Madame Fromage

A Window in Venice

Just a quick hello from Venice. Here is my window onto the Grand Canal, a view that affords Madame Fromage a glimpse of gondolas, water taxis, and river rats (small transport boats, not creatures with tails). And so cheese comes into Venice. Here, trash is picked up daily. A single grocery store serves the islands’ [...]
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A Window in Venice
I took a little cheese retreat

I have a thing for hermitages. They’re where hermits live. Just outside of Philadelphia, there is a retreat center called Clare House with five hermitages in the woods around Aston, Pennsylvania. I went there earlier this spring to write and to spend a few quiet evenings sans gmail. I needed a g-break. I felt Twitter-sick and [...]
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I took a little cheese retreat
When Italy Calls

I know, I know, the timing is terrible. Here it is just days before the book drops, and I am packing my cheese valise to spend three weeks in Italy. Last fall when I agreed to lead a food tour across northern Italy for Saint Joseph’s University students (yes, Madame works!), I didn’t really think [...]
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When Italy Calls
Guava, Twitter, and Diner’s Journal

When I posted about pairing guava and cheddar, I never expected to get an email from Brazilian cheese blogger Renata Curzi. Renata let me know — in the kindest way — that pairing guava with cheese is old school. I’m just late to the game. Renata told me she had a surprise, and three days later [...]
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Guava, Twitter, and Diner’s Journal

How to Talk to a Cheesemonger

Every week, people tell me that they are too intimidated to shop at cheese counters. Because they feel unschooled in the world of dairy, they buy shrink-wrapped wedges from the cold case, carefully avoiding the eyes of the cheesemonger. As one man told me recently, “It’s like dealing with a sommelier. I feel so inadequate!” [...]

Cheese Board Basics

Readers often email for tips on putting together a cheese board. Here are a few suggestions: Pick a theme. When in doubt, choose a variety of cheeses from different milks – cow, sheep, goat, and if you can find it: water buffalo. You can also put together a cheese board by country (French, Italian, or [...]

On Keeping A Cheese Notebook

“It all comes back,” writes Joan Didion in her famous essay on the subject of writer’s notebooks. It’s true. It does all come back. For almost three years now, I have recorded every nibble, every recommendation overheard at the cheese counter, along with lists of cheeses to try. Bad Axe. Gamonedo. (I have yet to find either.) But [...]

A Window in Venice

I took a little cheese retreat

When Italy Calls

Guava, Twitter, and Diner’s Journal