Doug and I celebrated a recent wedding anniversary with a brief getaway to California’s Anderson Valley and the delightful Boonville Hotel. The hotel’s chef, Perry Hoffman, is the grandson of Sally Schmitt, the founding chef of The French Laundry. Hoffman grew up in that legendary Napa Valley kitchen, but he now has his own place and his own style and it’s right up my alley. I savored every bite of our height-of-spring dinner, but of course the two cheesiest dishes made the biggest impression. If you’re the chef on Mother’s Day, consider adding one or both to the menu.
Read moreIt’s a Wrap
I’ve been enchanted by this dramatic spring appetizer forever, since first encountering it at a Persian restaurant in Berkeley. The restaurant closed eons ago but the memory lingers. A platter of sabzi khordan --which translates to “herbs for eating”—is omnipresent at Persian meals, I have learned, and it’s more about the herbs than the feta. But this is Planet Cheese, so there’s feta at the center of my sabzi khordan. A block of feta would be more traditional, but whipped feta spreads better. And that’s the idea: You take a piece of flatbread, slather it with feta, tuck in something crunchy like toasted walnuts and then a soft handful of mixed herbs. It’s magical.
Read moreGreen for a Day
I’ll be planting potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day and probably wearing something green. Alas, no Irish cheese board for dinner. My favorite Irish wheels—Gubbeen, Durrus, Coolea—are too hard to find these days. Their high prices make them slow movers at American cheese counters. But green cheese? I can do that. I adore this creamy feta dip, green from pistachios, cilantro and dill. You’ve seen it here before but I’m reprising it as a nod to the holiday and the imminent arrival of spring. I’ve heard raves from readers who’ve made it and hope you’ll soon join that club.
Read moreFeta Yet Again
Ever since a recipe for baked feta went viral on TikTok, social media won’t leave feta alone. TikTokkers seem to think they invented the idea of warm feta but tell that to a Greek. Flaky feta pies are ancient; what Greek grandma doesn’t make tiropita?
Read moreMissing Cheese is Back in Action
Well, cheese fans, the year is off to a great start. A beloved French cheese—one of my favorites—has returned to the U.S. after a five-year absence. To be honest, I had given up hope of ever putting it on a cheese board again, but I hadn’t realized its very survival was in doubt. Now, thanks to some out-of-the-box thinking, this magnificent sheep cheese is on more secure footing and has a future.
Read moreTruffle Cheese is the Answer
The question at our house last week was how to revive our flagging interest in cauliflower. I’ve been gardening forever, but I still haven’t learned that when you plant a dozen cauliflower seedlings at once, they all mature at once. I wasn’t sure I could get another cauliflower risotto past my husband unless I changed it up. So I did. With a little digging online, I turned up a new method that produced the creamiest risotto I’ve ever made. The truffled pecorino I had in the fridge put it over the top. I knew I’d nailed it when my husband amped up his usual praise—from “this is good, hon” to “this is really good, hon.” I couldn’t agree more.
Read moreBasque-ing in Glory
If you were limited to eating cheese from only one region (perish the thought), where would you choose? I’m going with the Pyrenees, preferably the French side. The cheeses we get from the Basque Country and neighboring Béarn are so consistently appealing that I don’t even think I would feel that deprived. Two new imports from the region make the choice even easier.
Read moreWhat Tradition Tastes Like
It’s possible today to make commercial cheese that hands never touch. Milk is trucked to the plant and goes in one end of the production line and packaged cheese comes out the other. How dreary is that?
The cheeses I write about aren’t made like that, but they aren’t often made by old-time methods either—on a farm, from the raw milk of the family’s flock, with hands cutting the curd and flipping the wheels and humans making decisions at every step. The exceptional new Spanish cheese pictured above is an example of the distinction a cheese can achieve when made the hands-on, purist way.
Read moreRemembering Cindy Callahan, Sheep Cheese Pioneer
A registered nurse who became a tax lawyer and, in her fifties, a California cheesemaker and shepherd, Cindy Callahan died in early June after a brief illness. She was 88. Callahan was an American sheep cheese pioneer who, with her son, Liam, and his wife, Diana, built one of the most successful U.S. creameries devoted largely to sheep’s milk products. Bellwether Farms, in Sonoma County, is now the nation’s leading producer of sheep’s milk yogurt and an acclaimed producer of sheep cheese. In her multi-faceted career, “shepherd” was the job Callahan loved most. She didn’t exactly choose the role but life happens.
Read moreDutch Sheep Cheese for Gouda Fans
You don’t see sheep cheese from the Netherlands every day, so I leaped on this one as soon I learned of it. The Dutch make mountains of cow’s milk cheese—about 2 billion pounds a year—but not much else. Goat cheese amounts to less than three percent of the country’s production and sheep cheese is barely a blip. But maybe that’s changing. Ewephoria, a sheep Gouda crafted for the American market about 20 years ago, found an instant fan club (not surprising—it’s like cheese candy), and this newcomer deserves a warm welcome, too. Made with organic milk and matured for six to eight months in the Treur Kaas cellar, this Gouda-like beauty—christened Beppie—is as creamy as a caramel.
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