Patricia Michelson’s stunning hardcover Cheese: Exploring Taste and Tradition (Gibbs Smith, May 2010) captures the world of small-scale cheese production around the globe with vivid images and stories of more than 450 signature cheeses and their producers. Michelson, owner of the renowned London cheese shop La Fromagerie, is passionate and knowledgeable on the subject as she explores the cultural, migratory, and geographical influences that have determined styles of cheese production.

Significantly, this is the first publication by a non-American cheese expert to recognize—and salute—the work and paradigm shift among U.S. and Canadian cheesemakers. Michelson, who devotes considerable
print real estate to this section by covering more than 150 New World cheeses, tells of how North American producers are developing individual styles while embracing traditional roots. Although the
layout and index are arranged by country, which assumes a certain level of knowledge, the book is accessible for the cheese novice yet engaging for afi cionados. Well worth its considerable weight as a
reference and encyclopedia, the volume also includes a bonus chapter of mouthwatering cheese recipes.