Animation by Alex Van Dyne
pronounced by Will Fertman

Ever at a loss for words in the cheese shop? Here are the proper pronunciations for twelve of the most tongue-twisting cheeses on the shelf: Bleu d'Auvergne, Cabecou, Chabichou du Poitou, Epoisse de Bourgogne, Fleur du Maquis, Garrotxa, Gjetost, Hoch Ybrig, Idiazabal, Vacherin Mont d'Or, Ossau-Iraty, and Valencay.
Straight from the, er, horse's mouth.

As new food safety laws come to the FDA, cheesemakers best stay clean

Over the past year the artisan cheese world has been shaken by the shutdown of several small but significant cheesemaking facilities, due to bacteria findings in cheeses and creameries. In response to these cases, cheesemakers around the country have rallied, believing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is being particularly aggressive in inspecting small producers. Now it appears things may only get tougher.

In early January, President Obama signed into law historic food-safety legislation, the first major revamping of the country’s regulations on food quality since the Great Depression. Some small cheesemakers may be exempted, but for those that are not, and many will not be, it means stepped-up inspections of farms and food-processing facilities. The law also calls for the FDA to hire 2,000 additional inspectors. (Whether this Congress will fully fund them is another question.)

A rind researcher captures the microscopic residents of cheese

The rind of cheese is home to a fascinating—and beautiful—community of microbes.

Bacteria and fungi growing together make up a microbial ecosystem, and as the microbes grow they contribute to the flavor, smell, and texture of the ripening cheese.

The colonies you see in these images are formed by individual microbes, which were isolated from cheese rinds and grown on petri dishes in the laboratory.

My research is focused on understanding the various ways in which these microbes interact with each other.

Ultimately, I hope to discover what cheese microbes can teach us about the microbial ecosystems found throughout nature.

Photography & text by Rachel Dutton, PhD

Choose a sliced-fruit mostarda, not a whole-fruit mostarda, for the topping.

Warm the olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large saucepan over moderate heat. Add the onion and saute until soft, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the squash, a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup hot broth. Cover and simmer gently until the squash is almost tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in the rice.

Sparkling in the foothills of the Rockies, this 400-year-old desert city is an oasis of indulgence

Curated by Andrea Feucht / Photography by Eric Swanson

Tourists visiting world destinations often choose from a list of traveler-approved and well-known cafés and restaurants, while the locals have their own hidden spots deemed favorites for everyday eating. Santa Fe, the de facto destination on nearly every Southwest travel itinerary, bucks this practice. Here locals shop and dine at the very same spots they have lauded to visitors, eager to share their city’s unique take on good taste.

The English language is said to have the richest vocabulary in the world, yet I’m beginning to think that it’s pretty limited in ways to describe cheese. Look at the text in any taxonomy of cheese and the same words keep coming up—creamy, tangy, rich, et cetera. (I wish I had a dollar for every time “nutty” appears.) These descriptions are too general. As the ancient Greeks had multiple names for “love,” we could certainly do well with a few more terms to convey the nuances of cheese character—or least more apt analogies. I was reminded of this recently, when my daughter announced one evening, at dinner, “Goat cheese tastes like dirt to me.”

We were sitting down to a quick meal, both of us sharing a frittata I’d made with some very nice aged Vermont goat cheese. My 16-year-old took another bite and added, “But not in a bad way.”

“Hmmm,” I teased, “I guess I don’t really know what dirt tastes like. I’ve never eaten any.”

Allison Hooper, Award-winning cheesemaker, Cofounder/owner of Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery, and President of the American Cheese Society, 2005–2008, meets with Culture's editor Elaine Khosrova to tell the story of her success in cheesemaking.

"Those early days in France were so formative. I was 19, a student, living in Paris—I needed something to do between semesters. So I wrote some letters offering to work on a farm if a family gave me a place to live and fed me..."

"One family wrote back, from Brittany. They had cows, goats, some sheep, pigs . . . they made a variety of fresh and aged cheeses and charcuterie. It was a wonderful existence on a hardscrabble little farm. The farmhouse was an old stone Brittany-style house with a dirt floor; I slept with sausages hanging over my head..."