She Treads Softly: American Cheese

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

American Cheese

American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World by Joe Berkowitz
10/6/20; 304 pages
HarperCollins

American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World by Joe Berkowitz is a very highly recommended book about cheese. How could a book about cheese not be worthy of five stars? "Cheese is literally heaven. It’s what happens after milk sheds this mortal coil and ascends to a higher plane of existence."

I've been excited to read American Cheese since I first heard about it and it is worthy of my every expectation. There is no doubt that Joe Berkowitz loves cheese so he is the perfect choice to share the world of American artisan cheese with the rest of us. What is even more entertaining is that he does so in an informative and humorous fashion.

After his first encounter with an artisan cheese tasting and experiencing Rogue River Blue at Murray's Cheese in New York, Berkowitz began to explore the artisan cheese culture. He visits tastings, cheese mongers, makers, affineurs, cheesemonger competitions, dairy scientists, cheese celebrations, and restaurants with cheese carts. There is a whole cheese culture that celebrates cheese. He volunteers at Murray’s Cheese shop, attends the Cheese Ball and meets Madame Fromage, follows the California cheese trail, he visits Cheeselandia, and talks to dairy scientists at Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research. It is a plethora of cheese happenings and cheese information!

If you love cheese, and anyone who is looking into a book called American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World likely does, as you read be sure to have a pen and paper handy so you can write down all the new cheeses to taste. I had to scramble looking for something to write on almost immediately so I'd like to give the rest of you a heads up. I am thrilled to learn that "According to Dr. Ahuja, those among us who can endure limitless dairy products have a genetic mutation that keeps our lactase intact into adulthood. In other words, cheese lovers are technically X-Men." Yes!

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.

No comments:

Post a Comment

John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.