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02/17/2016 06:00 AMPaul Partica, the cheese monger and owner at The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook, says that walking into his shop can be a bit intimidating for the first timer.
“People walk in and they see a wall of cheeses. We have almost 300 cheeses. It is literally a wall,” he says, adding, “it’s my job to take the intimidation factor out of it.”
Like many cheese mongers, Partica does that by making sure he spends time with his customers educating them about cheese. Not only does he regularly offer samples, he likes to insist that his customers try the cheese they are buying every time they buy it. “The main thing is to taste it, so you don’t get home and be surprised,” he says. “They might know the cheese, but they might not know this particular wheel.” Great cheeses can sometimes vary from batch to batch and from one wheel to the next, making the process of trying before you buy essential for most cheese, he said. He also recommended that cheese buyers not get “bogged down with a name.” Rather, “ask me what I have in that’s good that day,” he says. “That’s what we try to teach on an ongoing basis.”
Partica, as time allows, also offers a class he calls Cheese 101. A recent one played to a packed house of about 45 people. He also writes extensively and has his own cheese blog, and a column in the magazine Ink. For people who are just starting out, he recommends a column he calls “Breaking it Down: The 12 Families of Cheese” (www.cheeseshopcenterbrook.com/breaking-it-down-the-12-families-of-cheese). In it, he groups the cheeses into 12 families according to similar characteristics. He said understanding cheese this way can give people a way to think about their available choices. The families include fresh, Swiss, cheddar, English, Dutch, Port Salut, Tilsit, blue, hard, soft-ripening, washed rind, and goat and sheep.
Christine Chesanek, from Fromage in Old Saybrook, just recently settled into a new addition to her store that doubled her available space. Her store also offers samples of cheeses for customers, and she is exploring the possibility of doing a series of events with the Madison Wine Shop in Madison, where they provide the wine and she provides the cheese. She did one recently with a Valentine’s Day theme, and said she may do more, again, time allowing.
She also loves working with customers who want to do their own cheese tasting at home, or at a party. She’ll check to see what the customer plans to bring for a wine, then will recommend a pairing. “I can make them a platter, as long as I have 24 hours’ notice,” she said. “We can go across categories, feature different countries, different flavors, different regions of the country.”
If people want to learn more about cheese, she and other cheese mongers said, just ask.
“Talk with us here at the counter,” she said. “We can tell them what’s good and give them samples.”
Domenic Liuzzi, one of the owners of Liuzzi Cheese in North Haven, concurred. Their shop offers a wide array of Italian cheese, made in their facility in Hamden, including fresh mozz, ricotta (large curd and whipped), basket cheese, caccioricotta, caciocavallo, smoked mozz, along with homemade butter. In addition, they offer a wide variety of European gourmet cheese as well. Like many of the other cheese stores, they also offer specialty pastas, cookies, crackers, sauces, meats, and other goods.
“Every day, we offer samples of bits of cheese,” he says. “And just about every Saturday, we put out a table. We have someone at the counter who can educate people about cheese,” he says, including Bob Derrico, Vinny Camera, and Lou Lenti, who “is basically retired but he still comes in.”
Liuzzi said he loves talking with people about cheese, and staying current with the latest and greatest trends.
“There’s always something new on the horizon, and we want to be able to be sure to tell our customers about that,” he said.
Liuzzi Gourmet, 322 State Street, North Haven, 203-248-4356
Fromage, 873 Boston Post Road, Old Saybrook, 860-388-5750
The Cheese Shop of Centerbrook, 33 Main Street, Centerbrook, 860-767-8500
Caseus, 93 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, 203-6-CHEESE
Madison Cheese Shop, 119 Samson Rock Drive, Madison, 203-245-5168