Dining

[The How-To Issue]

How to find your spirit cheese

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There is a cheese that speaks to your soul. You just need to track it down and put it in your mouth.
Illustration: Travis Jackson

“There are certain cheeses that will actually pull me out of my reality and I just focus on it.” That’s how Kristin Sande describes the experience of eating her spirit cheese. “A lot of times I wish that no one would bother me while I’m tasting it.”

Sande is a Certified Cheese Professional, probably the coolest title we’ve ever heard and a real thing thanks to the American Cheese Society, which offers this sommelier-like certification, administered by the same people who do the bar exam. Sande also owns local epicurean outpost Valley Cheese & Wine with her husband (she met him at a cheese conference), so she knows her gorgonzola from her robiola.

“I really like gooey, sticky cheeses that are a little bit funky,” she says. “Borderline offensive.”

How do you find your spirit cheese? Think about texture, palate and potential pairing. If you like harder cheeses, skip the sticky stuff. If you have a favorite wine, you might choose a cheese with the same terroir. If you’re a newbie, you’ll probably want to steer clear of freaky cheese, like stinky washed rinds that can be as alarming to some as they are enticing to others. Most importantly, taste, taste, taste. How else will you know what makes your eyes flutter?

At their Henderson shop, Sande and her husband do a lot of tasting, playing matchmaker for customers looking for the one. How can she tell when she nails it? “They get in that same zone where they’re like, ‘No one talk to me.’ And they get little twinkles in their eyes. That’s the best thing about cheese, that most people go crazy over it. That’s why they say that when you take a photo: ‘Say cheese.’”

Valley Cheese & Wine 1570 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway, 702-341-8191. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

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