Austria is made up of many small regions, each with its own unmistakable cultural identity. From the high mountains that define the country’s stunning landscape, come some of Europe’s finest cheeses.
A Perfect Pairing
Combining savory cheese with sweet chocolate results in unique flavor sensations. Autumn excites chocolate lovers. The summer heat that melts the sweet stuff in our hands also coats a silky, dark brown bar, left to sit, in a bloom of white dust. But let the cooler weather set in, and we gravitate towards chocolate, just…
When The Work Is Worth It
Creating Portuguese cheese is labor-intensive, but the results make it worth the effort. Portugal’s most famous consumable may be Port, but everybody knows that few foods pair better with wine than cheese. So it should come as no surprise that this small country on the Iberian Peninsula produces outstanding cheeses—some so good they were once…
The Cheese CSA
Sustainably staying afloat through community. Farms and creameries around the country are diversifying their marketing and sales strategies to try to set themselves apart. Some are ushering product into neighborhoods at farmer’s markets or in grocery stores, and others are meeting customers exactly where they are by offering Community Supported Agriculture shares, or CSAs. Every…
Salute Grana Padano
A healthy Italian cheese with gusto. Beloved in its Italian homeland and throughout Europe, Grana Padano cheese was a familiar sight on the dinner table when chef Danilo Cortellini was growing up in the Abruzzo region. Now Cortellini is passing that tradition on to his own family, and to visitors to the Italian Embassy in…
Casu Marzu: An Illegal Cheese
Those with a weak stomach may want to stop reading now, as there is an Italian cheese delicacy that is not for the faint of heart. In a past issue, Cheese Connoisseur detailed the making of Anthill cheese, chèvre topped with citrus-flavored ants originating from Australia. Italy’s Casu Marzu takes pairing cheese and insects a…
Bringing Italy’s Finest to the U.S.: Ambrosi Food USA’s CEO Giacomo Veraldi
One man’s mission to increase awareness of an Italian cheesemakers authentic offerings. When Italian Giacomo Veraldi joined Ambrosi in 2007, little did he know how far his mission to market the company’s cheeses would take him. Fast forward almost a decade and a half later, and his goal to make a name for the company’s…
Reflecting Its Roots: Lively Run Dairy’s Finger Lakes Reserve
Good things happen when cheese has the back of the region it’s created in. Interlaken, NY-based Lively Run Dairy’s focus is on supporting family farms and using their milk to make original cheese. One of its most heralded is Finger Lakes Reserve, which won first place at the 2019 American Cheese Society (ACS) conference in…
A Sustainable Cheese Company
Mozzarella has been a boon for Wisconsin’s Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese. In the early 80s, a group of four brothers acquired a farm in Waterloo, WI and started raising and milking 90 cows on a 200-acre property. Today, the farm is still run by brothers Charles, Thomas and Mark, while brother George and his wife…
Tradition and French AOC Cheeses
It’s all about the history, terroir, quality and flavor imparted in France. In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle famously mused, “How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?” While the point holds true, de Gaulle’s estimate was a lowball—France boasts closer to 1,600 varieties of cheese, which is a whole…
Testing a Monger Model
Cheesemongers at Chicago’s Beautiful Rind provide customers full service and education. Opening up his new Chicago cheese shop/foodservice operation, Beautiful Rind, during a pandemic obviously wasn’t ideal, but owner Randall Felts was still able to make a statement in the city’s trendy Logan Square neighborhood.
The Luxurious Truffle Cheese
The sought after fungi takes cheese to unique heights. When we think of luxurious food ingredients, few carry the mystique, or command the price tag, of truffles. The fungi, not the chocolates.