Chèvre For The Season

Fresh chèvre takes advantage of spring produce

Chèvre For The Season

When people think about seasonal eating, fruits and vegetables are the first foods that spring to mind. There’s a world of difference between the plump ripe tomato plucked from the vine in July and the pale anemic import offered at the supermarket in the depths of winter. There are other produce changes in flavor and texture throughout the growing season — consider the new potatoes of early summer and their heftier autumn cousins, or compare the tender leaves of young kale to its robust, more mature version.
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Cheesemonger Invitational ROCKS San Francisco

Rory Stamp takes first place at West Coast CMI, as event founder Adam 
Moskowitz plans big changes for future competitions.

Cheesemonger Invitational ROCKS San Francisco

Rory Stamp of Burling, VT’S Dedalus Wine Shop describes his preparation for the 2018 Cheesemonger Invitational as “a lot of work,” but when speaking with him, his dedication to the craft and passion for cheese become quite evident, bordering on the heroic in this cut-throat competition.

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A Spirit Runs Through It

A tour of Pennsylvania’s bountiful Chester County region

A Spirit Runs Through It

About a 45-minute drive west of Philadelphia or a little more than two hours from New York’s Penn Station by Amtrak, the hamlet of Downingtown, PA, along with nearby villages, is a gemlike enclave in western Chester County. Seemingly worlds away from the hustle of metropolitan life, the rolling hills traced by winding roads are shared with Amish buggies. No one seems hurried.

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Inside Bra: The Cheese Capital Of Italy

The 2017 Slow Food’s Cheese event attracted 300,000 attendees to this food-centric city for a gastronomic celebration

Inside Bra: The Cheese Capital Of Italy

One of the more interesting aspects of living in Bra, Italy is the food. You might call it a gastronomic microclimate – the Braidese are accustomed to a certain quality of cuisine. There are supermarkets, yes and even discount stores; it’s hard to avoid them; yet this small provincial town of 30,000 has a disproportionate number of butchers (11) as well as numerous bakeries, specialty stores, cafés and restaurants. It is incredibly hard to eat badly around here – you have to go out of your way to do it. For all the beautiful castles and mountains that dot the countryside, it’s food and wine that draws people into this pocket of Italy.

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A Roquefort Revolution

This French sheep’s milk Blue has an esteemed history

A Roquefort Revolution

In Delphine Carles’ first memories of Roquefort cheese, she’s following her father around a drafty limestone cave, one of the many that naturally occur in the rugged, dolomitic rock of France’s Mont Combalou. At 1,970 feet above sea level in the country’s southern Massif Central, this intricate network of caverns has earned global renown as the only place in the world Roquefort cheese can be aged. The esteemed sheep’s milk Blue — a staple on holiday cheese plates and one of France’s most popular cheeses after Brie and Comté — can only be made by seven approved cheesemakers, and Delphine is one of them.

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