Shut up and Start Talking!
For any of you who have had to listen to me recently, I’m now in the last step of my remedial education in cheese. Having completed Cal Poly’s cheese making course, nurturing the left side of my brain, I felt I had to fill the right side with a “three-day intensive” in evaluation, sensory, pairing and presentation of cheese at The San Francisco Cheese School.
The evening prior, while climbing the grade home, I was startled while hearing the Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor say, “Have you ever noticed that you stop learning whenever you start talking?” For me and essentially all this country’s politicians, this should give us pause to think about the benefits of sitting on our hands the next time we find ourselves in a meeting or a classroom.
For those that know me, I needed that message.
Wine and Cheese pairings have been the baby I have been nurturing since it was laid on my doorstep in the spring of 2007. The baby has now grown to adolescence, not only from my formal education, but most especially from listening to my customers and watching their reactions carefully.
So, off I drove at dawn. For three days, I listened to three passionate women!
The first, was Sara Vincenzo, Brooklyn born and bred, who after landing in San Francisco with a graduate degree, wound up working behind the counter of a cheese store one day and teaching customer seminars the next. Her curiosity and passion led her to open a school in North Beach where she would search for equally passionate people to help educate the curious!
Enter Daphne Zepos who began in San Francisco’s Campton Place where she convinced the owner to buy a European styled cheese trolley. Once bitten, she eventually wound up with Max McCalman at his Artisanal in New York where they eventually established a Master Class program in cheese. Max, by the way, authored what I refer to as “The Book of God” - Cheese, A Connoisseur’s Guide to the Worlds Best (available for purchase in our tasting room). Daphne now owns the Essex Street Cheese (import) Company in New York as well as a retail cheese business in Brooklyn of all places.
Add in Peggy Smith, a legend and one of the founders of Cowgirl Creamery, and the equation is complete. With all three parts, Sara was able to begin a three day seminar/lecture including:
Cheese History, Classifications of Cheese, Cheese Making, Cheese and Wine Pairing, Affinage Demonstration, Quality Control, Wine Pairing, and of course, Customer Service
All in all, I tasted 69 - ¼ oz. portions of cheese! Some by traditional category such as “Fresh Bloomy Rind” and others by the source itself - the animal! That was quite frankly the most interesting, having a tray in front of me with a vertical tasting of: goat milk, goat yogurt, goat fresh and goat ripened cheese. Then, on to Cow and finally, sheep!
So, I came back with three things: number one, a 30 point increase in my LDL; secondly, a lot to talk about; and thirdly, an invoice for a Christmas present from Brittney... a brand new “wire cut” cheese board. She doesn’t know that yet, but in the meantime come and see me any Saturday from 11-4 in the Heritage Room, where I promise not to talk too much!
This time next month, yours truly, Mr. Knowitall, will begin his last learning session for the year when I visit Paris and Beaune in mid November, complete with a cooking course, a few visits to producers, and of course time in the Louvre. Brittney will be hosting wine and cheese in my absence, and believe it or not, has a lot to say herself!
Yours Truly- Mr. Knowitall, aka John Shakley
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