Queso and Miso
Mansi Jasani and Gayatri Desai are nerds about fermentation
Over a decade ago, I volunteered on several family-run farms that not only grew gorgeous organic produce, they extended the life of everything they harvested through several loving acts of preservation. I suddenly understood the role of fermentation in making chocolate and sourdough, growing coffee and brewing wine and vinegar—and it solidified that all the good things in life are fermented.
Cheesemonger Mansi Jasani and chef Gayatri Desai would probably agree with me that the alchemical process that occurs when microorganisms like bacteria and yeast break down sugars and starches is food science’s most delicious discoveries because both of them have devoted much of their time, travel and careers to the study and the practise of fermentation.
Mansi runs The Cheese Collective, through which she curates a selection of artisanal cheeses from India and abroad, as well as retails her own fresh cheeses, on top of offering cheese boards, grazing tables, gift baskets, and educational workshops, tastings and pairings. Gayatri is the founder of Ground Up, an intimate 15-seater fermentation-focused rooftop restaurant in Pune known for its experimental, ever-changing menus that combine and highlight locally sourced produce with ferments that are made from scratch inhouse.
Longtime collaborators and friends, with their event Queso and Miso, they shared their love of fermentation with enthusiastic eaters that were both hungry to learn (via a presentation) as well as eat a seven “course” meal comprised of bites that celebrate their two favourite ingredients. Think chevre and black bean miso with mulberries on Danish rye bread, to a soft taco with mushrooms or lardo with aged paneer and white bean miso.
“We approached the menu like a love letter to funk,” says Mansi who shares more about her love for cheese and the collaboration in the interview below.
Mansi, so how did you and Gayatri meet?
We met in 2016. It's actually a really cool story. Her aunt Manna and my dad Aneesh were both visiting people in hospital in Bombay that January. My dad was sitting in the canteen, and he just started chatting with her aunt, who told him she's from Pune. So my dad was like “my daughter is getting married and will be coming to Pune soon, she's a cheesemaker and a cheesemonger,” and she said, “oh my niece is a chef, she's coming back from Canada, we should connect them.” Then when Gayatri called me, I was on my honeymoon, and then she never called me back probably thinking, “oh my god, this snobby South Bombay person.” But in April, her aunt called me and said, “will you call her?”
So I happily did call and we met in May. On the first day itself, she took me on her bike and said, “Come see my rooftop. I've just painted a section.” I was thinking okay, cool, but I don't do bikes like maybe in Goa or Rajkot, so I was a little apprehensive. But the place was really cool, and we just clicked and I guess after she showed me her rooftop, I've just been hanging out there ever since.
Wow, the same rooftop. That’s so full circle. So you guys have collaborated previously right?
Yes, the first ever thing we did was Southern American food, where she made biscuits and grits, and I did a cheese tasting at that pop-up, in 2017 maybe. Then we did a couple of small dinners and tastings, but a major one we did was a cheese-themed dinner, in 2019, I think. Which was a proper 9 course meal.
Oh you’re practised collaborators. So how did you land on doing Queso and Miso?
Like me, Gayatri also immerses herself in the food, and culture, and brings back stuff from her travels and she loves working with Asian techniques. You know, her love for fermentation has gradually grown over the years. So it was like cheese is who I am and miso is who she is, and both need fermentation, it’s just different techniques, and different cultures. So we played on the word culture, because also bacteria helps in aiding fermentation. I don't know honestly if anyone else in the world has done cheese and miso like this. I think people put miso in a mac and cheese, a grilled cheese, but nobody has done these kind of bites, because she's playing on her strengths and I am mine.
But you were also certain you wanted to teach through this thing? Because it wasn't just a dinner.
We wanted people to know how to eat cheese and how to eat miso individually and together. And we wanted to do that in a fun way because people just think of melting cheese on things, or miso broth, but there's so much more to it. We didn’t want it to be a full-blown dinner because we wanted the educational element, so we decided on seven different bites, but then we both also speak about fermentation, and our roles, and explain the categories and the families of cheese and types of miso, and the common elements of fermentation and the differences. And we also come together to talk about these elements work together in each dish.
