Mr Sergio Moro

“In order to become an affineur you need, besides carefully selected raw materials and a very deep knowledge about working techniques, a great dose of fantasy, creativity and will to experiment new combination of flavors and perfumes”.
This is the word of Sergio Moro, thanks to his skills like an affineur he brought the company to be known and appreciated all over the world.

The Latteria Moro, situated in Oderzo, a small village in the province of Treviso, today commercializes its cheeses from the United States to Japan. The products has conquered pages in so many prestigious international magazines; the last one is Elle Singapore, that in a deepening about “Dream cheeses” inserted  two products made by Latteria Moro: Choco 21, a blue cheese refined with chocolate liquor and Fior d’Arancio, a blue cheese refined with passito wine Fior d’Arancio DOCG.

Together with Sergio we retraced the story of this successful company, that year by year continues to come up with new original ideas capable of taking a place in the market.

We’ve interviewed Sergio Moro, affineur

When and how the Latteria Moro was born?
It was born in 1930 by my grandfather Luigi, who with the help of his two sons built up a milk collection centre for the diaries of the area, to sell it then bulk to the families. In the 1950 the company specialized in the production of cheese in two branches: one for my uncle and one to my father. In the ’80 I got into the game and for differentiate my father’s activity I studied the recovery of the ancient aging and seasoning techniques used by shepherds and farmers. The idea worked: the company in time is grown and today we have ten employees, dealing with all the phases of the process.

What criteria are used to choose suppliers and materials that you need to make your products?
We work as a team: there’s who deal with the selection of the cheeses to be refined, which we buy from the producers, and who have to supply the ingredient that we need. In particular wine, which we use in various cheeses, bring us to work together with wine-making companies and consortia, I think about Prosecco and Amarone. The choice of combination between cheese and wine is made through many technical tests in laboratory. But there’s a rule that we follow: we choose rigorously local cheeses based on the region of origin of the wine. So, for the Prosecco, a cheese made in the province of Treviso, and for Amarone a cheese from Verona area.

You make lots of use of must and grape juice for your cheeses. Why must and not wine?
Because the must is way more fragrant, it keeps unalterated all the organoleptic properties and grape perfumes, which are a little bit lost in the wine.

In you products there’s a lot of research in innovation that fit well to the palate, I think for example to the Choco 21, the Nero Fumè, refined with mint, verbena and chamomile. How do these combinations arise?
They arise from the need to invent ever new products to satisfy an increasingly demanding and sophisticated clientele. So I make various suggestions: I give the fantasy, my team the technical research to obtain the best result, throught many tests in laboratory. For example, for the Choco 21, the idea came to my mind from a recipe of the chef Antonio Canavacciuolo, the “cioccolato e gorgonzola”, in which the combinations enriches a base of potato cream and topinambur. While for the Nero fume, Lapsang Souchong black tea blue cheese smoked on cedar and pine wood, the ispiration came to me by participating to a tasting organized from Valsana about the combination of cheese and tea.

Yours is a job that gives great satisfaction and leaves room for creativity, but what are the difficulties you face?
Our team is very tight and work with serenity and expertise. The only difficulties are burocratic, mainly for products that need DOC or DOCG ingredients.

Giulia Basso