In this edition of Shop Talk, three cheese professionals voice their favorite cheeses of the moment while touching on seasonality in cheesemaking.
SHIN YUEN
Specialty Order Writer & Cheese Buyer, Whole Foods Market, New York City, New York
In 2011, Yuen began his cheese journey by building the beer program at Nolita Mart and Espresso Bar, a specialty food shop in New York City. In 2012, Nolita partnered with Artisanal Premium Cheese and tasked Yuen with creating signs to highlight cheese and beer pairings with tasting notes. After Nolita closed in 2016, he was hired as the cheese buyer at Whole Foods Market in Chelsea, where he connected with Melissa Finch of Maker to Monger, whom he affectionately refers to as his “cheese mom.” During his time at Whole Foods, Yuen has been promoted to leadership positions in multiple locations, including Tribeca, Union Square, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, and One Wall Street. However, his love and passion for cheese kept tugging at him, so he recently transitioned back to his former cheese buyer position at Whole Foods Market Chelsea. “Talking about cheese and sharing what I love is my favorite thing,” says Yuen. “Working at a cheese counter inside a market, you get to speak to customers with varying degrees of cheese knowledge, even those who didn’t stop in for cheese at all. When people ask me why cheese is so expensive, I explain how much work and dedication it takes to make artisan cheese.”
What’s your take on seasonality in cheese?
Milk is seasonal! Especially when it comes to farmstead cheeses. In the spring, animals graze on fresh grass, flowers, and herbs that impart some flavor to their milk. Spring cow’s milk tends to be high in butterfat and yellowish in color due to the abundance of beta-carotene and other nutrients present in grass. In the summer, the milk is high in protein and fat as the animals continue feeding on grass-rich pastures. As it gets colder, dairy farmers switch to dry hay to feed their cows. This milk is usually paler as the food lacks beta-carotenes, but it’s usually lusher and fattier as it contains less moisture, thus concentrating its nutrient density.
What’s your favorite cheese right now?
When I think of fall, I think of Rogue Creamery Rogue River Blue. It was crowned champion at the 2019 World Cheese Awards, partly due to its flavor notes of pear brandy, toffee, truffle, seared steak fat, and fig. This special cheese is made with fall milk, aged 9 to 11 months, wrapped in Syrah leaves soaked in pear spirits, and released annually on the autumnal equinox. Rogue River Blue quite literally marks the beginning of the fall. Another cheese I look forward to every fall is Uplands Cheese Rush Creek Reserve. Inspired by cheeses such as Vacherin Mont d’Or, Rush Creek Reserve is only made during the colder months in Wisconsin when the cows feed on dry hay. This luscious raw-milk cheese is wrapped in spruce bark and tastes salty, savory, smoky, grassy, and milky-sweet. These are the flavors of fall itself. Serve it by slicing off the top and scooping it up with a spoon or some crusty bread.
PENNY TOMENO
Proprietor, Brick Schoolhouse Cheese & Bread, North Rose, New York
Many folks who stop by Brick Schoolhouse Cheese and Bread remember dropping by a similar setup in a similar spot when they were children. The half-century-old cheese stand was somewhat of an institution for New Yorkers in the know, and despite the original’s closure in 2015, Penny Tomeno and her husband were able to revive the walk-up cheese stand business. The concept of walk-up stands is popular for frozen treats or even baked goods, but it’s rare to hear of stand-alone walk-up cheese shops. Brick Schoolhouse Cheese and Bread exclusively sells cheeses from Golden Age Cheese Company, in addition to a variety of bread and baked goods from Amazing Grains Bread Co. “The area zoning only permits a farm stand in this spot, so for the last 70 years, cheese has been sold from two other stands on opposite sides of the corners that we live on,” Tomeno explains. “So, the walk-up stand has been a long-time tradition that fits the agriculture setting. The area is a destination spot for boaters, cottage renters, and campground visitors from all over the world.”
Tell me about why you chose to operate a walk-up cheese stand as opposed to a brick-and-mortar shop?
Since 1956, the Cheese Corner had been the go-to spot. Four years after the original operation shuttered, the opportunity arose to buy the brick schoolhouse across the street from the original location. My husband and I knew it’d be a no-brainer to sell cheese. We source our cheese locally from Golden Age Cheese Company out of Woodhull, New York, who primarily focuses on fresh mozzarella, a variety of aged and specialty cheddars, smoked cheeses, and plain and flavored cheese curds. We also sell a variety of freshly baked bread, including baguettes, Italian bread, mini herb sandwich loaves, and our oh-so-popular pepperoni bread, in addition to croissants and pastries. Of course, we’re well known by locals, but we’re also delighted to serve the thousands of visitors from all over the world who travel throughout the Finger Lakes region from early spring to fall.
What’s your favorite cheese right now?
My favorite right now is the 18-Year Cheddar from Golden Age Cheese paired with a fresh-picked SweeTango or SnapDragon apple from the apple farm that surrounds my shop.
CHELSEA LOWRIE
Lead Cheesemonger, Zupan’s Markets, Portland, Oregon
Chelsea Lowrie has been in the cheese business for 15 years, and like most folks who find their way to cheese, she pretty much stumbled into it. Lowrie grew up in a grocery store, and for three generations, the grocery business was the family trade. Like many local neighborhood grocers of this era, her family business didn’t survive. Despite this, after graduating college and heading into the ’09 recession, she unintentionally took a job in grocery, carrying on her family legacy as a fourth-generation grocer, and quickly became enamored with cheese (who isn’t?). “I was lucky enough to find a day job at Zupan’s Markets and I’ve been loyal ever since; once you fall in love with cheese, it’s hard to imagine life without it!” she says.
With three locations in Portland, Zupan’s prides itself on being the city’s reliable neighborhood family-run grocer for 65 years. And luckily, cheesemongers at Zupan’s have complete autonomy. “Zupan’s Markets is unique in so many ways,” Lowrie explains. “Not only is it a hyperlocal market, it’s family-owned and specialty-focused. Even in the world of cheese, us cheesemongers have a rare job description: We essentially run a cheese shop inside the market! There are no buyers, no merchandisers, no planograms—we instead rely on our taste, our experience, and our passion.”
What’s your take on seasonality in cheese?
All food was seasonal until very recently: peaches in summer, pumpkins in fall, and fresh dairy in spring. Thanks to globalization and technology, we are spoiled with virtually everything year-round; however, what we’ve gained in convenience, we’ve lost in both flavor and nuance.
What’s your favorite cheese right now?
Every wheel from Cascadia Creamery uses seasonal milk, so be on the lookout for extra-complex Sleeping Beauty or Glacier Blue this fall. My favorite seasonal-flavored cheese—a savory Pumpkin Walnut chèvre from Baetje Farms—will be arriving on the shelves soon, too. And if your cheese board needs some autumnal aesthetics, check out Boxcarr’s Cottonboo: a stunning mixed-milk robiola-style with a dazzling orange interior and an ash-dusted rind.
Mallory Scyphers
Mallory Scyphers is culture's Executive Content Director and has been with the company since 2019. She lives on Mobile Bay with her husband, two young daughters, one old Shetland Sheepdog, one rambunctious golden retriever, and one calico cat. Her favorite cheeses are alpine styles and mineral-y blues.
