Haydée will debut its own cheeses in October

Víctor Suárez prepares a new twist in the universe of Haydee, the restaurant of the Hotel Gran Tacande 5*, in Adeje, distinguished with a Michelin Star and a Repsol Sun. The Tenerife chef finalizes his first signature cheese collection, a line of work that will be incorporated into the restaurant's new menu, scheduled for October.

This is not a simple expansion of the pantry. Suárez and his team have been making their own cheeses with goat and sheep milk for months., animal and vegetable rennet and maturation in the restaurant's own cellar. The initiative fits into one of Haydée's most recognizable lines: investigate nearby resources, take them to a personal level and make them an active part of the culinary discourse.

The first pieces have already gone through an initial round of tastings with some of the most authoritative names in the Canarian and peninsular cheese sector.. The chef's objective is to continue refining the preparations before their final premiere, adjust textures, aromas, crusts, salt and ripening points, and achieve the balance that each of its culinary proposals requires.

Among the voices that have tried the first elaborations is Ruth Lozano, agricultural technical engineer, trainer in sensory analysis and international cheese taster linked to the Canarian Institute of Agri-Food Quality of the Government of the Canary Islands. Lozano, who has also served as super judge in the World Cheese Awards, valued one of Suárez's pieces as a cheese of great sensory precision.

The taster highlighted a square cheese covered in white pencil, with a well-defined rim and a nose marked by notes of mushroom and hints of goat's milk butter. In mouth, according to your rating, stands out for its buttery texture, flux and very soluble, with a long persistence and a touch of salt that invites you to continue tasting it.

For Lozano, Suárez's work reflects “talent, perseverance and sensitivity”, in addition to a rare ability to convert cheesemaking learning into a production with gastronomic ambition. Reading it places these first pieces within a trend of special interest.: the possibility of Canarian haute cuisine dialogue with cheese not only as a selected product, but also as my own creation.

He has also evaluated the project Isidoro Jimenez, master cheesemaker and technician of the Department of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands. In your opinion, the cheese created by Víctor Suárez shows technical knowledge of biological processes, sensitivity in maturation and good balance of textures and flavors.

Jiménez describes a piece of goat with penicillium candidum in the bark, aromas of humid earth and cave, wet and melting texture, and a lactic flavor with soft hints of goat and nuts. An elaboration, according to your analysis, pleasant, full and persistent.

The interest of the project also lies in the place from which it is born. In the Canary Islands, cheese occupies a central position in gastronomic culture, with a huge diversity of milks, islands, breeds, in tune, cures and forms of consumption. That a gastronomic restaurant like Haydée ventures into making its own cheeses adds a new layer to the kitchen work.: It is no longer just about interpreting a product, but to participate in its creation from the origin.

The future collection will be released coinciding with the new October menu, in which Haydée will also incorporate culinary innovations. The presence of these own cheeses will allow Víctor Suárez to expand the restaurant's story from a less common territory for a chef: maturation, the wait, control of time and mastery of living processes.

with this project, Haydée reinforces its profile as one of the Canarian restaurants that have most clearly decided to look inward: to the product, to the technique, to the local memory and the still unexhausted possibilities of the island's pantry. On this occasion, the path does not go through a sauce, a bottom or a piece of fish, but for something apparently more humble and, at the same time, more complex: a cheese capable of talking about the Canary Islands from haute cuisine.