Cheese isn’t trendy

It may be counterintuitive, but even though I work with a food that is seen as trendy right now, I strive not to be. Sure, it helps our store when some food website or newspaper article promotes an obscure cheese, but one of the most beautiful aspects of cheese is its history and regional evolution. When a cheese like Comte can humblebrag “1000 years of artisanal production,” it’s more about sampling it or suggesting it than hawking it like a used car.

This, unfortunately is the opposite trend of some clickbait food writing these days. I go out of my way not to criticize other food writers. Partially this is because – though I have written two books – I am only a part time food writer. I am a full time cheesemonger and I always figured the odd OMG-you-have-to-try-this-now-it-will-change-your-life is the equivalent for a writer of the commodity block cheese that fuels any grocery store cheese department. It pays the bills.

I felt like even a relatively recent cheese book that was so clearly “I’ve-already-spent-my-advance-so-I-need-to-turn-this-manuscript-in” could be read in a positive way as a meta-statement and cautionary tale about overly metaphorizing food. The very act of trying to write about the production and eating of one cheese into a book-length universal statement about the way-we-live-now made the narrator an Ahab chasing his artisanally-produced white whale. Other writers beware!

However, I think I hit my limit with this article: “Why Parmesan is Better than Pecorino Cheese” Let’s just start with this straw man:

“For the past ten years (more or less), a message about pecorino has been pushed to unsuspecting eaters like me: Pecorino is the new Parmesan, and anybody who knows anything about food (chefs, cookbook writers, etc.) knows it.”

Not only is this a dubious statement – I rarely see interest in Pecorino Romano at the expense of Parmigiano Reggiano unless it’s a sheep/cow issue – something very different is true. Anyone who tells you Pecorino Romano is the new Parmigiano Reggiano knows nothing about cheese.

(Here I am repping the 415 Parmigiano Reggiano. Don’t gimmie no bammer brie!)

There is no need to choose one over the other as some kind of rule. Both have their history and uses that date back to long before there was a united “Italy.” I do feel bad for any “unsuspecting eaters” who may have heard – somewhere — that they are inferior garbage people if they like Parmigiano Reggiano more than Pecorino Romano, but maybe those folks should invoke a little more critical thinking in their food reading. Especially if they are the editor of a popular trendy food website.

To his credit, the author, David Tamarkin editor of Epicurious, does admit in this trashing of Pecorino Romano that he is partially correcting his own “lie.” One of his first acts as editor of Epicurious was to write the following:

“Parmigiano is great. Pecorino is better. Sharper, funkier, more flavor-forward—and, generally cheaper. Use it wherever you would use Parmigiano (AKA Parmesan), aged gruyere or manchego”

To you folks out there who are not cheese professionals: if you want a tip-off to whether a writer knows anything about cheese here it is… if a writer says “pecorino” instead of defining what kind of pecorino it is (Pecorino Romano, Pecorino Sardo AOP, pecorino fresco etc.) read no further. Also, if a writer says “use this instead of…” and names three cheeses from totally different regions and with different taste and textural properties, read no further.

The author here is referring to Pecorino Romano, but even if this was defined, there is more variation on Pecorino Romano* available in the US than there is with Parmigiano Reggiano. Much Pecorino Romano is no longer made in the region of Rome, but rather in Sardinia. Some, not all, of this is suitable only for use as salt licks for deer hunting or perhaps melting snow in certain climates. Here’s another tip for gauging whether an author knows cheese: if they suggest subbing “pecorino” without telling you to adjust the salt level in your food, stop reading.

Tamarkin does apologize to America for promoting “pecorino” but he cops an insanity plea while doing so. It’s the voices in his head (of Brooklyn hipster chefs) that made him do it! Yet, his ode to “pecorino” remains online in the Epicurious list of “essential” pantry items. In this way Tamarkin is still, in effect, bullying himself, maintaining the straw man that he so bravely tries to destroy in his current article.

Anyways, I am writing this instead of updating our new worker handbook so I am going to get back to that. We have to make sure that when people come in to accuse us of forcing “pecorino” on them, new workers know how to respond. First rule: tell customers not to believe most of what you read about cheese on trendy food sites. The cheese will remain after the hype is gone.

* BTW, I would recommend two brands of Pecorino Romano in particular: The Fulvi Pecorino Romano Genuino and the (relatively new to the USA) Pondini imported organic Pecorino Romano