Burrata, as chilly and plain as ever. Photograph: Hugo Yu
My good friend and I had been excited after we noticed “toast d’oursins” on the menu on the new East Village wine bar Ella Funt. We imagined plump lobes of uni draped over fresh-crisped baguette, the menu’s promised “mala oil” lending some tingly warmth. However our hearts sank when the $28 starter arrived and we noticed it for what it actually was: the restaurant’s burrata dish.
After all, the cheese was listed on the menu too, however we figured it will be a garnish; as an alternative, a thick layer was inconceivable to keep away from in each chew. I felt tricked. If the menu had known as this appetizer “burrata with toast and uni” — which is what it was — my eyes would have glazed proper over it. “Burrata with …” has change into so pervasive throughout town’s menus that it has taken the place of kale Caesars because the farm-to-table–period staple that the majority overstayed its welcome.
To be clear, the issue isn’t burrata itself, primarily a wrapping of mozzarella stuffed with cream. When it’s utilized judiciously (Marea’s chilled lobster with tomatoes and burrata involves thoughts), its dense, milky heft serves as a welcome base be aware to a dish’s different components. However too usually, the burrata is the point of interest, a thick blob of chilly dairy that will get a couple of splashes of seasonal garnishes and a $20 price ticket.
The chef Ignacio Mattos didn’t invent burrata, in fact (that occurred in Puglia round 100 years in the past), however the “burrata with salsa verde and toast” he served at Estela when it opened in 2013 grew to become one thing of a template: cheese + crunch + one thing Greenmarket-y. And like truffles or caviar, it has was a crutch for another cooks. Even ten years in the past in lauding Mattos’s dish, Occasions critic Pete Wells wrote, “Anybody can slap burrata on a plate and look forward to the moaning to start out.” A decade later, the road feels extra true than ever.
I’m pondering of the Colombian European wine bar Maite in Bushwick, which facilities its ball of burrata in a black pool of squid-ink sauce. At Otis, close by, the cheese is served with pesto and candy potato, whereas most Italian locations lean into some type of caprese. These are all the identical dish.
Then there are the in any other case high-quality dishes that get some degree of added burrata drama. (Sure, blame TikTok.) Take the orecchiette all’arrabbiata con burrata at Cucina Alba in Chelsea. It’s a nice-looking bowl of tomato-sauced pasta with a white orb within the center that the server snips with shears and tosses tableside till the cheese goes stringy and the once-delicate sauce takes on the colour and murky opacity of bottled vinaigrette. Burrata mania is shortly manifesting as extra. When individuals are promoting truffle–foie gras cheesesteaks topped with a ball of burrata, it’s clear issues have gotten out of hand.
Twenty years in the past, when it was nonetheless being flown in from Italy, burrata was fairly novel within the States. Now, Lori Church, a consultant for the longtime New Jersey cheese producer Lioni Latticini, says that gross sales have jumped over the previous 5 years and that burrata’s lasting recognition is due partially to elevated home manufacturing.
Perhaps it’s time to dial it again. I just like the hot-cold distinction of the comparatively austere burrata pizza at L’Industrie in Brooklyn, the place dots of contemporary cheese are effectively spaced out. However at Unregular Pizza in Union Sq., a whole $59 “burrapizza” could be ordered with six balls of burrata on high (one for every slice). “Open burrata up and unfold it out!” is printed on the again of each worker’s shirt, however I struggled to discover a spot in close by Union Sq. Park the place I may adequately dig right into a jiggly, tacky orb with out catastrophe. After I lastly discovered a approach to make it work, the mountain of cream overwhelmed the opposite features of the pizza.
Solely somebody with lactose intolerance may take into account burrata to be “unhealthy,” however all too usually, it’s predictable. Like steak for 2, a raw-bar tower, or Very Good Bread with “home” butter, “burrata with …” is serviceable, and completely unsurprising. I don’t blame restaurateurs — a lot of whom are solely simply beginning to get better from the monetary toll of the pandemic — for banking on simple crowd-pleasers, however I discover myself wishing extra folks would attempt to do one thing completely different. There’s one burrata invention I do suggest sometimes, although: the burrata comfortable serve at Dominique Ansel Bakery. It doesn’t present the joys of a creamy filling oozing out from a just-snipped cheese ball, but it surely does supply one thing higher: a small flash of artistic power.
