Artisanal Cheese Center

[Jason Perlow]

Many of you are probably not aware that Terrence Brennan has headquartered his retail/internet operations at a new facility on West 37th Street, which includes a state-of-the-art educational center as well.

This evening I had the opportunity to attend one of the Artisanal Cheese Center wine and cheese tasting events, hosted by our own Gerry Dawes, a Spanish dessert wine and cheese pairing, and I was also able to tour the restricted production areas of the facility as well. I hope you enjoy this rare look behind the scenes at one of NYC's premier cheese retailers.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening, and I encourage you to look at Artisanal's cheese education course offerings and try out some of their stuff.

http://www.artisanalcheese.com

An interior shot of one of the 4 cheese aging refrigerated "caves" that Artisanal has on site.

Cheese Cave Closeup

A close up of some of the cheeses in the Goat Cave.

An interior view of the classroom, featuring state of the art flat panel plasma displays and a very well equipped demo kitchen.

Another shot of the classroom.

One of the staff setting up the display area for the cheeses we were sampling that evening.

A cart with some really good stuff on it.

The waiting room area before you walk into the classroom.

The Spanish cheeses we sampled that evening.

The dessert wines we sampled that evening.

The very dapper Gerry Dawes, our entertainment for the evening.

[alacarte]

Great pictures -- you can almost smell the cheese!

[tommy]

definitely cheesier than degustibus.

[Jinmyo]

Wow.

[Bux]

I'm not sure what I found matched the image I had from the first press releases, so I'd like to add some comments. For one thing, I rather expected a much more vast operation. The scale of this operation is far more manageable than I had expected. The second photograph gives you a good idea of the size of each of the four storage rooms. There are two racks of shelves with an aisle between them. Each room must be no more than seven or eight feet wide and maybe ten or twelve feet long. Although cheeses may fall into a myriad of categories, for the sake of storage conditions here, the four rooms are each optimized in terms of temperature and humidity, for one of four broad categories. As I recall, there were the hard cheeses and tommes, the generally soft ripening cheeses with a "bloom" on the surface, cheeses with washed rinds, and goat cheeses. How long a cheese is likely to remain in one of these rooms is likely to have a lot to do with the condition in which it arrives and how well the type of cheese is likely to mature outside the environment in which it's made and how well it keeps in general. From what I could see, there's no attempt made to "make" cheese or even to exert an influence on how the cheese develops by continuing to wash the rind for instance.

Having seen this operation, I'd now be curious to see the storage conditions at some of the best affineurs in Paris or Lyon. My only experience has been in touring one of the massive production operations such as the Bee Society in Roquefort or the garages of artisanal producers of chèvre in France. Although popular mythology conjures up an image of cheese made in limestone caves with mold from the walls delivering wild spores to the process, it's far from the actuality of the laboratory conditions under which the mold is cultivated on rye bread and under which the cheese is inoculated. All of this occurs in rather sterile conditions to eliminate the chance of contamination by wild spores. The cheese is aged in caves deep under ground with elevators accessing the different levels, but the walls are made of stone not mold. Nevertheless, there is no need for air conditioning. I forgot to ask here, how they fared during the blackout. Those well insulated rooms should maintain a level temperature for some considerable time, but I wonder if they had, or have thought of installing back up generators.

In spite of growing interest in cheese and the rise of artisanal producers in the US, I think our laws as well as our traditions keep us a relatively cheese deprived nation. One of the problems is that even the cheeses that are legal to import are often so poorly stored and handled on their way to the retail level that it's no wonder we don't have more cheese connoisseurs in the US. I think Brennan's facility is a large step in the direction of remedying this.

Meanwhile in Europe, where making cheese has long been an art and a craft, the E.U. bureaucrats are busy making laws that have already had negative affects on the quality of cheese sold there. I was fascinated to hear that Valdeón, a blue cheese made largely from cow's milk in Leon, but not all that far from Asturias where they make Cabrales, is traditionally wrapped in sycamore leaves and that the E.U. prohibits it from being shipped between the various members of the union unless the leaves are replaced by foil, while we permit importation of the original cheese. That we can get a Spanish cheese that's closer to the one the Spanish eat, then the Belgians can, is hardly reason for me to stop traveling, but there's some small satisfaction there. That, and Gamonedo, were the two highlights of the cheeses for me at Gerry's tasting. Gamondedo is also a blue cheese, but the veining is naturally acquired, unlike Roquefort or most blues and doesn't reach far below the surface of the cheese. Few of the slices cut, revealed any sign of blue. The Gamonedo had a thick crumbly rind and if I recall correctly, it was smoked. It had the distinctive taste of meaty bacon to me.

[mcdowell]

Having seen this operation, I'd now be curious to see the storage conditions at some of the best affineurs in Paris or Lyon.

There are a couple of articles that I have bookmarked on just this topic in the past. A good one is this story from the International Hearald Trib, where they tour some affineurs and talk about their art, for example:

In the washed rind cellar - cheeses such as the famed cow's milk Epoisses from Burgundy, Reblochon from the Savoy, Maroilles from the north of France and Livarot from Normandy - each cheese is washed and turned several times a week with a specific, and sometimes secret, brine.

I also remember reading a nice article with good pictures in something published by the Slowfood guys, but I can't seem to find it now.

In spite of growing interest in cheese and the rise of artisanal producers in the US, I think our laws as well as our traditions keep us a relatively cheese deprived nation. One of the problems is that even the cheeses that are legal to import are often so poorly stored and handled on their way to the retail level that it's no wonder we don't have more cheese connoisseurs in the US.

It's not just the imported cheeses. I've had trouble, time and again, with some of the more finicky California cheeses right here in the Bay Area. You learn where to shop, but you shouldn't have to. The merchants need to step up to the plate and play the game properly.

I can't even imagine trying to find a washed rind cheese anywhere outside one of three or four major metro areas. That's a shame.

Edited August 29, 2003 by mcdowell (log)

[Bux]

An interesting article, but after reading it, I'm still unclear exactly how much difference there is between how the cheeses are handled at the Artisanal Cheese Center and at Fromagerie Alleosse in Paris. Patricia Wells writes about turning the Brie on their rye straw mats. I did not see straw mats here in NY. I wonder if they meet local codes.

Do the washed rind cheeses have their rinds washed at Alleosse? Following a cheese every step of the way, as Ms. Wells writes about Alleosse, may not mean that you oversee every step in your own celler.