Chowdown - Let's Get Cheesy
Jannae
next venture.
While I love cheese, I am far, far, far, from being properly educated
on the variety of cheeses, where to go, etc.
So, I'll turn the discussion over to our resident Cheesehounds for
suggestions and proper planning for a cheesedown.
Big Daddy
be a good alternative to our otherwise Asian-centric Chowdowns.
Frankly, Asian works for this format because so many of the cuisines
are best served family-style, where people can try a little of a lot
of dishes. Ginza would fit that bill well. So would a Vietnamese place
lie Saigon Noodle House (now has an expanded menu) or its counterpart
in Homewood. And as we discussed at Chowdown III, so would (non-Asian)
places like Do-di-yos and Sol y Luna.
Having said that here's how I would suggest doing a Cheesedown: It
would work best at someone's house, a place with enough room for
everybody. Everybody would bring 2-3 cheeses, and it would work best
if we would coordinate to avoid repetition. Choosing "flights" of
different styles of hard, semi-soft, bloom rind, washed rind, goat,
sheep, cheddared, etc cheeses would be optimal.
Those who don't know cheese could be assigned something to bring, or
just hit up a cheesemonger for suggestions. Frankly if you tell the
folks at V Richard's or Whole Foods what we're doing, they'd get into
it.
Finally we'd bring our own wine or beer. Non-cheese items like nuts,
crackers (that would work better than bread) or charcuterie also would
be essential for variety.
Big Daddy
Jannae
apartment with three dogs, so entertaining at our place is usually a
no-go.
But, I'm handy with helping setting up and then clean-up afterwards
for whoever offers to be our host/hostess.
I'm eager to learn about cheeses, and would love to meet up with one
of our cheese hounds for a cheese shopping trip to WF or V Richards
(I'll get the GPS out to find that place.)
If no one feels comfortable hosting, I may be able to get us in to
Uncle Monk's Cafe down in Chelsea. They're right off 280 just as you
enter Chelsea. I have worked with them for other events in the past
with another group Jerry and I are in. They have a selection of beers
(some high gravity beers) and wine. If we partook of their beverages,
the owner, Kathy, probably would go for it. I'll see about getting a
list of the drinks available. They're hosting a party tomorrow for the
other group we're in, so I'll see if she would be open for us having
the get-together down there as a backup plan. They have a "Wine Down"
- Tuesdays and Wednesdays - 1/2 price bottles of wine, which may help
defray some costs.
I'm also open for other suggestions of restraunts to try as well for
future chowdowns.
> > suggestions and proper planning for a cheesedown.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Jannae
Tuesday and Wed. nights they're usually slow. So, they would welcome
us to come down and have a tasting event. If we gave him a listing of
cheeses, he may be able to score them at wholesale prices, and save
some money. Stuart is a good guy, I've know him and the Uncle Monk's
team for years. When I told him about the Chow group, his ears perked
up. We might even get him to join us.
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
curej
curejk
here....strange glitch.
Anyway, I talked to the folks at Whole Foods. They were interested in
helping out. WF might be a more central location for hounds wanting to
come to the event, and might provide a cheesemonger to help direct
things. I didn't formalize anything until talking to y'all, though, so
we're still open. The tricky thing about an event at WF is that I'm
not sure how we'd avoid having curious non-payers/non-hounds from
drifting into what they might think is a "free event". Anyway.....
My wife and I attended a "Stinky Cheese Club" event on Friday night
hosted by a work-colleague of mine. The experience was useful as well
as enjoyable...it gave us some ideas about we might want to do (and
not do) at a similar even with the hounds. We tasted the following,
and just FYI, and all were great: Morbier, Montbriac, Brillat-Savarin,
Grayson, Reblochon, Saint Nectaire, Beaufort (which was a new one for
me and my favorite of the evening), Boulette d'Avesnes, and Ossau-
Iraty. Most of these are available at Whole Foods or by mail order at
Fromages.com.
A few suggestions that I realize overlap with Big Daddy's:
1. I really think a person with cheese expertise, like a cheesemonger
from WF or V. Richards (whether or not we have the event there) might
provide educational tidbits that would be fun and helpful. Maybe a
quick discussion of the various cheese categories at the beginning of
the event would be a good way to "open".
2. An organized approach with each cheese discussed and simultaneously
tasted by the group is, I think, a better approach than a cheese "free
for all", even if the latter is less formal and more conducive to
conversation. We could maybe take a half an hour to do a formal
tasting of small portions a few cheeses, then everyone would be free
to go back and get more of the one(s) they liked and talk/discuss/
debate/record their choices and impressions informally. Coordinating
some wine selections would work best during that first phase, too.
