gordonzola

Ha. According to Amazon.com my book is “frequently bought together” with “Tonight” by Franz Ferdinand. I guess when you are # 1,340,897 in sales, a couple of people can have a big impact. Previously the related items were all books on sex work.

The official new release date is July 1. No, I will not guarantee that. And no, you will not be able to miss it when I know for sure.

In an article about the Nevada Nuclear Weapons Test Site in the 1/7/09 Anderson Valley Advertiser,* I found the following section. The author asks if the test site control room is like those of the NASA rocket launches. Here's the response:

"Yeah, but scaled down. No big hoopla. If the detonation's successful. there'll be a little applause, some backslapping, and a handing out of placards and decals celebrating the test. Each test has a name. For a while they were cheeses like Fontina, Brie, Gruyere, and people wore decals with cheese names on their hardhats...

If these hadn't been top secret, I think cheese would have a much tougher image than it has today. Nuclear test cheese isn't delicate, French, and unamerican!



*"Test Site" by Skip Wollenberg

I probably should have publicized it –really I just forgot – but most of you wouldn’t have trekked up to Sonoma on a cold Sunday afternoon to see some of the best cheesemakers in the country anyway. Am I wrong?

Clark Wolf, a super sweet guy and longtime cheese professional, has a book out about American Artisanal cheeses. I bought a copy and I definitely recommend it.* Clark tells the stories of many of the best U.S. cheesemakers: what they do, why they do it, and how they made it happen.

It’s clearly a tribute to Clark that he got a number of cheesemakers to travel for this event. Jennifer Bice (Redwood Hill) and Ig Vella (Vella Cheese) were close by, but Franklin Peluso came all the way up from San Luis Obispo, David Gremmels (Rogue Creamery) came down from Oregon, and Mateo Kehler (Jasper Hill) came all the way from Vermont.

It was an educational event put on by my pal Sheana Davis and cost $20per person (The Sonomans tell me even events in the parks cost money in Sonoma. Another reason to live in a city, I tell ya) but folks got their money’s worth. First there was lots of wine to drink. Second, everyone got a cheese plate with Camellia, Mezzo Secco, Franklin’s Teleme, Rogue River Blue, and Constant Bliss plus accompaniments. I was there to sell the cheese people were tasting in case anyone was so overcome that they needed to buy a piece on the spot.

Anyways, it was a good time. Clark interviewed each cheesemaker about their history and the things that make them unique. smallstages and I ate lots of cheese. (Of course I only sold about 10 pieces. Good thing I’m not gonna charge work for my time.) But check out Clark’s book, it’s pretty awesome.



*Makes a great xmas present. Especially combined with a pre-order of my book Cheesemonger which comes out in March. Yes, I will be plugging it at every opportunity. Why do you ask?

Before my birthday, I had to buy some extra cutting boards to do cheese prep. I bought them, even as I was horrified by the label.



This goes against everything I was taught in Food Safety Manager school! Meat and produce together on the same cutting board? Why not just order a jar of ecoli or listeria from the chemical weapons supply catalogue? And that sure is one ADD food prep person... finish one job before you start another! And what are you doing to that cauliflower?

The board is quite elegant though.

edited to add Ok, ok, I see it's not a cauliflower! I was looking at a small image version when I decided to get snarky. My bad.