How Catherine O’Hara and Dan Levy Perfected the Fan-Favorite ‘Fold in the Cheese’ Scene of “Schitt’s Creek”

Dan Levy and the late Catherine O’Hara, who died on Jan. 30 at 71, shared the screen for one of Schitt’s Creek’s most beloved jokes.

Levy, who is the show’s co-creator, gave fans some insight into how the iconic “fold in the cheese” moment in the series’ second season came to be.

The comedic moment starts with the Rose family — David (Levy), Alexis (Annie Murphy) and John (Eugene Levy) — talking about a chicken dish someone who worked for the family used to make, causing O’Hara’s Moira to whip her head around explaining that the “onchilada” recipe came from her mother. The rest of the family doesn’t seem convinced, despite the matriarch claiming that she “made it for you all the time!”

Throughout the show’s six seasons, Moira was full of silly mispronunciations (nobody can forget O’Hara’s choice to pronounce “baby” as “bébé”!) but the “onchilada” moment had a specific origin.

Dan told Variety the backstory in 2020: “I remember we wrote the ‘fold in the cheese’ episode. We were on set, and she was saying ‘enchilada,’ and I remember tiptoeing in and saying, ‘What if you said on ONchelada?’ And she was like, ‘Yep! Got it! Good.’”

The episode’s “onchilada” saga continued as Moira makes David help her and a later scene shows the pair in a kitchen, with him over the stove and Moira reading off a recipe.

“Now’s not the time to lose focus, darling,” Moira micromanages, causing David to shout, “This was your idea! You’re the one who allegedly made the enchiladas.”
“Yes, so try to keep up,” she replies bluntly. “Okay next, now’s the time to sprinkle in the chili pepper flakes.”

“We’ve already done that,” David tells her, causing her to panic and scan through the recipe, “What number are we on?”

“Oh my god, is this not your mother’s recipe?” David cries.

“Yes and now I’m passing it on to you so try to keep up. Oh, next step is to fold in the cheese,” Moira says, holding a bowl of shredded cheese out to David expectedly. David, still fervorously stirring, looks at his mother in confusion and asks, “What does that mean? What does ‘fold in the cheese’ mean?”

“You fold it in,” Moira responds quickly.

“I understand that but how? How do you fold it? Do you fold it in half like a piece of paper and drop it in the pot or what do you do?

“David, I cannot show you everything,” Moira replies glumly and sternly.

“Okay, well can you show me one thing?” he quips back.

“Here’s what you do. You just fold it in,” she says back.

Frustrated, David counters, “Okay I don’t know how to fold broken cheese like that!”

Moira shouts, “And I don’t know how to be any clearer! You take that thing that’s in your hand and you—” before David interrupts her, “If you say fold in one more time—” and Moira interjects, “It says fold it in!”

“This is your recipe you fold in the cheese then!

“Don’t you dare! David!” David walks out of the kitchen and Moira huffs and takes his spot over the pot. “Oh good. Now I see bubbles,” she says in an irritated voice. “David! What does burning smell like?”

During the Canadian sitcom’s run, which ended in 2020, O’Hara won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role as Moira.

O’Hara told PEOPLE in 2024 that she would “die” to do a revival of the Emmy-winning comedy.

 “I would love to,” she shares. “We did a bit of a tour after we finished the show, and it was so much fun. I’d love to just be with them all again. Doing a movie would be wonderful. Yeah, I hope it happens.”

On Jan. 30, PEOPLE confirmed that the Canadian actress died. The comedy legend, known for Home Alone, Beetlejuice, Best in Show and much more, was 71 years old, and she’s survived by her husband Bo Welch, 74.