“Thank God José Andrés invested in the cheese factory.” The sentence comes from Pascual Cabaño, partner of the Rey Silo cheese factory in Pravia (Asturias). For the renowned Asturian chef, who lives in the United States, it was not easy to concentrate on this project, which began in 2005 with an ambitious dream on the part of the two founders – the biologist Ernesto Madero, born in Irún and trained in refinement of cheese in France, and Cabaño, a Grado native familiar with milk and cheese since childhood. The desire was to restore the principality’s artisanal cheese-making tradition, using as an ingredient raw whole cow’s milk served to them by a cattle breeder from Tineo. There was desire and knowledge, but what was not there was money. “It was very difficult. We spent years without pay. I put money from my work as a journalist and paid for all the trips to sell the cheese outside Asturias,” explains Cabaño.
Because in this story, like in good stories, there is everything: ambition, determination, disappointments, failures, hopes, daring, hours of work and many sacrifices, a pandemic, several crises, a flood and, despite all of this, one motto: never give up. “We knew that to be successful we needed to produce multiple cheeses in a wide range, including blue cheese so that it could be shipped refrigerated.”
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They began producing the classic Asturian cheese Afuega’l Pitu in the shape of a conical trunk, milk coagulation, refinement with natural yeasts and a long storage fermentation, in a 400 square meter facility with machines and technology combined with manual labor gives a unique aroma and taste. They released it in 2007 and it was a hard sell. “Madrid Fusión called us and told us we could, but we had to give each participant a cheese. We’re giving away 1,600. We had them because we hadn’t sold any. Afuega’l Pitu didn’t have a good image, but we gave it the space it deserved,” Cabaño remembers.
José Andrés oversees the production of the cheese, an image provided by the cheese factory of which he is a partner.
The first miracle came from the chefs who began to serve them in their restaurants, such as Casa Gerardo in Prendes, Real Balneario de Salinas, Quince Nudos in Ribadesella or Casa Marcial in La Salgar. To grow, they had to continue to multiply the varieties, to the classic white variety was added the orange one, after adding peppers, the so-called Besos, in a small and very creamy format, and Massimo, weighing a kilo or more four months of healing. Everything started going smoothly: they made more than 30,300 cheeses a year and were already exporting to Europe and the United States, but that wasn’t enough: they wanted to make a blue cheese. It was’nt easy. “We wanted to differentiate ourselves from Cabrales and other cheeses in the same range and do something different.” They also had no money.
While they were thinking about the idea, José Andrés’ paths crossed. She met him at an Afuega’l Pitu competition in Morcín in 2010 and met him again at Madrid Fusión. “He had tried the cheese, liked it and I told him he had to help me sell it. He replied that he would see it when he met me in Washington because it was not sold from Spain,” he recalls. A friend gave Pascual Cabaño a standby ticket (if there is a seat, he flies). He showed up at the Jaleo restaurant in a deplorable financial situation: “With a suitcase with 100 types of cheese that I brought through customs as samples, with 23 cents in his pocket, the card blocked and no return ticket.” I told him that that he would either buy them for me or that he would have to give me a job washing dishes.” That’s where a friendship began. José Andrés added white and red cheese to his menu and opened the doors of King Silo in the United States.
The next step was forged in the kitchen of Casa Gerardo, with the participation of Pedro Morán, who, on one of his trips to Spain, suggested to the chef that he help the dairy produce a blue cheese, “which is very important to move forward.” go.” That’s where it all started. In 2015, businessman Jon Riberas, the largest shareholder, and his brother Francisco Riberas from Gestamp, owner of the Gonvarri industrial group, joined José Andrés as investors. “We promised that the investment, around half a million euros, should not be used to finance debts, but to expand production, improve cheese and make blue cheese.” It took them longer than they would have liked, But in the middle of it all, there was a flooding of facilities, a pandemic and an economic crisis. “Now the start is final and the cheese is very good. “We worked hard to find the purpose of what we wanted to do.”
Pieces of Mama Marisa blue cheese, in a picture by Rey Silo.
Ernesto Madero traveled to England to see Joe Schneider making Stilton cheese from raw milk and also to France to study the process of preparing Roquefort. “In 2017 we started the first tests and decided with José Andrés how we wanted the cheese to be, different from the rest of the Spanish blues, without astringency, not as sharp and not as strong.” A year later, the cheese factory was flooded and the tests failed. They had to start from scratch. “We had financing problems again.” There were the partners again. They bought machines for chopping and punching the cheese as well as molds for 12 kilos of curd, of which pieces of around nine kilos would later be left over. “It is important that the cheese is large to give it creaminess and to recreate a blue cheese made in Asturias that we ate with fruit. José Andrés remembered that his mother gave him apples with Asturian blue cheese when they moved from Mieres to Barcelona. And we’re looking for that flavor,” Cabaño says. It was a spreadable butter cheese with good flavor. And so Mama Marisa cheese was born, as a tribute to the chef’s mother. After the pandemic, they released the first tests, “but they were overripe, to which climate change also contributed, which ruined our cheeses because they were soft, they tasted very good, but when you cut them, the paste oxidized.” They fixed an air conditioning problem in the cheese factory and started over.
Piece of blue cheese, in honor of José Andrés’ mother, in a picture of the cheese factory.
At the end of April they released the final Mama Marisa cheese, which they sell for 40 euros per kilo. They produce 3,000 liters of milk every 15 days, which is around 2,900 kilos of cheese. Each cheese weighs between 12 and 14 kilos. In addition to Spain, it is also sold in the USA, Ireland, Belgium and Singapore. Even an Asturian pastry chef, Jhonatan González from Cabo Busto, bakes his cheesecake with Massimo de Rey Silo.
The next step is to invest about half a million euros again – the return on investment is expected within three to five years – to get to the next step: expanding the facilities to increase production, two more people to hire – now there are five – raise salaries and make another blue cheese, Astur Blue Mamá Marisa, refined in Salvador del Obispo apple cider brandy.
“We owe him everything,” concludes Cabaño. This story is starting to gain heights.
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