Fried cheese, or smažený sýr, has been on Lokál menus from the very beginning – from the moment the first branch opened in Dlouhá street in 2009. At the time, however, no one expected it to become a bestseller. At present, they prepare hundreds of fried cheeses a day – as a result, cheese as a raw ingredient has commanded the attention of chefs, so that it reaches diners in its best form.

"We have wanted our own artisanal cheese for a long time. But finding a small farmer who would be able to produce 22 tons of cheese a year just for us, and also adapt it to our tastes, turned out to be a difficult task," explains Libor Baďura, Lokál's executive chef. Last year, after several unsuccessful attempts with various farmers and dairy producers, it was finally possible to establish cooperation with Farma Struhy, where artisanal cheese tailored to the needs of Lokál is now being produced.

At present, guests can taste it in selected Lokál locations, namely in Dlouhá, U Jiráta, Nad Stromovkou and U Bílé kuželky. Here, the new cheese is already lined up alongside the existing frying cheese, to grab the attention of visitors, allowing the chefs to get valuable feedback directly from them. "You won't find this kind of cheese anywhere else. It reflects not only our handiwork, but also its place of origin. Every artisanal dairy has a microclimate leak, which is why the products are unique," emphasises Tomáš Kojetín, co-owner of the Struhy farm.

A game of dairy

Of course, it was never going to be a straight path. Before the new cheese made its way onto the menu, it was preceded by more than a year and a half of testing with a lot of detours, dead ends and backtracking. The cheese is made from the milk of organically raised cattle and is a 100% natural product without any preservatives or stabilisers. That means that the result is slightly different every time, and each batch also behaves differently in the kitchen. The chefs were not only involved in the production itself, but also in the maturation process. Together with the Kojetín family from Struhy farm, they searched for the optimal ripeness point, so that the cheese was "just right", neither too soft nor too hard. Taste and saltiness were also evaluated.

Once the cheese was ready after several weeks of maturation, it was time for the real test. It was fried and tasted, attention being paid to the smoothness of the finished fried cheese and whether it stretched properly. Then, the chefs and farmers went back to the beginning and repeated the whole process with a new batch.

“It takes several weeks before the cheese gets from the dairy to the plate. After it goes through basic mixing and pressing, it travels to a salt bath where it spends 48 hours. Subsequently, the cheeses are stored for maturation, which lasts 4-5 weeks. It differs from classic edam precisely because of this longer ripening period. Over the past year and a half, we've already turned hectoliters of milk into cheese, and  we're not there yet. But we’re getting close," believes Libor Baďura.