What Cheese Customers Want Now: Flavor, Heritage and Something to Talk About

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

When I look at what is happening in cheese right now, the biggest thing I see is that people are looking for more than just something to put on a board. They want character. They want a story. They want to know where the cheese comes from, who made it, how long it aged and what makes it different.

That is what excites me about cheese today.

At Uncle Giuseppe’s, we are an Italian specialty market, so our customers naturally connect with the cheeses of Italy. That is our culture, that is our food, and that is what people come to us for. But even beyond that, I think customers everywhere are becoming more curious. They are more open-minded. They are looking for unique brands, unique flavors, and products they cannot find everywhere else.

For me, that is where the work begins.

As a cheese buyer, my job is not just to fill a case. My job is to go out, build relationships with the right producers and bring back cheeses that make sense for our customers. It has to taste great, of course, but it also has to have a reason to be there. There has to be something behind it — a tradition, a family, a region, a method, a flavor profile that makes people stop and ask questions.

That is what I was looking for when I traveled to Italy and attended TUTTOFOOD, an international food and beverage trade fair in Milan. I wanted to see what was new, but I also wanted to reconnect with the producers and the regions that have been doing things the right way for generations. You can learn a lot by walking a show, tasting, talking and listening. You get a feel for where the category is going, but you also see how much of the best cheese still comes down to relationships and tradition.

One of the biggest trends I see is a return to heritage producers. People want authenticity. They want cheeses that feel connected to the way they cook and gather at home. For our customers, that means Italian cheeses that bring them back to the table — Sunday dinner, family celebrations, antipasto, pasta, fresh bread, wine, and all the things that make the meal feel complete.

The other trend is discovery. Customers are willing to try something new if you give them a reason. Maybe it is a sharper provolone, a longer-aged Parmigiano Reggiano, a mountain cheese, or a cheese from a smaller producer they have never heard of before. If the story is there and the flavor is there, people respond to it.

During my trip, I spent time strengthening relationships with producers like casArrigoni, Ambrosi and Auricchio. Auricchio, to me, is one of the premier provolone makers in the world. When you taste a cheese like that, you taste experience. You taste history. Those are the kinds of products that help educate the customer without making it complicated. You give them something real, and they understand it the moment they taste it.

We also have a very special relationship with Cantarelli, a boutique cheesemaker in Parma that produces our branded Parmigiano Reggiano. That relationship is important to us because Parmigiano Reggiano is one of those cheeses that everybody knows, but not everybody fully understands. There are levels to it. There is age, region, milk, producer, texture and flavor. A great Parmigiano Reggiano can be nutty, savory, crystalline, rich, and beautiful all at once.

This year, we are expanding that offering with a 48-month Parmigiano Reggiano. That is exciting because as Parmigiano ages, it develops more depth and more character. You get those crunchy crystals, that concentrated flavor, that long finish. It is a cheese people can use for cooking, but it is also something you can break apart and enjoy on its own.

We are also looking at mountain Parmigiano Reggiano and Vacche Rosse, or red cow Parmigiano Reggiano. Those are the kinds of items that give customers something new to learn about. They are still rooted in Italian tradition, but they offer a different expression of that tradition. That is what keeps the category interesting.

What really gets me excited are the special wheels, the rare pieces that have age, scarcity and a story behind them. We recently got our hands on a 20-year Parmigiano Reggiano, and that is not something you see every day. A wheel like that has character. It has history. It gives us something to talk about with the customer, and it gives the customer something they may have never experienced before.

That is what cheese should do. It should start a conversation.

I think the best cheese programs today are the ones that make people feel connected. Connected to a place, to a producer, to their own heritage, or even just to the people they are sharing the cheese with. At the end of the day, cheese is food, but it is also experience. It belongs on the table. It belongs in the kitchen. It belongs at family gatherings. It gives people a reason to slow down and enjoy something made with care.

That is what I am always looking for.

The trend is not just one cheese or one flavor. The trend is that people want something real. They want cheeses with meaning, with quality and with a story worth telling. And when we can bring those cheeses into our stores and share them with our customers, that is when we are doing our job right.

Franklin Fernandez is a cheese expert at Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace.