Cheese

Two Festivals This Weekend Celebrate World's Best Foods: Cheese and Chocolate

In a scenario where we were asked at gunpoint to choose whether we'd give up cheese or chocolate for the rest of our life (you know, threatened by hardened criminals who are discerning about such matters), we'd be hard-pressed to come up with a decision. Thankfully we can celebrate both this weekend ... More >>

Enjoy Comparative Beer and Cheese Tasting at 'From Ales to Fromage' Event

At some point in your life, you may have cracked open whatever beer was in the fridge, unwrapped a Kraft single, and went to town. Don't worry; we aren't the types to judge. But allow us to recommend an event that goes far beyond macro lager and chemically enhanced "cheese products" -- 'From Ales T ... More >>

Markegard Family Grass-Fed Offers Workshops for the Aspiring Urban Farmer

If you have an itch to drive out of the city learn more about the country life, then Markegard family of Half Moon Bay have a workshop series that might be for you. The Markegards run a large grass-fed farm and ranch in Half Moon bay and raise beef, lamb, eggs and pastured pork, all available via CS ... More >>

Central Coast Creamery: Taste-Testing Paso Robles' (and SFO's) Surprise Cheeses

Most airports continue to ignore the obvious truth that the feet that flow through their halls are connected to hungry people with both cash and palates -- and little interest in airports' plebeian gruel and fast-food fare. Fortunately, SFO has taken the bold step with the new Terminal 2 of actually ... More >>

"Fat Bottom Girl" Cheese Makes the Dairy World Go Round

One great thing about Northern California: Whatever your foodie pleasure, there's always more of it out there than at first seems possible. We've lately discovered yet another great cheese out there in the hills: Fat Bottom Girl, spring cheese from Bleating Heart in Sonoma. Like so many pursuing th ... More >>

Jasmine Smith Introduces Strong Cheese To San Francisco

A child of northern Wisconsin, Jasmine Smith grew up on a steady diet of processed cheese and Milwaukee's Best. "We used to get this cheese spread every year for Christmas that as a kid I liked but I now realize it was terrible!" Smith told us.  With her new venture Strong Cheese Provision ... More >>

Mixed Milk Cheeses: The Tasty Joys of Combining Goat and Cow

Often, cheese makers blend milk from different animals to create flavors a single milk can't provide. La Tur, a three milk cheese (sheep, cow and goat) from Caseficio dell'Alta Langa in Italy, is an exceptional example.  But sheep- and goat-milk cheese producers blend milk for a functional re ... More >>

Local, Store-Bought Burrata Stands up to its Italian Inspiration

One time in Italy we were told, with a hint of condescension, that we couldn't possibly have had "real" buffalo mozzarella in the States, as it hails from only one Italian town and was only eaten on the day it was made. Unless you feel a need to throw out your bread after its baking day, I would ar ... More >>

Forget Skiing, It's Cheese This Weekend

​This weekend, it's Disneyland for cheese, expect instead of rides there are tours of cheese making facilities; instead of performances and plush, strolling characters there are cheese seminars, authors, and producers; and instead of crappy food at the end of long lines it's all cheese.  &nbs ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Gordon Edgar Chooses His Favorite New Cheeses

The Artisan Cheese Ball: Now at Rainbow Grocery

​Every fall, SFoodie's mother used to stock up on pecan-and-parsley-covered cheese balls from a local fundraising drive, which would then emerge from the freezer to appear at card parties and Easter buffets over the course of the year. SFoodie loved them.When we were speaking to Gordon Edgar, Rain ... More >>

Gordon Edgar's 2011 Finds: New Cheeses to Discover

​SFoodie is calling up food types around the city to ask them about their favorite discovery of the past year, whether it's new or ancient, an ingredient or a person. We'll be running their responses through the end of the year. By this point in his career, Gordon Edgar, head cheese-buyer at R ... More >>

Cowgirl Creamery: The Fresh Cheeses

​Cowgirl Creamery is best known for its aged, European style, cheeses like Mt Tam and Red Hawk. But the ladies parcel our a fair selection of fresh cheeses as well, all of which can lift your morning, or your entertaining, to another level.Yesterday, we looked at Cowgirl's aged cheeses. Here' ... More >>

Meet and Eat With Your Favorite Cheesemakers

​What: Meet the Cheesemaker, a California Artisan Cheese Guild Fundraiser Where:The Cheese School of San Francisco When: Fri., November 11, 7-9 p.m. Cost: $35 The rundown: Every year, the Cheese School in North Beach hosts a bunch of California's cheesemakers to raise funds for the Califor ... More >>

Barinaga Ranch: Excellent Basque Cheese From Marin

​Just as the Bay Area has a shorts-to-sweater array of micro climates, it has a stunning selection of micro-cultures of cheesmaking. You can find examples of cheese styles from countries around the world and milks across the animal spectrum throughout the Bay. Barinaga Ranch in West Marin add ... More >>

Cheese Affinage? New York Times: Pro. Rainbow's Head Cheesemonger: Meh.

​Yesterday, the New York Times published a feature on affinage, the practice of properly aging cheeses until they hit that perfect moment for eating. The article profiled several East Coast cheesemongers who practice affinage, most notably Murray's Cheese Shop in Manhattan, which has a master ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Cypress Grove Delivers a PsycheDillic '60s Flashback

Mission Cheese: Beautiful Cheese, Stinky Service

More Local Cheese Recommendations

Jonathan KauffmanValley Ford's Estero Gold.​ This week, as I was tasting local cheeses for today's SFoodie's 92 segment, I called a number of pros to ask them about cheeses they thought I should know about. Three ― Jens at Say Cheese, Ellen at 24th Street Cheese Company, and the amazing Laura We ... More >>

Clean Cheese, Ginger Ale, and the Mighty Subway

Madame Fromage/FlickrSally Jackson's amazing cheese, now lost to the world after an FDA crackdown.​A new daily column: Notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other miscellanea dredged up from the food media.1. Cheese makers under attack? San Francisco diners haven't felt the i ... More >>

The New Cheese Lady

The Best New Cheeses of 2010

Gordon EdgarKunik from Nettle Meadow: Goat, meet cow.​Guest cheese blogger Gordon Edgar is the buyer for Rainbow Grocery and the author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge, published by Chelsea Green. He blogs at Gordonzola.net. It shows the strength and popularity of the growing world of Am ... More >>

Taste Local Cheese for the Holidays (and a Good Cause)

​For obvious, if college-humor, reasons, our favorite of the twelve days of Christmas has always been the eight maids a-milking. Egg nog and Santa's glass of milk always have a place in the holiday celebrations, but why can't we include dairy in its more awesome and solid forms? The

Biters, Vegan Sabotage: Just Another Day at Rainbow Grocery

gordonzola/FlickrUs, we would've stuck our teeth into something tastier that Jack.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. The thing about Cheesemonger Gordon Edgar? The cheese buyer at Rainbow Grocery lets you live ― vicariously ― the weirdness of working at a place where, any bad shit happe ... More >>

Memoir by Rainbow Cheesemonger Smashes Foodie Stereotypes

Chelsea GreenIt's a very local mashup of food and chip-on-the-shoulder social conscience.​Is it possible to turn gastronome without surrendering your punk soul? That question bleeds through the text of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge by Rainbow cheese buyer Gordon Edgar. The 200-page memoir ... More >>

Orgy of Artisanal Cheesemaking in Berkeley Tomorrow

​A cheese tasting, a panel discussion, and book signing are all going down at The Pasta Shop on Fourth Street (1786 Fourth St. at Hearst, Berkeley) tomorrow. Cheese artisans from Bellwether Farms, Cellars of Jasper Hill, Cowgirl Creamery, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, and Vermont Creamery will ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Cheese Doodles

Gordon EdgarCreepy faces adorn wheels of Chällerhocker, a Swiss cow's milk cheese.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Antonia Richmond tackles home cheese making for The Bold Italic. I've been hooked on the stuff since childhood--beginning with my first taste (of a cellophane-wrapped Kraft ... More >>

Cali Cheeses Rack Up Awards, But the Real Winners Might Be Ones You've Never Heard Of

Gordonzola.netGordon Edgar, Rainbow's cheesemonger: New California artisans are making magic.​A half dozen California cow's milk cheeses snagged more than a dozen awards at the 2009 World Cheese Awards earlier this month in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. The annual event is a slugfest of more than ... More >>

Don't Cheese and Drive

Cheeseheads: Artisanal Cheese Festival in Petaluma, March 20-23

Sonoma will be ground zero for aficionados of California's artisan cheese producers. The third annual Artisan Cheese Festival, held at the Sheraton Sonoma County - Petaluma, will run from Friday, March 20, through Monday, March 23.  The festivities begin with a Meet the Artisans welcome reception a ... More >>

The Harrowing Life Of A Cowgirl Creamery Cheesemonger

Our Cornucopia Runneth Over

There is plenty new at two of San Francisco's best takeout places

Closer Than Italy

Lucky Glen Park gets a new neighborhood hangout

Repaired Social Club

Is Annie's Social Club the 19th Cheese of bars? And what the hell is the 19th Cheese anyway?

Five Best Pizza Parlors

Best Cheese Shop

Slices of Heaven

Enjoying pizza in several locations, including between covers

Best Food Court

Ferry Building Marketplace

Best Pizza by the Slice

L'Osteria del Forno

Cheesed Off

Best Burger

Pier 23 Cafe

Side Dish

Southland

Taking Flight

Fly

Picnic Time!

Savage Love

Dish

Dish

Heat of the Night

At Zinzino, wood-burning oven + thin crusts = fab pizza

A New World Order

Rendezvous du Monde tours the Mediterranean cuisines with verve and style