IT’S not easy being cheesy.Slammed as smelly, fatty and bacterially dirty – and deadly by some medical experts – the creamy staple took its lumps in the last decade, including having its likeness worn on the heads of screaming football fans in Green Bay.
But now cheese is making a major comeback – from the bottom of the cracker barrel.
And nowhere is that more evident than in New York’s toniest restaurants, where a new breed of expert is suddenly all the rage.
Say hello to the fromager.
Long a tradition in France, the fromager (the dairy equivalent of a wine sommelier) is spreading like melted Brie all across the city.
Max McCalman is considered by many to be New York’s top fromager. Since 1995, he has overseen the country’s most extensive collection of cheeses at Picholine restaurant on West 64th Street.
“We’ll have maybe 60 or 70 [varieties] at any time,” says McCalman, who was a maitre d’ but now serves as a full-time fromager.
Clearly there’s a need for him. McCalman says that nearly a ton of cheese was sold in Picholine in December. “And we were even closed for a few days,” he says.
At the hip new restaurant Commune, fromager Lynne Edelson has put together a comprehensive list of upscale cheese offerings.
According to Edelson, cheese should be served as a fourth course – before the sweets.
“Cheese helps food digest,” she says. “Many cheeses still have live enzymes if they are made with raw milk or light pasteurization.”
The duty of a fromager is to pair cheeses with wines and to help recommend choices.
“One of my favorites is a white wine from Spain that goes with many varieties,” says McCalman.
“As far as red wines that work with a bigger range of cheeses, you see nice marriages with a gamay or zinfandel.”
But some couplings were never meant to be.
“There are some cheeses that go very well with a first-growth Bordeaux. But to pair a pricey Bordeaux with just any cheese can be risky,” McCalman says. “To pair it with a blue or a stinky muenster, for example, could spell disaster.”
Sometimes simpler is better.
Says Edelson: “One of my favorites is a domestic cheese called Vermont Shepard, which is made in very limited quantities with sheep’s milk. It goes perfectly with a good Burgundy.”
Occasionally, even the experts learn a thing or two about their industry.
“I do find some surprises,” says McCalman. “Sometimes I will taste a cheese I wouldn’t expect to work with a certain type of wine. And when it does, that’s always a thrill to find.”
At newly opened Tocqueville, former Jean Georges maitre d’ Savio Soares is the restaurant’s resident cheese whiz.
His favorite recommendation?
“I pair goat cheeses with white wine, like a sauvignon blanc, from the Loire Valley.”
But Edelson warns that not everyone who calls himself a fromager is really a cheese expert.
“Unfortunately, anybody can call themselves a fromager,” she says. “There is no certificate or school you graduate from.”
