foodsources
a fresh arrival
From Minas Gerais to Manitoba, a centuries-old Brazilian cheese finds a home on the Prairies
By Laurie Hughes
Inside the Dairy Science Building at the University of Manitoba, four people move quietly around stainless steel vats, waiting for milk to reach exactly the right temperature before starter cultures and rennet are added. There is little wasted motion— just the steady rhythm of stirring, watching, cutting curds and draining whey. Everyone wears gloves, rubber boots and protective coverings as fresh white curds slowly begin to take shape.
By the following morning, the cheese will be packed and moved into a walk-in cooler. A day or two later, it will arrive at specialty food shops, restaurants and farmers’ markets across Manitoba, with shipments also heading to Montreal and Toronto.
Soft, snowy white and meant to be eaten fresh rather than aged, Minas Frescal is one of Brazil’ s most beloved everyday cheeses. Yet the version being made in Winnipeg by Unique Brazilian Dairy has earned recognition far beyond its country of origin, capturing gold in the Fresh Unripened Cheese category at the American Cheese Society’ s annual competition three years in a row.
For founder Fabiola Della Pria, however, the story began long before the awards, with the simple desire to recreate a familiar taste from home.
Eleven years ago, she and her family left São Paulo for Winnipeg in search of a quieter life and a safer place to raise their three young children. What they didn’ t expect was how difficult it would be to find one of the simplest foods they had left behind.
“ In Brazil, Minas Frescal is everywhere,” she explains.“ Here, we couldn’ t find it.” So she made it herself. Cheesemaking wasn’ t new to her. Her family had made cheese on their farm in Brazil, where the recipe was passed down through practice rather than written instructions. Making Minas Frescal was simply part of everyday life.
Starting a business wasn’ t the original plan. Recreating a cheese her family had always made was. Encouragement from local farmers and customers eventually changed that. After extensive research and development through the University of Manitoba, along with the testing required to meet Canadian food safety regulations, Unique Brazilian Dairy
8 ciao! / aug / sep / two thousand twenty-six