Well Fed On the Town

Do you find yourself at the grocery stumped on cheeses? Are you drawn to the same old selections like that crotin of goat or mozzerella? Do you go into those higher end grocers and get to the cheese aisle and find you are totally perplexed on the many offerings? Artisanal Cheese, a top supplier to Whole Foods, (and one of my favorite restaurants in NYC) offers courses to help you work through the many cheese options available out there. Their classes range from what cheese pairs best with what wines (did you know that brie is one of the worst pairings and also one of the most common found on cheese plates?) to beer and whisky pairings with cheese, to highlighting top regional producers or authors on cheese.

I attended Wine and Cheese 101 complimentary and enjoyed it so much I signed up for Whiskies and Cheese on my own. Wine and Cheese 101 was extremely informative: Brie, along with other soft cheeses are difficult to pair with wine because they are young and therefore, haven’t found out “who they want to be–” or “what flavors they want to express,” making them difficult to pair with wines. Another surprise was that blue cheese should always be the very last cheese you taste when eating/pairing cheese. Why? Because blue’s bold flavor palate will kill other more subtle cheeses (and wine). Just think about it, blue cheese really sticks to your palate.

Whiskies and Cheese was more fun, and well, a bit hazy.

Artisanal is offering many classes this summer (I am bummed I will be out of town for two that sound amazing). If you live in or will be in the New York area, sign up now because space is limited. The classes are a great value for all the amazing wines, cheese and knowledge you sample!

If you don’t live in NYC, you can always order their tasty cheeses online. Just be careful, in my experience, if you order a stinky, “barnyardy” cheese (as Artisanal likes to call it), your UPS delivery person might think something has died in your package.

Highlighted courses include (there are more offered on their site):

July 6: Red, White & Blue: America’s Best Artisan Cheese. Jeff Roberts, author of The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese will be there to guide this class and their tasting.

July 6: An Oregon Menage-a-Trois: Chocolates, Cheeses and Wines. Join Maitre Fromager Max McCalman for an illustrative and instructive class placing some of Oregon’s finest cheeses alongside some of its most distinctive wines.

July 10: Eat Local: Cheeses of the Northeast. Cheese maker extraordinaire Mateo Kehler from the acclaimed Jasper Hill Farms in Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, to join Fromager Waldemar Albrecht in presenting some of his award-winning cheeses and discussing the state of artisan cheese making in the Northeast.

August 15: Beat the Heat: Cheese and Wines for the Summer. Cool off the old-fashioned way and enjoy an artisan-produced cheese paired with a nice, refreshing glass of wine.

August 16: Craft Beer & Artisanal Cheese. A lineup of the world’s best brewers on a journey through the world of craft-brewed, artisanally-produced beer…paired with the perfect cheeses, of course! The best part of any course is to arrive early and get a tour of their cheese caves! But of course, the cheese is the real highlight in all their classes!

Note: This post also appears on the author’s blog Just Braise.