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