eGullet Q&A with Cheese Expert Steve Jenkins

[Jason Perlow]

Biography of Steven Jenkins

Variously described in print as New York City's "highest-profile grocer" (New York Magazine), the "enfant terrible of the fancy food business" (The New York Times), and "the eminence grise of American cheesemongers" (The New Yorker), as well as having been featured in New York Magazine's "The 100 Smartest New Yorkers" issue, Steven Jenkins has worked at New York's highly respected Fairway Markets since 1980. He was the first American to be inducted into France's ancient and elite Guilde du St. Uguzon, in 1976. He was further honored in 1980 by being inducted into France's super-honorary Taste-Fromage.

His first book, Cheese Primer, is decidedly a chef-d'oeuvre (eight years in the making), published by Workman (starred, boxed review in Publisher's Weekly), is already in its record-breaking seventh printing. It won the James Beard Foundation Award in 1997 and was nominated for the Julia Child Award (IACP). Cheese Primer is regarded as having become the single-most indispensable book in the world of cheese for both professionals and amateurs.

Jenkins has written for every major food and wine publication including Gourmet, Food & Wine and Food Arts, as well as columns for the major trade magazines and domestic and international culinary journals. Jenkins is credited with having pioneered countess cheeses and foodstuffs for New Yorkers (and subsequently the rest of the United States) and continues to engender remarkable publicity for food artisans and artisanal foods. He is a frequent guest lecturer (The 92nd St. Y, The Aspen Food & Wine Classic, The American Cheese Society) and makes frequent appearances on television (PBS with Jacques Pepin and Julia Child, featured segment on CBS's Sunday Morning). Jenkins was a board member of The American Cheese Society and is an active participant in the important work of the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust (Boston). "The Jenkins Chronicles" can be heard on National Public Radio's "The Splendid Table" with Lynn Rossetto Kasper.

Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins

Moderator's Note: This Q&A will be free-form and undmoderated, and replies unrestricted.

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