Affinage and cheese nicknames
Mar. 27th, 2007 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gordonzolaWe operate on dual levels of cheese knowledge sometimes since we are a grocery store cheese department. About a year ago we started carrying cheeses aged by Pascal Beillevaire. He's an affineur in France, meaning that (mostly) he buys cheese form other sources and then ages and babies it until it is perfectly ripe. These are simply the best French cheeses we've been able to buy since the ones from Chantal Plasse became harder to come by.
Here are some, to give you an idea:
Anyways, I mention that we operate on dual levels because I can be talking to someone about some nasty soy "cheese" one minute and discussing how Beillevaire has three different aging caves in France, one for each type of cheese he sells the next. The Auvergne for blue, Savoie for mountain cheese and in Machecoul for the soft-ripened ones.
Also though, people who love cheese in this country have a high learning curve. There are lots of unfamiliar names and, if one has never traveled to the cheese's country of origin, the names are even more intimidating since they are often related to regions or towns. People mis-remember names quite often so nicknames naturally develop over the course of cheese retailing.
The Beillevaire cheeses we've had the most often have been two soft-ripened, raw milk goat cheeses. The Cathare is flat, ash-covered, a little moldy, and round, and the Couronne Lochoise, while also ash-covered and round, is taller and has a hole in the middle. Both are aged 60 days and then air-shipped immediately to the Bay Area. Neither are super pungent, though they do scare the cheese-nervous, but both have a complex flavor that intensifies as you eat it: tangy, fruity, milky, earthy, awesome.
Very quickly, the Cathare became known as the "Moldy Pancake" and the Couronne Lochoise as the "Moldy Donut".. That does beat the heck out of the original customer nickname for the Cathare which was "Cat Hair". But maybe Moldy Pancake only sounds better to me because I'm too close to the cheese.
Beillevaire was in town the other day and we got to hear a presentation about his cheese and the process of affinage. Videos of cheese being made, of cheese shops in France, of cute cows and dairy farmers. Total cheese porn. I love my job sometimes.
(l-r) Someone I don't know, Pascal's translator (she is also a cheese importer herself but wasn't there in that function), Pascal, and lots of amazing cheese
(I had other things to say here, but I just got called in for a cheese meeting I forgot about so I'll just post this for now)
Here are some, to give you an idea:
Anyways, I mention that we operate on dual levels because I can be talking to someone about some nasty soy "cheese" one minute and discussing how Beillevaire has three different aging caves in France, one for each type of cheese he sells the next. The Auvergne for blue, Savoie for mountain cheese and in Machecoul for the soft-ripened ones.
Also though, people who love cheese in this country have a high learning curve. There are lots of unfamiliar names and, if one has never traveled to the cheese's country of origin, the names are even more intimidating since they are often related to regions or towns. People mis-remember names quite often so nicknames naturally develop over the course of cheese retailing.
The Beillevaire cheeses we've had the most often have been two soft-ripened, raw milk goat cheeses. The Cathare is flat, ash-covered, a little moldy, and round, and the Couronne Lochoise, while also ash-covered and round, is taller and has a hole in the middle. Both are aged 60 days and then air-shipped immediately to the Bay Area. Neither are super pungent, though they do scare the cheese-nervous, but both have a complex flavor that intensifies as you eat it: tangy, fruity, milky, earthy, awesome.
Very quickly, the Cathare became known as the "Moldy Pancake" and the Couronne Lochoise as the "Moldy Donut".. That does beat the heck out of the original customer nickname for the Cathare which was "Cat Hair". But maybe Moldy Pancake only sounds better to me because I'm too close to the cheese.
Beillevaire was in town the other day and we got to hear a presentation about his cheese and the process of affinage. Videos of cheese being made, of cheese shops in France, of cute cows and dairy farmers. Total cheese porn. I love my job sometimes.
(l-r) Someone I don't know, Pascal's translator (she is also a cheese importer herself but wasn't there in that function), Pascal, and lots of amazing cheese
(I had other things to say here, but I just got called in for a cheese meeting I forgot about so I'll just post this for now)
