Cover Stories

Feature Stories

BLUE CHEESES — WORLDS OF FLAVOR

Blue can be one of those love-or-hate, one-and-done types of cheeses. But there is an entire world of these cheeses, each with its own combination of sharp, salty, tangy taste and soft, creamy texture. Take Northern Spain’s iconic Cabrales for example. In August, global headlines broadcast a 4.5-pound wheel of this artisan blue sold at auction for $32,000, awarding it a world record for the most expensive cheese. Even if a $6,000 per pound cheese was in your grocery budget, you’d have to travel to Spain’s principality of Asturias to sample this highly perishable product.

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Grana Padano Deserves its Own Spotlight

Grana Padano, one of the world’s most ancient hard cheeses, is truly beloved. It’s the most popular cheese in Italy and the most widely consumed Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese in the world, with over 5 million wheels made each year with almost a quarter of Italy’s milk production. There’s good reason it’s so sought after and celebrated. The firm, crumbly wheels are luxuriously sweet, nutty, fragrant and outstanding.

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Cheesemaker Profiles

Four Fat Fowl is All About Family

Four Fat Fowl is a family of maniacal cheese lovers with a commitment to making locally sourced, handcrafted cheeses in Stephentown, NY. The genesis of the company goes back 10 years to 2013 when husband and wife Willy and Shaleena Bridgham decided to put their long-term dream of making cheese

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Centerfold Cheeses

Pure Luck: Basket Molded Chèvre

Pure Luck Farm and Dairy in Dripping Springs, TX, has been making handmade artisan goat cheeses since 1995, so it was more than just “pure luck” when the dairy’s Basket Molded Chèvre tied for third place best of show in the 2023 American Cheese Society Judging and Competition, making it among the top five tastiest cheeses in the U.S.

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CENTERFOLD
Goat Lady Dairy’s Providence

Goat Lady Dairy in Climax, NC, has been producing its award-winning Providence cheese for over a decade, but it is not always available. “We’ve taken breaks from it throughout the years,” says the dairy’s owner Carrie Bradds. She describes its creation as a “happy accident”. “When we started developing this

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Cheese Retailer Profiles

Bedford Cheese Shop’s Evolution

This Manhattan gem sources more obscure cheeses, while going the extra mile to educate customers. When friends Jason Scherr and Jason Jeffries established Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn, NY’s Williamsburg Mini Mall back in 2001, they had no idea it would become a beloved part of New York City. Fast

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A Rhode Island Cheese Institution

 Casey and Adrienne D’Arconte, owners of Edgewood Cheese Shop Edgewood Cheese Shop has become a destination for New Englanders seeking specialty cheese. Wanting to open a shop filled with things they loved, Adrienne D’Arconte and husband Casey set out in 2015 on what she calls their “passion project”. “I always

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Artisan Cheese in the Mile High City

Denver’s Truffle Cheese Shop proves a small space is no obstacle when it comes to selling gourmet cheeses. When Lisa Morris purchased the Truffle Cheese Shop in August of 2021, she set out to change the offerings of the previous store, which focused on truffles and exotic foods. “Prior to

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Editorial

Guest Columnists

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Cheesy Events

An Epic Mortadella

In Italy, the land of culinary excellence, mortadella is synonymous with good food and the joy of life. Veroni celebrates the mortadella tradition and taste, bringing the largest one ever seen in the U.S. to the Big Apple’s biggest food and wine event. The giant mortadella, the queen of Italian

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Eating Out

Raising the Bar

Murray’s Cheese Bar LIC opens a Long Island City flagship restaurant combined with a retail store and its first full-service bar. Murray’s Cheese has expanded greatly since it was first opened as a single-store retailer located in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1940. Today, in addition to its original

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Liquid Indulgence

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Wine from Long Island

Celebrated wine aficionado, Ron Kapon, who is known in wine circles as the Peripatetic Oenophile — the traveling wine expert — answers questions that Cheese Connoisseur readers have asked.

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Cooking with Cheese

Fondue Entree - Roth Cheese

Fondue Re-Do   

Recently, I’ve noticed fondue sets, including a pot, table stand with burner and color-coated forks, are being sold in cookware shops and online again. I say “again” because a couple of times in my past, serving fondue was all the rage, and I loved serving this to my family and

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Where's my Cheese?

New Mexico

Artisan Goat Cheeses of New Mexico

Extreme diversity distinguishes the southwest from other U.S. Regions. I-40 (old Route 66) splits the Southwest into two distinct environments: the northern divide has cool climates, tall pines and mountainous terrain, for example, in Santa Fe and Flagstaff. The southern divide is hot, flat and arid, like Albuquerque and Phoenix.

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