3. We could either choose one cheese from each cheese category (fresh,
semi-soft, soft-ripened, surface-ripened, semi-hard, hard, blue, and
washed-rind), or choose ALL of the cheeses from one or two
categories...I kind of favor the latter, as most folks already know
which of the major categories they prefer, and we may even want to
completely omit a category if a majority of us don't like it (e.g.
blue, goat, which are my two favorites, but not for everyone).
4. We should generate and distribute a form for folks to record
information about the cheeses and their impressions. I find it hard to
remember which cheeses I liked (and their names) when too many are
presented without an opportunity to take notes. Whole Foods actually
gave me a free copy of a blank cheese journal that they had there. You
can buy it here:http://www.formaticum.com/shop/product.php?
productid=16163&cat=0&bestseller=Y, though I think that price is
exorbitant. We can modify that form and just print out pages for the
"event".
Well, I hope this posts.
tqu...@aol.com
curej
page, cut and paste the URL into your browser...
JC
On Feb 18, 6:39 pm, Jannae <cscoggins...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Jannae
When did you want to try to have the Cheese event? Based off your
conversation with the folks at WF, did they indicate a night they're
usually pretty light?
Big Daddy
than Chelsea.
My only misgiving -- other than the one curej mentioned about
interlopers -- is I'm not crazy about the way Whole Foods handles and
prices its cheeses. It does a lot of precutting/prepackaging,
regardless of how ripe and ready the cheese is. For some cheeses, that
is absolutely essential to fully enjoying them at their peak. WF is
not as bad as Fresh Market, because WF does have the whole wheels of
most of its cheeses.
But since the closing of Tria, the only other cheesemonger that cuts
to order is V Richards, which for our Shelby County hounds is as
convenient as Chelsea for the Southside hounds.
So maybe WF is the way to go. We could always break out into that rear
seating area, near the kiddie section. And if we do this, we should
ask them to provide samples that are as ripe as possible.
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
Dax
wait to cut it until that day at least? I love cheese, but I'm more
of a cheese scarfer than a hound per se - there may be a couple of
types (real, not processed I mean) that I do not love, but none so far
I hate.
Joel Cure
So I guess you haven't tasted Getost yet. ;)
JC
Big Daddy
Joel Cure
April good for you?
On Mar 22, 2010 9:53 AM, "Big Daddy" <bru...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Well, let's do this. Wanna organize, curej?
On Mar 19, 8:45 am, Joel Cure <joelc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> @Dax
>
> So I guess you haven't tasted ...
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curej
April 6th or April 15th. Do either of these dates work for you folks?
If so please let me know ASAP and I'll begin trying to make
arrangements with Whole Foods.
curej
On Mar 22, 12:59 pm, Joel Cure <joelc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> April good for you?
>
Big Daddy
they want to come up with the cheeses. In the alternative, I'd be glad
to work with them. Cheese is one of my food passions.
> > ME" as the subject.- Hide quoted text -
curej
RECOMMENDATIONS
There are now two votes for the 15th. Will that work for everyone?
@Big Daddy, I'd like to put out a request for cheese suggestions from
the Hounds...cheeses that folks have had experience with and liked a
lot. We can then ask for additional suggestions from the folks at WF.
If we don't get any suggestions from the Hounds, you and I can get
together with the Whole Foods Cheesemongers and try to create a board.
However, I still don't have a very good feel exactly how many people
are interested in this event. I know that you and your wife, Jannae
and her husband, me and my wife, Dax, and tqui have responded with
interest. Not sure about the other Hounds.
I'll wait to hear from more folks...
Big Daddy
pretty good handle on how to approach this thing.
> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
Big Daddy
like Abondance and versions of Tomme.
In that category, it would be interesting to do a vertical tasting of
Goudas aged for a variety of periods, including one-year, three-year
and (if possible) five-year.
Another interesting comparison would be cheddars, from artisanal U.S.
versions (including the Red Hill Cheddar from Anniston's Wright dairy)
to English farmhouse versions and including cheddar's ancient French
cousin, Cantal.
French Tomme de Savoie would be interesting to compare to the Georgia-
made Thomasville Tomme from Sweetgrass dairy
Jannae
time shall we meet?
I'm going to leave the cheese planning to BD and Curej, since they
have a much better handle on cheeses. I don't recall having tried a
sheep's milk cheese before, so if one could be worked into the tasting
that'd be great. However, if not, I'll get some recommendations from
you to buy to take home.
