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French Cheese
Presenting a series of innovative visual manuals on a wide variety of popular subjects, these richly illustrated companions offers detailed cutaway views, maps, specially commissioned photographs, informative captions, and a fact-filled text as they cover the basics of different topics of interest.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 12, 2022
Reading through this book is rather like going through a Christmas catalog when I was a kid: there are so many things I desperately want that I will never have the funds and opportunity to experience. This is by no means an exhaustive, complete book on the subject of French cheese, but it does a beautiful job of cataloging over 350 morsels of delight in the usual DK fashion with bright photographs and useful data points. The vast majority of the profiled cheeses would only be available in France itself (*shakes fist at ridiculous US import laws*). I originally bought this book to actually take to France back in 2020--which never happened, courtesy of Covid--and I think this book would be great to utilize in that way. The cover and pages are high quality and it's almost pocket-sized, so it would be great for travel.
August 25, 2009
For those who enjoy cheese from time to time, this is an enjoyable little volume. Its focus is on French cheese (I just read and reviewed a book on olive oil, and this is a similar type of work).
The book begins with some introductory elements. Among these: the interrelationship among cheese, bread and wine; nutritional value of cheese; French cheese today; the labeling of cheese (a fascinating subject as related here, by the way!); buying, storing, and tasting cheese (one useful hint: let cheese warm up about 1/2 hour before eating, to bring out fuller flavor).
But the real heart of this book is the coverage of cheeses. There are over 200 pages of this, so I'll provide a few examples to give a sense of what is covered.
Brie: One of my favorite French cheeses (I used to think that it had an odd odor and taste, but with maturity, I have changed my mind!). The region where it is made is just east of Paris. Different kinds of brie are described. The discussion provides the rules that allow one to label the cheese as meeting key standards.
Camembert: Another of my favorites. This discussion includes the 32 steps from milking cows to eating a slice of this cheese! Fascinating reading. Again, as with brie, there are many categories of camembert, and it is intriguing to read about the variations.
Emmental: Another French cheese that I enjoy immensely. The discussion describes how one type of this cheese (Emmental grand cru) is made.
Roquefort: Not a cheese that I eat much. But it is one that is well known. A variety of aspects of this cheese is covered, such as appearance and flavor, legal protection, production, the cheese's "home," the blue mold so characteristic of this cheese, and so on.
In short, this is a lot of fun! It gives the reader a good sense of the different French cheeses and provides greater context for the next time one sits down to eat some good French cheese!
The book begins with some introductory elements. Among these: the interrelationship among cheese, bread and wine; nutritional value of cheese; French cheese today; the labeling of cheese (a fascinating subject as related here, by the way!); buying, storing, and tasting cheese (one useful hint: let cheese warm up about 1/2 hour before eating, to bring out fuller flavor).
But the real heart of this book is the coverage of cheeses. There are over 200 pages of this, so I'll provide a few examples to give a sense of what is covered.
Brie: One of my favorite French cheeses (I used to think that it had an odd odor and taste, but with maturity, I have changed my mind!). The region where it is made is just east of Paris. Different kinds of brie are described. The discussion provides the rules that allow one to label the cheese as meeting key standards.
Camembert: Another of my favorites. This discussion includes the 32 steps from milking cows to eating a slice of this cheese! Fascinating reading. Again, as with brie, there are many categories of camembert, and it is intriguing to read about the variations.
Emmental: Another French cheese that I enjoy immensely. The discussion describes how one type of this cheese (Emmental grand cru) is made.
Roquefort: Not a cheese that I eat much. But it is one that is well known. A variety of aspects of this cheese is covered, such as appearance and flavor, legal protection, production, the cheese's "home," the blue mold so characteristic of this cheese, and so on.
In short, this is a lot of fun! It gives the reader a good sense of the different French cheeses and provides greater context for the next time one sits down to eat some good French cheese!
December 26, 2018
Good information including food and wine pairing. However, it is not nearly as complete as it seems. Most of the time when I come back from a local cheese shop (I live in France), I am disappointed to find the cheese is not in this book, despite being a typical or widely available cheese. This book is a good beginners guide for what it contains, but it is greatly lacking in covering the cheeses available.
June 25, 2019
A very useful and pleasant reference. Cheeses are alphabetically listed. Each cheese gets a couple of photos or more, descriptions of its taste and texture, some of the cheese’s history, measurements of its size and nutritional content, how long it takes to ripen, and each cheese gets a small blank map of France with a red dot marking the spot the cheese is produced. I’d like to have seen an appendix of all the cheeses grouped by region, but no such luck.
December 2, 2020
Good info, but it's not exactly in-depth, or quite pocketbook sized. Ultimately it's a short blurb on each cheese that makes you want to do more research on it. But I appreciate the taxonomy of the general cheese styles - it helps narrow down the countless varieties into categories and descendants.
July 29, 2011
Yes, I really did read a whole book on French cheeses. I bought this at the airport in Nice, France, so at the time it seemed interesting, and actually it has been helpful in subsequent trips to the grocery store when visiting France. The book lists 350 different varieties of cheese with information on each one, including maps of the regions and colorful photographs. I haven't found the information I gleaned very useful since I have been home and the selection of French cheese where I live consists of 3 or 4 of the most common varieties. For a gourmet or for someone who likes knowing obscure information, this book could however be quite useful.
November 26, 2007
Great gift from my sister! It was also recommended to me by our local cheese shop "C'est Cheese" (along with "French Wines by Robert Joseph). Yummmm.
September 28, 2008
Best book on cheese on my bookshelves.
May 8, 2011
Excellent food porn of the cheese variety. Playcurd for the foodie set.
July 27, 2011
All that's missing is the smell.
It's pretty awesome that this was written by 2 Japanese.
It's pretty awesome that this was written by 2 Japanese.
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May 19, 2014I returned this to the library without really reading it, but it was fun seeing such an unusual book around the house, and I enjoyed paging through it! Maybe if I retire someday, I'll investigate?
August 11, 2019
Great companion to our trip to France
October 25, 2019
When I read this book, I borrow it at a library, but since I love cheese, I'm going to get my own copy soon. - Got it in the mail today!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews