I was intimidated by the sheer amount of cheese Di Bruno Bros. carries. But everyone’s collective knowledge contributes to a great learning atmosphere behind the counter, and I’ve been amazed at how quickly I’ve learned the difference between very similar cheeses.

Kimchi and cheese? Take that puzzled look off your face! It’s not any more bizarre than drizzling balsamic vinegar on a wedge of Parm. Or tipping back a fermented beverage, like beer or wine, with pizza. Or, at least that was our premise when Amanda Feifer and I presented KIMCHEESE! for the Philadelphia Science Festival. Sixty [...]

The theme of today’s visits centered on the combination of the Italian approach to tradition combined with innovation. The quote, “L’innovazione e’ la traduzione riuscita bene,” or “Innovation is the result of well managed tradition,” came from Mirella Galloni, the daughter of the founder of Fratelli Galloni. Our fourth day in Italy ended in Parma with a visit to one of the Galloni prosciuttifici (prosciutto crudo plants.)

Let’s be blunt: I love this cheese! It has seriously become my favorite. As a cheesemonger, I know I'm not supposed to pick one. But out of the several hundred cheeses I’ve tried in my tenure at Di Bruno Bros., Scharfe Maxx 365 is the perfect cheese in my opinion

As far as I’m concerned, cheese and coffee make up their own food groups. The dynamic flavors and chemistries attainable by both of these items allow for thousands of different possibilities. I’ve had a long-term relationship with coffee for a few years now, while cheese is a slightly newer affair (luckily coffee hadn’t caught wind of it). Leading up to this past weekend, I decided it was time to introduce coffee to my mistress.

So many award-winning cheeses are made in Vermont these days that it’s easy to feel Green State envy. One Vermont cheese that’s got cheesemongers buzzing this winter is Reading Raclette. Now, the Swiss make Raclette and so do the French, but until Spring Brook Farm introduced its artisanal version from Reading, no American cheesemaker had come forward with a melt-away Alpine stinker this good.

9th Street Cheesemonger Mark Bomalaski and Emilio Mignucci show us how to make a simple, but delicious Pizza with Fresh Dough, Roasted Tomatoes, Taleggio, Fontina, Rotondo Dolce Prosciutto, and Baby Spinach.

Ask any cheesemonger for a sample of the best smoked cheese on the market, and you’ll probably find yourself biting into a blue. Rogue River Smokey Blue, from Oregon state, is cold-smoked over hazelnut shells. This cheese tastes so much like sweet, smoky bacon that you can eat it for breakfast.

Around the holidays, putting out a cheese or two in the evenings is a festive way to unwind. Here are twelve pairings to share with (or without) your true love. Combine five or six of these to create a party board. Or, count down the holiday with one pairing each night.

Elegance, patience, admiration, appreciation: these are just a few words that come to mind when I think of Andante Dairy. The name andante, a musical marking meaning “a moderate tempo, strolling walk”, when uttered in the small walls of our shop roars like a lion to all of our taste buds. Just the sight of the brown UPS boxes stamped “California” alone makes me want to jump out of my skin. I’ve come to realize since I’ve been working around cheese that there are just some cheeses that DO NOT EVER disappoint.