Do we need to buy a journal, or will we be able to pick those up at
WF? Is there anything else we'll need to bring or buy there? Drinks?
Joel Cure
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Dax
curej
appreciate it if we can get as many responses to the questions they
pose ASAP.
THANKS!!
Bryant T. Conger
curej
Please review and comment:
I think the cafe area near the bathrooms would be the best spot, with
seating set up so we all can discuss what we're sampling -- and if the
cheesemonger is leading this, so it's easiest for that person to
address us. In other words, we don't need a long table if we get as
many as the Chen gathering, but we'd need some kind of head table (for
the cheeses and discussion leader) if we the group size is more like
the Silver Coin event.
True tasting versus a meal: Tasting, obviously, although I suspect it
would have the effect of being a meal for many of us. One thing WF did
for the Swine and Wine was put out a variety of breads and spreads.
That might work, although I think we want the focus to be on the
cheese. We always could supplement afterward with their prepared
foods. Another thing to consider is if we want to set up a charcuterie
sampler, as well. They have some very good cured meats from artisan
producers.
As for the number of cheeses we want to sample: it would depend on the
number of participants. If we were doing this at a private residence,
I would recommend each person bring about 1/3 lb. of 3-4 cheeses. It
would be worth asking people what their goal is here: a basic
education into different styles/types of cheese or something more in-
depth.
For the former, I think we'd want to sample 3 or so variations of
different cheese types (hard, bleu, semi-hard, semi-soft, bloom rind,
washed rind, triple cream, goat, sheep or combinations of some of
those. For the latter, perhaps we'd do a horizontal tasting of
different "brands" of the same type of cheese (like the gouda and
cheddar comparisons I recommended earlier), we also probably want 3-4
of each.
I don't think pairing wines would work, since we tend to have
different drinking preferences. I'm sure they would allow us to
purchase what we want to consume in-store. Maybe they could provide
recommendations of wines or beers based on the cheeses we'll be
trying.
As for active versus passive: we'd all learn more if we had someone
leading this -- like the WF cheesemonger/manager. One or more of us
Hounds with some knowledge of cheese could lead as well. So I vote
active.
You've got the tentative head count. If we're set on April 15 (what
time?; I suggest 6ish), you should put a new item in Chowhound
announcing Birmingham Chowdown IV and referring people to the Google
group. I've got a couple at work who tentatively are interested and I
urged them to sign up for the Google group and make their RSVP.
Finally, we should have some kind of individual sheets for recording
our impressions of individual cheeses, what kinds/brands we liked and
disliked, what we want to try again. This would be something they can
take home.
Someone also should have a means of creating a composite of our
impressions, which would be posted on Chowdown and the Google group
for the cheesedown.
curej
Moate at WF.
curej
From: "April Moate" <April.Mo...@wholefoods.com>
Date: Mar 28, 2010 2:27 PM
Subject: Specialty Department Tasting
To: "joelc...@gmail.com" <joelc...@gmail.com>
Joel-
Below I've listed a few suggestions for cheese tasting themes. I
would
recommend choosing one or two categories at the most. I would also
recommend doing no more than 8 cheeses total. I discussed it with
Randall
and we both think you should consider letting us do at least a few
wine or
beer pairings with the cheeses. Not that you don't have some savvy
folks in
your group but without some planning you could end up with a pairing
disaster!
*Possible themes:*
Herve Mons - examples: Persille de Malzieu, Persille de Beaujolais,
Camembert, Pyrennes Brebis, Gabietou, Blue de Casses, Cazelle de St
Affrique
American Artisanal - examples: Roth Kase Private Reserve, Cabot
Clothbound
Cheddar, Landaff, Meadow Creek (Grayson, Mountaineer, Appalachian),
Capriole
(Obannon, Wabash Cannonball), Wright's Dairy (Wanda, Canebrake Gouda)
Across the Pond - examples: Kerrygold (Black Wax Cheddar, Ivernia,
Dubliner
with Irish Stout), Neal's Yard Dairy (Strathdon Blue, Cornish Yarg,
Cheshire, Colston Bassett Stilton), Borough Market Cheddar
Different takes on the same style - examples: Soft ripened, blue,
sheep/goat, firm cow, washed rind
This last one is the most open-ended suggestion but I would still
limit the
number of cheeses you try to taste at one time.
Some of the specific cheeses I listed may not be available at that
time but
that's why I gave several examples. We just never know what is going
to
come in when we order it.
Let me know what you think!
April Moate
Associate Team leader
Specialty Department
WFM-Mountain Brook
april.mo...@wholefoods.com
205-912-8400