What do you guys want people to know about fermentation?
Fermentation is transformation. It’s alive, it’s patient, and it’s deeply human. It connects us to ancient wisdom and modern science at once. We often think of it as funky or niche, but it’s at the heart of so many things we love: bread, wine, yogurt, cheese, chocolate. Fermentation is a quiet rebellion against fast, sterile food. It brings flavor, complexity, and a bit of magic back to the table.
Tell me the history of you and cheese. What piqued your interest and what keeps it now?
Cheese found me and I found cheese. Years ago, I entered Murray’s Cheese in New York and it changed everything—I was exposed to this amazing world of natural and artisanal cheese. It was alive, expressive, nothing like the fake stuff. I returned to India obsessed, and that obsession became purpose. What keeps me going is how cheese reflects a place, the people, and the process. Each wheel tells a story, from microbial terroir to the hands that made it. I’m still learning, still falling in love.
I imagine there’s no typical work day but what is one like for you?
One day I’m on a farm with goats, and the next, I’m in my cheese atelier in Bombay making cheese platters or curating private cheese tastings or teaching about cheese to turophiles. My weekdays often start with emails and cheese tastings! On event days, it’s full-on: styling cheese boards, checking temperatures, briefing teams, and making sure that magic happens the moment guests walk in. The best days are when I lose track of time because I’m geeking out over texture and rind or watching someone discover their first love-at-first-bite moment.
Why should people expand their knowledge of cheese?
Whenever you have an ingredient, anything that's natural or artisanal, it's important to know how to enjoy it in its fullest. So you want to make sure that you pick the right one, store it the right way, and then you enjoy it in different ways that are suited to you whether as it is, or paired with something, or cooking with it.
I want for people who love cheese to be exposed to the different families of cheese. Especially when someone asks me, oh, do you have a fresh cheddar. I want them to know that fresh is a category of cheese, and cheddar is aged. When people attend, I want them to takeaway just even a few things like to not freeze cheese, and maybe wrap it the right way and refrigerate it. That these are delicate ingredients that need care, and when people understand this, they get curious, they want to know more.
Take me through the process of collaborating on Queso and Miso.
Working with Gayatri is magical and unnerving at the same time because I'm not a trained chef, and a lot of these things I've learned are through her. She's a treasure trove of ideas, and her imagination is literally endless. I'm not trying to be biased when I say that she is one of the best chefs of the country but I truly mean that, because her mind just works differently from everyone else. And then I have a delicate palette, and the sensibilities I’ve trained with, and I experience I’ve gained, and it’s been really interesting and amazing to bring that together.
We have to meet in person always, and we’re constantly trying something, or experimenting with a new pairing or a new flavour. And the number of times we make the bread again, or the cracker again, to get the right crunch, to get the right ratio of the rice. That has to all be done in person.
You were bringing cheese in, she was bringing miso in, but what did you use as a starting point?
You know, for the dinner we had done a couple of years ago, we had already dunked some cherry mozzarella in miso for a few days and then we had sliced that and used it in the salad. That was something that really stayed with us so we definitely wanted to include that in the menu. But apart from that, it was like let's try all the 30 misos, let's try all the 20 cheeses and then see what's going on, because this is a new thing we’re creating. Like black bean miso has sweetness, while white miso is much more delicate, so it could be paired with a much younger cheese. That's why white miso goes very well in a mac and cheese, you know? Because there’s milk in a bechamel sauce. And then the more aged misos are so much stronger, so we use less of it. And we paired it with the brunost which balances out those really bold flavours.
Then because everything is soft in miso and cheese, we needed lots of crunch elements, so I personally loved pairing a rice cracker with brunost. And everything at Ground Up is made from scratch so we just made our own rice cracker.
What is your personal favourite bite?
That’s hard—but if I had to choose, it would be the whipped brie with the pavta miso on an amazake toast drizzled with honey. It is buttery, salty, sweet, toasty and a true celebration of taste and time.
Thank you Mansi!
Follow her on Instagram at @cheesewali, and keep up with @thecheesecollective @groundup.in!
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