Honey, Pass the Spread
A cheesy spread for entertaining
Colby and Megan Garrelts opened Rye in Leawood, Kansas, intending to create a restaurant that their friends and family could frequent on more than just special occasions. Veterans of such fine-dining restaurants as Chicago’s Tru, the couple did a 180 by focusing Rye’s menu on Midwestern-inflected, homespun dishes. Many of the recipes were even born in the Garrelts’ home kitchen. This three-cheese-and-herb spread is one of them. They make theirs with Green Dirt Farm’s cottage-like sheep’s-milk cheese, but we used sheep’s-milk ricotta to great results.
Three-Cheese Herb-and-Honey Spread
Yield: 6 servings
Cook Time: 45 minutes
- INGREDIENTS
1 head garlic
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt, divided
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving
4 ounces fresh goat's-milk cheese (chèvre), at room temperature
½ cup fresh ricotta cheese (preferably sheep's-milk), at room temperature
¼ cup cream cheese, at room temperature
Honey (preferably wildflower), for serving
Roughly chopped fresh herbs (such as basil, chervil, tarragon, dill or parsley), for serving
1 small loaf sourdough bread, thickly sliced crosswise and lightly toasted
About The Chef
Colby Garrelts met pastry chef and wife Megan Schultz in the kitchen of Chicago’s Tru. The two moved to Las Vegas to work at Jean Joho’s Eiffel Tower Restaurant, and then Charlie Palmer’s Aureole in the Mandalay Bay Hotel before moving to Santa Monica’s Röckenwagner restaurant. The couple moved to Kansas City and opened Bluestem in 2004, then published Bluestem, The Cookbook in 2011. Rye opened in December 2012.



