Saveur tested six different models in a quest for “The Best Fondue Pots for A Winter Filled With Melted Chocolate and Cheese.” “Best Overall” is a sleek copper number from Swissmar, and the “Best Splurge” is not surprisingly from All-Clad, which will set you back about about $180. Once you have the ideal fondue pot, we’ve got the recipes, from Classic Swiss to Crème Fraiche and Semi-Sweet Chocolate, here.
- Art News recently featured the colorful creations of plant-based Cheeze & Thank You. Available at Whole Foods in the Chicago area, the woman run company offers flavors such as Jalapeno Mango White Cheddar and Piquanté Pepper Provolone.
- For cheese lovers with a travel itch, Atlas Obscura released a list of the 13 Places Every Cheese Lover Should Visit Before They Die. The oddball destinations range from a cheese-themed amusement park in South Korea to a cheese mite memorial in Germany.
- Food & Wine took an inside look at what cheeses chefs make sure to keep on hand. Daniel Boulud always has goat gouda for his cow’s milk-allergic daughter; Eric Ripert shares that he stocks blue cheese—Roquefort or Gorgonzola—to top late-night buttered toast; and for Narita Santos, Grana Padano is the go-to.
- James Lileks opined about the great cream cheese shortage of 2021/22 in a lighthearted piece for the Star Tribune. “These shortages keep the shopping experience from becoming boring, if nothing else.”
- Chef Stacey “Suga” West has opened an Atlanta, GA-area restaurant with a menu focused on pimiento cheese. At Suga’s Cheese Shoppe and Café in Powder Springs, you can tuck into smoked gouda mac and pimento cheese balls, a chicken wrap with pesto and feta pimento cheese, or pick up one of Suga’s 12 varieties of the south’s (and our) favorite cheese spread.
- A plant-based version of the lunchbox (and c’mon, everyone’s) favorite snack-size cheese, Babybel, is coming to a grocery store near you in March. Packaged in green wax you can peel just like the red wax-wrapped dairy cheese, the vegan newcomer is made from a blend of coconut oil and starch. Next up from Bel Brands, vegan Laughing Cow, expected in 2023. Read more here.
- Ivy’s Reserve Cheddar from family-owned Wyke Farms in Somerset, UK is the first world’s first cheddar cheese to be certified as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust. Named for Grandmother Ivy Clothier, whose 100-year-old cheddar recipe is locked in a safe at the farm, Ivy’s Reserve is aged for 18 months under wood, giving it a “slightly sweet, nutty, and complex flavor.
Alli Beard
Alli Beard hails from the Midwest but currently resides in Washington, D.C. On her breaks from Instagram-scrolling and cheese-tasting, Alli enjoys listening to her ever-growing vinyl collection, avidly following St. Louis sports and reading poetry at her local coffee shop.
