were a cheese, what kind of cheese would you be? ... If you were to build a meal around cheese, which cheese would be the main course? ... If you wrote a play about cheese, who would you cast as the lead? ... If you could only take one cheese to a desert island ..."
So what is Laurent Manrqiue's favorite cheese?
Ossua-Iraty.
Manrique added it the menu at Aqua after he took over there in April.
"It's a sheep's milk cheese from Basque country," Manrique said. "I grew up with this cheese, so for me it's very sentimental."
"I enjoy it every moment I shouldn't -- all day, in the kitchen, all the time. But I shouldn't, because of my health. Now, my two-year-old son starts to enjoy it, as well."
Aqua's menu describes Ossau-Iraty as, "Sheep's milk; firm; pressed; natural, brushed rind."
Other cheeses on Manique's Aqua menu:
And that's it. I am new to cheese journalism, so I did not follow up to get tales of young Laurent playing ring around the Iraty, but I have it on good authority you can find him from time to time in the alley behind Aqua chatting on his cell phone if you are truly curious how one develops a 'sentimental' relationship with a cheese.
But I did ask Manrique about his favorite meal to make at home:
"A big bowl of lettuce salad with some hazelnut oil vinaigrette and a roasted chicken I stuff with old bread. I enjoy doing it with my hands — picking lettuce is a very sensual thing."