What is almost as good as eating cheese? Reading about it in these, the latest new books in which cheese has a starring role.
Composing The Cheese Plate:
Recipes, Pairings & Platings for the Inventive Cheese Course
Brian Keyser & Leigh Friend
Cheese stars on a plate: Ten years ago, after working at New York City’s Union Square Café, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and The Modern, Brian Keyser opened Casellula Cheese and Wine Café in New York City. In 2016, he and Casellula pastry chef Leigh Friend shared their creativity and talent with the cheese-loving world in Composing the Cheese Plate: Recipes, Pairings and Platings for the Inventive Cheese Course (Running Press). The bonus, says Friend, “Writing this book forced us to articulate the thought process behind our cheese plates, something we had previously taken for granted. It made us better at what we do.”
Milk Made: A Book About Cheese, How To Choose It, Serve It, And Eat It
Hick Haddow
Celebrating cheese’s cousin, milk: Making, serving, eating and enjoying — this is what Australian cheesemaker Nick Haddow wants you to do with cheese. In Milk. Made: A Book About Cheese. How to Choose It, Serve It and Eat It (Hardie Grant Books), he provides readers with lessons, including the history of cheese. The book’s 60 comprehensive recipes range from traditional to unique, such as croque monsieur, onion soup with grilled cheese croutons, beetroot and Feta tart and a classic fondue. Haddow visited internationally-renowned cheesemakers and interviewed some of the most inspiring cheese connoisseurs from around the world. Go behind the scenes as experts share stories and bust myths.
Butter: A Rich History
Elaine Khosrova
Cheese’s other cousin, butter: Cheese expert Elaine Khosrova explores your other favorite dairy product — butter. Cheese and butter, with their ancient histories and close relationship, “contain fundamental similarities beginning with the same three elements: person, plant and animal,” says Khosrova, author of Butter: A Rich History (Workman Publishing). She acknowledges that “the provenance of butter or cheese begins with the same questions: Who is making it and how? Which animal is supplying the milk? What is that animal eating?” Khosrova churns a story about this fascinating and delicious ingredient and its chemistry, history, controversy and uses.
Grill Cheese Kitchen
Heidi Gibson and Nate Pollack
Cheese stars in a sandwich: Grilled Cheese Kitchen (Chronicle Books) takes the classic childhood favorite and bumps it up a few notches. Heidi Gibson and husband Nate Pollack, owners of the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco and geniuses at the ooey and the gooey, share their formula that has been winning grilled cheese championships for years. There are 39 recipes for … what else?, plus recipes for accompaniments, such as Brown Sugar Bourbon Sauce, tips on pairing just the right bread and cheese, and the proper techniques for grilling at just the right temperature.
The Art of The Cheese Plate: Pairings, Recipes, Style, Attitude
Tia Keenan
Cheesy love letters: Frequent Cheese Connoisseur contributor Tia Keenan has written what she calls “a love letter to cheese, entertaining and style” and what Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman’s says will offer “a lifetime of impressive entertaining options.” Beautifully photographed by Noah Fecks, the user-friendly The Art of the Cheese Plate: Pairings, Recipes, Style, Attitude (Rizzoli Publications) has recipes and tasting notes. “But it’s also fun, fantastical and provocative,” says Keenan, a New York-based chef and fromager. “It doesn’t look like any other cheese book, and it doesn’t feel like any other cheese book. That’s intentional.”
