Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maitre Fromager [Hardcover]

I'm here to tell you that this book -- "Mastering Cheese" -- is the real, full meal deal, and then some.

I've spent just a few hours with my newly acquired copy and am already certain I will be spending much, much more time with the book. There is plenty here to absorb. A brief history of cheesemaking. An outline of the basic steps in making various styles of cheese. The many elements of "terroir" and their effect on the texture, appearance and flavor of various cheeses. The basic "palette" of cheese flavors and aromas and the chemical compounds responsible for them, along with a glossary of common descriptive terms. Principles for mixing and matching cheeses for a cheese plate. Brief overviews of the cheeses of France, Italy, Switzerland, Britain, the U.S. and other dairy and cheesemaking regions. There is extensive discussion about the growing number of New World artisanal cheeses being made in Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont and elsewhere. A short review like this simply cannot begin to summarize the wealth of information included in this book. In the short time I've spent with it I'm sure I have come nowhere near to taking it all in.

This is the most comprehensive, attractive and readable guide to cheese I have ever seen in the English language. McCalman presents it all with the fervor of a lover and true believer. Above all, he is a powerful advocate for small scale, artisanal cheese production, for restoring the character and diversity of real cheese. As McCalman says in the early going, some people are fortunate enough to find their true calling in life, and he found it in the world of cheese. McCalman is a man with a mission to teach us all about the vast array of cheeses made around the world, how to enjoy them in their peak condition and to appreciate all their nuances. This is his magnum opus.

The book is as rich, creamy and full of life as a perfectly ripe and runny Vacherin Mont d'Or, as dense and mouthfilling as the very best Salers. If you really care about cheese and want to expand your knowledge and horizons, you want to own this book.

I've previously reviewed McCalman's "Cheese, A Connoisseur's Guide," something of a coffee table guide to a rather limited selection of cheeses, marred, in my view, by McCalman's resort to a Robert Parker-like 'point scoring' system that seemed to make no sense at all. This book has no such faults or flaws. It is the book to buy.

Just two teeny quibbles: First, I probably could do without the little "chapter reviews" at the end of each chapter. Yes, these are posited as "lessons," but let's not get too pedagogical! Second, and more of a bother, there does not seem to be a bibliography, although McCalman does refer to a number of other books and I assume he did go to other sources for a lot of the information contained here. I'd love to have a list of sources and the ability to seek them out, as this book successfully piqued my interest in learning more.

This is sweating the small stuff, however; perhaps both points can be addressed in a second edition someday. As it is, this is a really wonderful resource on the subject of cheese.

As a hard-core cheese devotee, I read more than my share of cheese books. I own both of MacCalmans other books (Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best and The Cheese Plate), both of which are getting rather well-thumbed.

Mastering Cheese combines those two volumes, along with MacCalman's deep expertise in the cheese world, into an excellent how-to guide for anyone that is interested in taking their cheese experience to another level. It is well written with plenty of opportunities for the aspiring caseophile to expand their knowledge of this delicious, delightful food!

McCalman breaks lots of new ground in his third book on great cheese--big focus on American artisans, finally a chapter on beer, a more conversational tone--but the knowledge, insights, and ridiculously beautiful images remain. Hats off to Max, too, for (perhaps?) coining the term "cheese farmer."