Giuseppe Minoia seemed destined to stretch curds and shape burrata for a career – after all, he was born in a cheese factory.
"My children are the same. My sister's children are the same," he says.
These kids have grown up with Vannella Cheese in Sydney, where the family business is currently based. Here, milk is pasteurised, and burrata is knotted by hand and filled with creamy jackpots of stracciatella.
But Minoia spent his childhood in Conversano, Italy: this was a burrata-making country, located in the boot-shaped country's southeastern heel. His grandparents were skilled at transforming milk into creamy curds and his father Vito began professionally producing cheese at age 16.
Half a century later, Vito still gets up at 4am to prepare milk for the burrata, fior di latte and other cheeses that are part of his craft.
Minoia often joins him in their Sydney factory, where they hand-shape a stunning amount of cheese by hand.
"Between November and February, we're making at least 10,000-11,000 burratas a day," he explained on the cheese episode of my Should You Really Eat That? podcast.
This is a spectacular achievement because two decades ago, when they first moved to Australia, they literally could not give away burrata – Sydney locals would decline free samples of the cheese, complaining that it was "too rich" or "too creamy".
It was one of many culture shocks they faced, particularly coming from a country with a deep appreciation of cheese.
In Italy, they sold burrata just hours after making it. In Australia, they were expected to produce cheese with a four-week shelf life.
"For us, that was something we've never seen before," Minoia says. "Everyone that comes from our region of Italy has never eaten a fresh cheese that's more than two days old."
And back in Conversano, their burrata was the size of a kid’s soccer ball. "They were big," says Minoia.
In Australia, people complained they couldn’t finish cheese of this size.
"When you crack into burrata, the last thing you want to do is crack it and leave it in the fridge," he says. So Vannella Cheese shrunk their servings, making them around five times smaller to suit local tastes.
"Not everyone liked our cheese, but one – that didn't stop us from making it. And two – eventually, eventually, people started liking it."
Now it's everywhere.
One of the earliest supporters was chef Alessandro Pavoni, back in the early 2000s. He ordered Vannella Cheese for Sydney's Luna Blu, where he was working at the time. "That restaurant was probably one of the first ones back then to put a burrata on the menu," says Minoia. Then Robert Marchetti at Icebergs Dining Room & Bar started plating their curds at his highly regarded Bondi restaurant. Over the years, more chefs added burrata to their menus. The social-media-friendly nature of the cheese has helped boost its popularity: popping burrata like a balloon, so it triggers a creamy surge of stracciatella across your plate, has become a popular move at cafes, bars and restaurants.
"And now it's everywhere."
Minoia believes Australians are now receptive to burrata because they’re "not scared to break those food traditions and try new things". After all, its luscious curds aren't just suited to Italian menus.
"Here in Sydney, there's Indian restaurants, Indonesian restaurants; they have burratas in laksas and curries," he says.
The growing appetite for this popular ingredient means there's much demand for Vannella Cheese. And while the company has grown, it still remains a close-knit affair. A third of its full-time employees are Minoia's family members. And the next generation continue the cheese-making tradition, with his niece stretching curds at the factory.
His own kids are very young – he has a newborn daughter and a son who is close to three years old – so perhaps it's too early for them to join the payroll. But their palates definitely hint at future careers in the business. His son just started eating cheese recently. And his verdict? "He likes it."
