Taste of Cheese » master class

Becoming the Big Cheese

tasteofcheese — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:07:06 +0000

How do you go from being a cheese lover to being an expert on all things cheese, a Master Fromager… The Big Cheese? It’s not like I can go get my Master’s Degree in Cheese – wait, can I do that? (If someone knows how to get your MA in cheese, let me know!) Well, given the unlikely situation that I will be returning to school to major in Cheese-ology, I will have to go about becoming an expert in other ways. While cheese degrees might be few and far-between, there are many educational opportunities in the world of cheese. If you have been following this blog, you know that I already had the pleasure of taking the Master Class at the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center in NYC. In my quest to become the Big Cheese, I will definitely be looking for more places to grow my knowledge and I’m lucky enough to live in a cheese-friendly city like Toronto where lots of people want to share all that they know about cheese.

But what do you do when you aren’t in a class, or reading articles and blogs and books?

Well, you eat cheese. And lots of it!!

As of today, I begin on a new journey to try as many new cheeses as I can (and to tell you about as many of them as I can!!) I can’t promise that I will be able to eat a new cheese every day, but I can promise my very honest opinion – and that has to count for something, right? I can’t wait to get started!

Hmmm… I wonder what I’ll find to eat today?

A Great Cheese Site!! curdnerds.com

tasteofcheese — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:05:45 +0000

I’ve been reading a great cheese blog that has links to everything you could imagine about cheese!! If you haven’t read www.curdnerds.com go and check it out. It has an excess of cheesiness and links to lots of other great places.

The Ones That Stayed On The Plate… My Bottom 5 Cheeses

tasteofcheese — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:46:51 +0000

While it would be nice to imagine adoring every cheese that was served up at the Artisanal Master Class, that certainly isn’t very realistic. Most of the cheese I gobbled up was yummy and wonderful. But there were five that took me on an undesirable cheese field trip to the the un-mucked barns that they began their lives in! (Or something to that effect.)

So here they are.. my bottom of the barrel, or barn! BUT – don’t take this list to mean you shouldn’t try these cheeses. In fact, go try them and come back and tell me why you think I’m completely crazy for not liking them!!

Again, I’ll go from the best of the worst, to my least favourite! I won’t bore you with super long descriptions, just some key words.

5) Pecorino Toscano Stagionato DOC, Italy, Sheep Milk
- Salty smell, more barn-like than the other Pecorino we tasted, too peppery

4) Liberty’s Cream, USA, Goat
- Goat taste should be hidden more but it is very strong, very lactic, odd herbal flavour

3) Roncal, Spain, Sheep Milk
- Very gamey, a strong sheepy aroma, grainy texture

2) Cabecou Feuille, France, Goat
- This little cheese is wrapped in a Chestnut leaf which leaves a very bitter, unpleasant flavour; off spicy aftertaste

1) Le Moulis, France, Cow Milk
- Smells like a barn, unpleasantly tangy, underlying bitterness, very yeasty.
The Winner of my cheese losers!

And there you have it, the cheeses I wont be begging to try again.

Cheese and the City

tasteofcheese — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:09:08 +0000

Artisanal Premium Cheese Center

Good Morning!
Now that I am back to work in chilly Pefferlaw, Ontario, I can tell you all about the crazy cheese crash course that I took a few days ago at the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center in Manhattan. Now, I love cheese, and my goal is to know EVERYTHING there is to know about it – but that reality is far, far away. SO I decided to take a business trip to NYC and take an intense crash course in cheese. While T.O. has lots of places to learn about cheese, nothing could educate me as fast and as well as the 3-day long Master Class at the Artisanal Cheese Center.

Last Saturday I hopped on a plane from YYZ to LGA (mercifully, on time!) and flew into the greatest city in the world – after Toronto, of course! – ok, so REALLY I flew into Queens and stayed in Brooklyn, but it still counts. I had the pleasure of being the guest of a good friend of mine, a recent graduate of Parsons, who was nice enough to abandon life for a while to be my host and tour guide. We spent a great weekend walking around and eating sushi, thai, and dessert at chocolate restaurant, Max Brenner, which is the greatest place I have ever smelled! If you’re ever in NYC, go get something, anything, there! I promise it is worth it!

On Monday morning, after miraculously getting myself to 10th and W37th, my cheese education began. I had the pleasure, along with 10 other cheese-lovers, to be taught by some of the most accomplished cheese men out there: Max McCalman, Waldemar Albrecht, Denis Cottin (a fellow Canadian!) and even a couple more. Not since my favourite university lectures have I been so entranced by new knowledge of a subject. We covered everything from cheese history to the raw milk debate to why cheese is the perfect food! Denis was kind enough to lead our group through the caves at Artisanal, using his knowledge of affinage (aging) to explain to us the life span of each smelly cake of curds we encountered. And all of that doesn’t even include any of the cheese we tasted!!

Over the course of 3 days and 24 hours of class, I tasted at least 50 cheeses and paired many of them with some great wine. Never before has my palatte been bombarded with such amazing, cheesy tastes! I couldn’t begin to tell you my favourite, I have too many (look for those in my next post)!! I came away from the class with more cheesy knowledge than I thought I could and 50 new, favourites!

Next up: “The Cheese Awards” and “Stacey meets Murrays”

Check out the Artisanal Premium Cheese Center:
www.artisanalcheese.com