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The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table [Paperback]

Liz Thorpe
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 11, 2009

The Cheese Chronicles is an insider's look at the burgeoning world of American cheese from one lucky person who has seen more wedges and wheels, visited more cheesemakers, and tasted more delicious (and occasionally stinky) American cheese than anyone else. Liz Thorpe, second in command at New York's renowned Murray's Cheese, has used her notes and conversations from hundreds of tastings spanning nearly a decade to fashion this odyssey through the wonders of American cheese. Offering more than eighty profiles of the best, the most representative, and the most important cheesemakers, Thorpe chronicles American cheesemaking from the brave foodie hobbyists of twenty years ago (who put artisanal cheese on the map) to the carefully cultivated milkers and makers of today.

Thorpe travels to the nation's cheese farms and factories, four-star kitchens and farmers' markets, bringing you along for the journey. In her quest to explore cheesemaking, she high-lights the country's greatest cheeses and concludes that today's cheesemakers can help provide more nourishing and sensible food for all Americans.

Steve Jenkins, author of the celebrated Cheese Primer, calls this "the best book about cheese you'll ever read." The Cheese Chronicles is a cultural history of an industry that has found breakout success and achieved equal footing with its European cousins.


Frequently Bought Together

The Cheese Chronicles: A Journey Through the Making and Selling of Cheese in America, From Field to Farm to Table + Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maître Fromager + Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques & Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses
Price for all three: $61.85

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Thorpe] zips engagingly from tasting notes and the best makers to the aging process. Through Thorpe’s eyes, readers will truly behold the power of cheese.” (Town & Country )

“[The Cheese Chronicles]’s overall scope, humor, and affection will both entertain and educate its audience. Recommended for foodies, especially those with a passion for cheese.” (Library Journal )

“Liz’s knowledge of cheese has been invaluable to us at The French Laundry and Per Se. Whether working with our chefs or teaching classes to our staff, her passion is contagious and has helped us to elevate our cheese program through the years. (Thomas Keller, Chef, The French Laundry and Per Se )

“The Cheese Chronicles does more than just introduce us to America’s rediscovered culinary frontier--it offers everyone from novice to affineur an informative and unconventional context for what can only be described as a revolution in cheese.” (Dan Barber, Executive Chef and co-owner, Blue Hill at Stone Barns )

About the Author

A Yale graduate, Liz Thorpe left a "normal" job in 2002 to work the counter at New York's famed Murray's Cheese. She managed and expanded their wholesale business, designed cheese menus for the country's best restaurants, coauthored The Murray's Cheese Handbook, and followed her passion for cheese. She is now the vice president of Murray's, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two cats.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Ecco; Original edition (August 11, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0061451169
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061451164
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
(17)
3.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 26 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Should have been called the Liz Chronicles October 8, 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Can you imagine having a tour of a great museum, looking at wonderful artwork but whenever the guide shows you a piece and explains it they stand in front of the piece, blocking your view of the art such that all you can see is the guide? That is what reading this book is like. A great author can make you feel like you are part of a place and experience without thrusting themselves into the scene. Not so with this book. At first it was tedious and then it just became annoying. That is a shame really because there is a lot of good info about cheese and cheese makers is in this book, it just takes too much effort to continually shove the guide out of the way so you can see the art behind her.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars So easy to devour just like great cheese itself October 4, 2009
Format:Paperback
I absolutely loved The Cheese Chronicles. The writing was so compelling and colorful that I found myself devouring a hundred pages at a time.

The Cheese Chronicles by Liz Thorpe is hard to categorize. It's part cheese guide, part travelogue, part cheese history, and part memoir. Whatever it is, Thorpe manages to make it all work and it flows like a well written story. The bulk of the book is focused on the cheesemakers and the cheeses they produce and Thorpe does a great job of bringing the people and their products to life. This includes a lot of smaller producers in less known cheese producing regions (like the southeast) and some that mostly sell at farmers' markets. Even though she tells you about a lot of cheese that are similar (i.e. strong blues, bloomy rinds, fresh goat cheeses, etc.) she does an amazing job of describing what makes each cheese unique. Because of this you can almost taste how the cheese are different and you never get bored hearing about another goat or bloomy rind cheese, no matter how many she has told you about. I also loved her descriptions of the cheeses. They are very colloqueal and unpretenious, but without being silly. I especially love that she was honest about her descriptions and unafraid to mention when the quality varied over time or when it was a cheese in a style that she didn't particularly like but she thought others would enjoy.

She also does a nice job of weaving in a lot of the science and history of cheese without making the book dull or dense. It's the right blend of storytelling, science, and history. You learn a lot without realizing it because she makes it so approachable and entertaining. My only nit on the book is that some information is repeated several times throughout the book as if she hasn't told you before and it gets a little annoying. However, it is a VERY slight nit and doesn't take away from the quality of the book or the enjoyment I got from reading it.

Overall, I can't say enough good things about this book. I've read varying qualities of non-fiction food writing and Thorpe has distinguished herself as one of the best. You'll buy this book for her entertaining desciptions, vivid storytelling, and educational facts and you'll keep it because it makes a great guide of unique cheeses to check out. Highly recommended.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Excited to read this but bored by the end. November 11, 2011
Format:Paperback
This book started out great, and I was excited to have what felt like a very thorough reference of American artisanal cheeses. However, by 2/3 of the way through I realized Liz was repeating herself and not really adding anything new to the discussion of American cheese. I will still keep it around, because she has some excellent tasting notes to help guide you through your cheese purchases, however it could have been 100 pages shorter and been just as valuable.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars As a cheese maker myself,...
...I really enjoyed this book. It effectively painted the landscape of American artisan cheese at the time of writing with wit and insight. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Tim Young, Author of The Accidental Farmers & Poisoned Soil
4.0 out of 5 stars A journey into the world of artisan cheese
(3.5 stars) The author takes the reader on several excursions through the world of cheese in this book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Michelle Boytim
3.0 out of 5 stars Christmas Gift
I read a review of this in a cooking magazine and decided to give it as a gift with a block of cheese and some cheese paper. I hope the recipient appreciated the package!
Published 4 months ago by Joann
5.0 out of 5 stars Know your cheese
I want to open up my owe cheese shop and this book is helping me get started. Tons of information and great anidots. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Rena klontz
5.0 out of 5 stars You will want to make cheese after reading this book
I enjoyed the writers background story very much. She should write another book just of her travels to the cheese or even food places/restaurants she visits. Read more
Published 21 months ago by A. Meier
3.0 out of 5 stars Making Cheese
It was interesting for the first half but then it all got to be about the same the rest of the book
Published on September 10, 2010 by Dennis Gordon
1.0 out of 5 stars The Hipster Guide to the Cheese Ignorance of Liz
This book is 99% garbage. I read in somebodies review that it is a good book because you don't have to be knowledgable about food in order to enjoy it. Read more
Published on April 9, 2010 by ccemerling
5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew cheese could be so exciting?
I have really enjoyed reading this book. The author obviously knows cheese and she manages to pass that enthusiasm on to the reader through the stories in her book. Read more
Published on March 16, 2010 by Jennifer Ferris
5.0 out of 5 stars Appreciating cheese for the novice
I am not a cheese fanatic but The Cheese Chronicles may make me one. Liz Thorpe gives a vivid description of the tastes and textures of many uniques artisinal cheeses made in the... Read more
Published on January 30, 2010 by Richard L. Hecht
5.0 out of 5 stars A lively, winning chronicle any general or culinary library will...
THE CHEESE CHRONICLES: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MAKING AND SELLING OF CHEESE IN AMERICA, FROM FIELD TO FARM TO TABLE tells of an author who has crossed the country discussing,... Read more
Published on October 16, 2009 by Midwest Book Review
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