By Emma Young, Comment News. Video by Matthew Poon
BORRELLO Cheese, a company instantly recognisable at supermarkets throughout WA, must be doing something right: the third generation of family cheese makers is now working on the Oakford property.
Owner Teresa Borrello showed Comment News through the factory where she, her husband Vince and their three daughters Maree, Julia and Lisa Borrello, start work at 5.30am to make the cheeses that have borne their family name for nearly 30 years.
“It becomes a lifestyle,” Teresa says simply.
Teresa and Vince took over, expanded and branded the business from his parents, dairy farmers and cheese makers, 28 years ago, and do their bit to support the WA dairy industry, using 11,000 litres of milk, every day, six days a week.
The warm, sweet-smelling factory is a hive of activity every morning, getting the day’s stock ready to go, and every family member can be found at any moment keeping a watchful eye over the pasteurising tank, the brine room, weighing room or the maturing room.
Bocconcini balls bounce at speed off the machine that moulds them; an enormous vat of curd pours out its by-product, whey, to make the famous ricotta; and Julia and Lisa Borrello ladle spoonfuls of this ricotta into containers from another tank.
A sense of purpose is in the pleasantly steamy air, and as various machines hiss and whiz and pour, you don’t have to be a cheese tragic like this writer to get a distinct sense of Willy Wonka-style magic.
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