New York City is crazy about burrata. The silky cheese from Puglia landed in the city a decade ago and seduced newyorkers with its soft, creamy center. Now, it is all over the place. You’d have a hard time finding a restaurant that resisted the temptation of putting it on its menu. Chefs serve it with mango, habanero chile and apricot jam; they dump it into piping hot oil and deep fry it; they melt it inside grilled cheese sandwiches and on top of french toasts for brunch. Murray’s Cheese Shop hosts burrata making classes during the weekends, and even the chain Sweetgreen offers a small ball of burrata as an add on for its salad bowls.
“The burrata is so popular because it has a reputation of being a fresh, light cheese,” says Dino Borri, vice president of business strategy and marketing at Eataly US, “even if it’s quite the opposite.”
But, aside from its Italian reputation and creamy taste, there are a few practical reasons why burrata conquered New York City. It is made of cow’s milk, so it’s cheaper than mozzarella di bufala. And it does not have a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), which means anyone can interpret the concept of burrata however they want and restaurants can make it in their own kitchens.
The original burrata from Puglia is a shell of mozzarella filled with cream, or butter. But the restaurant Macchina, for example, which is famous for its burrata pizza, fills it with ricotta cheese instead.
According to Dino Borri, locally made burratas can be very high quality, and they make more sense from a sustainability point of view than shipping the cheese directly from Puglia. “Of course, I still think there’s a difference between a product from Puglia and a local one. The milk is different, the cows have a different diet.”
To have the real Pugliese deal, you can go to Eataly, that has it shipped directly from Puglia twice a week. If you’d rather shop local, Borri says, both Murray’s Cheese Shop and Di Palo’s Fine Foods know what they’re doing."