American Cheese

I love cheese. And if you love cheese I believe we can all remember when our love affair began. Mine has two distinct events. Both happened to be when I was traveling overseas. The first was in Greece, and I fell in love with this white stuff called Feta. It tasted like earthy mushrooms and meadows filled with wild flowers. I could picture an old Greek man with his wishing beads in one hand, a cigarette hanging from his mouth while churned cheese with his other hand. My second epiphany with cheese was while I was in Paris. I had bought a baguette sandwich with brie and butter for 3 Euros from a street vendor. The brie was like butter in my mouth and the flaky baguette was falling all over my shirt, but I didn’t care, because it was simply heaven in my mouth. And possible the best meal I had while in Paris.

So when I came across the book titled “The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey through the Making and Selling of Cheese in American, From Field to Farm to Table,” by Liz Thorpe, I had to read it. Why not educate myself and understand my love affair with cheese just a little bit more. Who is Liz Thorpe you ask? Well she is the vice president of Murray’s Cheese in New York City. She is the women top chefs like Thomas Keller call to get the best cheese for their restaurants. But you ask is there good cheese in America?

That was the first thing I asked myself when reading the book’s cover. All I know of American cheese is well American Kraft singles. You know the pre-packaged stuff your mom would buy along with bologna and white bread. The stuff that was suppose to taste good, but didn’t. That’s my image of American cheese. Other cheeses like Parmesan and Ricotta came when I worked in an Italian Restaurant during college. But those cheeses still didn’t wake me up to the essence of cheese. I am still not certain that America can produce good cheese like the Europeans, but this statement comes from my lack of tasting or finding good American made cheese to date.

The book is a page turner, a learning experience, a cultural cheese awakening, and for me just downright full of knowledge I didn’t have before. Without boring you to death with details because if you want the details you should read the book. The book not only opens your mind to the world of cheese, but also opens your mind to the world of cheese in America. Thorpe tells us how to identify cheese. Step One: Where is your cheese from? Cow, Goat, or Sheep’s milk. Step Two: Taste (Taste with your eyes first, noise second, mouth third). Step Three: Cheese Families. Fresh, Bloomy, Washed Rind, Uncooked Pressed, Cooked Pressed, and Blue. Once you have the basics, it’s a journey through America’s history and pioneering with cheese and making it. Thorpe often gives personal stories of cheese makers she has met along her travels to find good cheese. These stories are entertaining, and informative.

By the end of the book it almost makes me want to leave my 3 bedroom suburban home in Orange County, California and buy some land and goats in Northern California or Vermont. Once there I can make my own feta cheese to sell at the local farmers' markets. And maybe, just maybe one day my cheese will make it on a plate at Thomas Keller’s restaurant. But that will not be happening. Realistically I am going to pay more attention to the cheese makers pushing cheese at my local farmer’s market or any farmer’s market that I visit in my travels. I will look for Artisanal American made cheese when I shop for cheese at the grocery store first, instead of going straight for the imported cheese from France and Greece.
American cheese makers, some good and some not so good start out small. Selling and marketing their cheese on their own. Hoping to get someplace like Murray’s to buy their cheese then to resale their cheese to restaurants like the French Laundry. While others are just happy to sell it at the Farmer’s Market, American cheese makers are like artist, they are just happy to make it. Thorpe said this in her book “American cheese is one of the cornerstones of preserving responsible agriculture, respectful animal husbandry, and all-around good eating in this big country if ours.”

So go out there and buy a wedge of something. Something made in America. Something that we hope will taste good, but if not it is the experience we are after not the hype. And yes read Liz Thorpe’s book as well if you want to deepen your knowledge of cheese. ISBN 978-0-06-145116-4.