Sometimes our diners will not finish a previous course, because they're saving room for the cheese. He compares the growing interest in cheese courses to the broadening interest in wines a couple of decades ago. It used to be kind of intimidating when you saw all these wines on a wine list. You'd be sort of embarrassed to ask questions that you thought maybe you should already know. It's the same way now with cheese.
Cheese needs a mentor.
If someone can tell you, 'Here's the profile, this is what it tastes like, and that funny one over there tastes like such and such,' well, then, people are going to try it. Although European cheeses are usually the mainstay of cheese courses, cheese expert and cookbook author Steven Jenkins says the United States is beginning to provide high-quality artisan cheeses that compare well with their European counterparts. In fact, you can almost judge a book by its cover in this rare case. A rustic-looking rind is appropriate and natural and may even be regarded as a thing of beauty. Many Americans, however, are accustomed to thinking something is wrong when they see these so-called scruffy cheese.