Tag: cuisine

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Fanning the Flame

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

In a few days, Brown Burch will be taking a vacation from his 60-hour-a-week sous-chef position at the Inn at Hunt Phelan. During that vacation, he’ll be working 10 to 12 hours a day — unpaid — doing whatever is asked of him, and when his time is up after a couple of weeks, he’ll be sad to go.

Burch, 25, is headed to the acclaimed Chicago restaurant Alinea for a two-week stage — a French term for an internship in the culinary arts. Last year, Ruth Reichl of Gourmet declared Alinea the “Best Restaurant in America” in the magazine’s twice-per-decade list of America’s Top 50 Restaurants.

Working like a dog without pay might seem like a crazy idea, but for the passionate aspiring cook who wants to learn from the best, it’s often the only way.

“In France, we say if you have a flamme secrète — a secret flame, an unyielding passion for something such as cooking and food — you will do whatever it takes to become the best,” says Jose Gutierrez, the owner/chef of Encore, who spent many years as a stagiaire (an intern) in some of the top restaurants in France.

Gutierrez explains that in France, after graduating from cooking school, it could easily take 10 years of stage-ing and apprenticing before a cook moves up to the next rank. “This time is not about making money. It’s about learning your craft and concentrating on your craft and nothing else,” Gutierrez says.

Europe is the ultimate stage destination for many American cooks. Labor laws are such that in many countries, foreigners must forgo pay to work in trendsetting restaurants.

On egullet.com, the Web site of the Society for Culinary Arts and Letters, young cooks from all over the world exchange their stage experience, and most of them agree on one thing: If you think it’s tough in the kitchen you’re working in now, wait until you work in Europe. One stagiaire recalls his first days at Oustau de Baumanière, a Relais & Chateaux hotel/restaurant in Provence, where he spent several days in “ravioli limbo,” making close to 1,000 chicken-, leek-, and truffle-filled ravioli.

“As stagiaire, you’re on the bottom of the food chain,” says Gutierrez. “But you don’t complain. You do what the chef tells you to do, and if he wants you to wash his car during your break, you wash his car during your break.” Gutierrez calls it an investment in your future, a life lesson.

And the young stagiaire who spent days making ravioli? He had never seen that many truffles in his life, and it was an absolute delight to him to have his blistered hands fragrant with their precious aroma. The point is that you can only endure long hours and hard labor if passion is strong, as it is for Burch.

Although Burch has always had an interest in food (at his mother’s house, you can find pictures of him as a 4-year-old slurping oysters in New Orleans) and has been working in restaurants since he was a senior in high school, his determination and love for cooking developed slowly, growing as he’s gotten more experience.

He’s had short stages at Joël and ONE.Midtown Kitchen in Atlanta, Frank Stitt’s restaurant in Birmingham, as well as numerous other well-known restaurants. All he’s done for the past year is work and save money. While his other twentysomething peers party, he cooks. When he’s not cooking, he reads about cooking and food.

It might seem that if you offer your skills for free, it shouldn’t be hard to find a place that will gladly take you in. That’s true, but for young cooks interested in doing a stage at a first-rate restaurant, the competition can be fierce. And once that person has his or her foot in the door, they’ll have to give their everything and set themselves apart to be recognized in the kitchens of lauded places such as Alinea or the French Laundry in Napa Valley, which can choose from the best.

“The task is really how to distinguish yourself from the other 15 stagiaires, so the chef will even pay attention to you,” says Gutierrez. Outperforming everybody else and, according to Gutierrez, stealing the chef’s recipes (to a French chef, a sign of ultimate determination) is a start.

Contrary to European stages, which are at least two months long and provide the young native cooks with food, lodging, and a meager allowance, most restaurants in the United States let culinary apprentices come in and observe for a couple of days and generally don’t provide housing.

As for Burch, he’s ready for blistered hands. He’s saved enough money to work without pay for a while (as long as he can sleep on a friend’s couch), and he’s determined to learn from the best and bring back his knowledge and honed skills to Memphis when the time is right.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Hash It Out

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Diners aren’t usually so highfalutin: They’re typically known for the greasing of spoons, the slinging of hash, and the kissing of grits. It’s not necessarily the kind of place where a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America is in the back preparing herb-infused mashed potatoes. But such is not the case at King Biscuit Diner.

The graduate in question is Paul Willis, chef and part owner of the diner, which opened in December in a Cordova strip mall. Willis admits that the name is a calculated attempt to lower expectations. However, he also maintains that the King Biscuit Diner does indeed share something with the great diners of America: “We offer good-tasting, quality food for an affordable price.”

The restaurant also does its best to maintain the impossibly long hours of an all-night diner. They are closed for just four hours, from 3 to 7 a.m.

Despite his established pedigree, Willis, 41, is never too snobby to relate to the tastes of his customers. He was, after all, once the personal chef to would-be everyman, truck-pitching country singer Toby Keith. Of Keith, Willis recalls, “He’s the kind of guy who would probably be just as happy with a fried-bologna sandwich, but he does appreciate good food.”

Willis owned a number of boutique restaurants in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Willie Nelson and his backing band became regular customers, and Willis was introduced to Keith through Nelson. Willis developed a positive reputation among country recording artists and helped Keith design and create his I Love This Bar restaurants in Oklahoma City and Las Vegas.

Willis soon came into contact with Thomas Pak, 31, a longtime Memphis resident who was born and raised in Hawaii. Though Willis still maintains a residence in the Dallas area, he agreed to move here and help start Swanky’s Taco Shop with Pak and several other investors in East Memphis. Willis and Pak then split from Swanky’s to start a new place. The pair — along with Rob Carter, Steve Fleming, and Greg Harper — decided on the King Biscuit Diner.

The Cordova location was selected because, as Willis says, “The whole area of Cordova has a huge population, but they are underserved in regard to restaurants.” Chain restaurants constitute the majority of the culinary landscape in Cordova, so the group created King Biscuit as a way to appeal to as many people as possible.

The popular breakfast, which is served from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., features the hearty staples of a traditional Southern breakfast (including the delicious titular biscuits) with a few twists, like the Migas Con Chorizo and the wickedly enticing Cheesesteak Omelette.

There are, however, some healthier options available, such as a wide selection of smoothies, egg-beaters, fresh fruit, chicken sausage, and turkey bacon. And while it seems that a lot of diners serve weak coffee, Pak made sure that King Biscuit paid attention to that particular detail. “We serve our own blend that is made by a local company, Lambert’s.”  

Other items on the menu are well-served by that careful, deliberate approach. The lasagna, for instance, is a simple dish but is enhanced greatly by the fresh, homemade pasta, and the sandwiches, especially the savory marinated rib-eye, are complemented perfectly with freshly baked bread. And while the menu is mostly up to Willis, Pak did manage to sneak in some items from his birthplace, like the hearty Hawaiian BBQ Beef Rice Bowl.

The interior of King Biscuit Diner is both cozy and cosmopolitan. It’s got Wi-Fi, a couple of flat-screen televisions, and an inviting fireplace along one wall. “It’s got a lot of character for a restaurant in a strip mall,” says Pak.

A little after 9 p.m., one of four DJs begins playing some easygoing music — Marvin Gaye, Lena Horne, classic Motown hits. Around 10 p.m., the staff rearranges some of the tables, the music becomes louder and more dance-friendly, and King Biscuit transforms into a hip nightclub. They serve food until 2 a.m. and close at 3 a.m.

“We wanted to keep it open for 24 hours, but it takes four hours to clean everything up and get the place ready for the breakfast crowd,” says Pak. “Sometimes we have customers who were in here partying at night and then come back the next morning for breakfast and almost don’t recognize the place.”

King Biscuit Diner, 8050 Dexter Rd., Cordova (754-6344)

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

New Traditions

CREDIT: Courtesy of Reinaldo Alfonso

My Thanksgiving tradition began four years ago, when my parents came to visit from Germany. Of course, Thanksgiving being a wholly American holiday, Germany doesn’t observe it, but like many other countries, they do celebrate the harvest.

I was trying to find a way for my parents to meet my friends and decided on a Thanksgiving brunch. An eclectic mix of Russian, American, Mexican, and German friends came, and even though my parents haven’t been back this time of the year, the tradition carried on.

Jose Gutierrez, chef/owner of Encore and a native of France, has lived in the United States for more than 30 years and has cooked his share of traditional Thanksgiving meals. But he can’t get excited about toddler-size turkeys and sweet cranberry sauce.

“I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for somebody once, and I made this great cranberry sauce,” the chef explains. “Not too tart, not too sweet — just right. The people who ate it said it was the worst thing they’d ever eaten, and they tried to fix it with sweetener. That is just gross.”

A Thanksgiving Gutierrez-style is a gathering of friends and employees who have no place to go and probably a turkey ballotine for dinner. For the ballotine, the turkey is completely boned (skin saved), the meat is cut into small cubes, stuffed back into the skin, tied, rolled up into a bundle, and either braised or roasted.

“This is a really great way to prepare turkey if you know how to de-bone it, because it will take a lot less time to cook and won’t get dry” Gutierrez says. “Your friends won’t think that you don’t like them because you made them eat dry turkey, and you don’t have to eat turkey leftovers that last until Christmas. That makes everybody happy.”

Konrad Spitzbart, executive pastry chef at The Peabody and a native of Austria, enjoys the American Thanksgiving foods. “I typically work on Thanksgiving Day, so I cook for my family the next day, and we have all the traditional foods — green beans and sweet-potato casserole, turkey with stuffing. It’s one of my wife’s favorite holidays.”

Courtesy of Reinaldo Alfonso

An Alfonso family holiday spread

Erling Jensen, chef/owner of the eponymous restaurant and a native of Denmark, gets to take the day off from cooking and enjoy his mother-in-law’s Thanksgiving food. “I like all the traditional food, and my mother-in-law is a pretty good cook,” Jensen says. “More important than the food is that everybody comes together to have a good time.”

Even though there is no equivalent holiday to Thanksgiving in either Austria or Denmark, there is food for the winter holidays.

The traditional Austrian holiday meal is simple — sausage and cabbage, Spitzbart says.

“A typical holiday meal in Denmark is a seated dinner of either roasted goose or duck with caramelized potatoes, apples, and jellies, and ‘Ris Allamande’ — rice pudding with whipped cream, chopped almonds, and vanilla and sweet cherry sauce — for dessert,” Jensen says.

Chez Philippe chef de cuisine Reinaldo Alfonso is of Cuban descent and grew up in Miami. Alfonso’s family has observed the Thanksgiving holiday ever since Reinaldo can remember. “We usually don’t do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, maybe a little here and there for the American family members who have married into this big Cuban family,” the chef explains. “But in the end, it will turn into a big party. My dad will be in charge of the music, and everybody will be eating, dancing, and chatting.”

Cooking chores in the Alfonso family are split “equally.” The men are responsible for roasting and watching the pig, all the while playing dominos and having a few drinks and a cigar or two. “The pig is a huge affair,” says Alfonso. “We pick one at the beginning of the year, and the farmer will feed and raise it for us until we pick it up.”

After the pig is slaughtered, it’s marinated in mojo (oregano, cumin, onion, garlic, lime or sour orange juice, olive oil, and pepper) for two days before it’s roasted in a carefully crafted backyard pit from dawn until dusk.

None of the Alfonso family pig goes to waste. The blood is saved to make morcilla, Cuban blood sausage, and the family argues over who gets to eat the crispy roasted ears.

The women in Alfonso’s family take great pride in preparing everything but the pig. “My mom often adapts several American classics and infuses them with Cuban flavors,” he says. The result are such dishes as “Congri Oriental” (black beans and rice cooked with pork), corn casserole with Caribbean pumpkin (calabasa) and chorizo sausage, tamales, pumpkin fritters, Cuban bread, and candied yams glazed with rum syrup and a cinnamon meringue top as well as pumpkin flan.

Even though Alfonso is looking forward to eating plenty of his favorite foods, the company is just as important. “It has been a while since I was home for Thanksgiving and spent time with my family. This year, it’s going to be a big surprise because my mom doesn’t know I’m coming.”

Maybe I should keep an eye out for two Germans on Thanksgiving. I might be in for a surprise myself.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Something Different

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Sauces, scheduled to open at the beginning of December at 95 S. Main, is the brainchild of Andrea Deeb and Kevin Shaeffer. What exactly is Sauces? The restaurant’s tagline — “Our plate, your canvas” — may not give you a full picture. Sauces is an extension of Deeb’s and Shaeffer’s personalities and the realization of their vision of a contemporary downtown neighborhood restaurant.

Sauces is located in a 150-year-old renovated building with condos on the upper floors and the restaurant on the ground floor. At the outset of the project, the space was empty, which was ideal for Deeb and Shaeffer, who had worked for more than a decade for a company that develops Chili’s and other franchise restaurants. When they left the corporate world, they decided to start from scratch.

“We don’t really fit in any category,” explains Deeb. “Our ideas are often out there, and we wanted to do this restaurant our way too.”

And their way is like nothing you’ve ever seen before in Memphis. It’s a casual, funky, and quirky restaurant — like something you might expect to find in Amsterdam. It mixes bright, colorful walls with black marble tops on the bar and a community table upstairs. There’s exposed red brick, loungy lighting behind frosted glass, straight lines, and playful accents.

Sauces’ cuisine doesn’t fit in any category either. The food might be familiar, but you have the freedom to make the plate your “canvas” by composing the dish yourself, from the meat/fish and the sides — mint mashed potatoes, anyone? — to the restaurant’s signature sauces, such as Gouda and smoked-salmon cream cheese or orange teriyaki. It’s like an à la carte menu without the à la carte price tag. If you don’t feel like composing your own plate, you can choose one of the “regular” entrees, which will run in the $15 price range. The emphasis for the entrees is seafood, with just a couple of meat choices.

Shaeffer and Deeb say they were originally planning to serve a lot of pasta dishes. “But then people started asking us if we were opening a Italian restaurant,” says Deeb. “Because we didn’t want to be an ethnic restaurant, we changed our food focus a little bit.”

If you don’t feel like having a meal but want to check out Sauces anyway, take a seat at the bar where you can choose from an eclectic wine list or gear it up by asking for the mojito menu.

Sauces, 95 S. Main (473-9573)

In the mood for a meatless Thanksgiving this year? Give it a test run at the Food Awareness Meat-Free Feast and Comedy Afternoon this Sunday. With a spread of vegan jambalaya, kale, sweet potatoes, and dessert, the goal is to show that saying “no thanks” to an overstuffed turkey can be tasty.

There will be live comedy and music and a cash bar for guests 21 and older as well as an educational presentation on healthy vegetarian eating habits. Reservations are mandatory because part of being a responsible eater is to not waste food. Cost for the meatless Thanksgiving is $10, $6 for students. To save your spot, e-mail memphis@foodawareness.org or call 737-2595.

Food Awareness Meat-Free Feast and Comedy Afternoon, Sunday, November 19th, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Comedy, TN, 6102 Macon. For more information, go to www.foodawareness.org.

Jim’s Place East has a lot going on. The restaurant is celebrating its 85th anniversary and 30 years in East Memphis. In addition, they’re expanding with the opening of Jim’s Place Grille in Collierville.

To mark the occasion, Jim’s Place East has added new wines, main courses, and desserts to its menu. The recent additions to the wine list include international and domestic vintages, including Nemea Boutari from Greece and Marques de Casa Concha from Chile. The new menu reflects the trend of offering a larger selection of small plates and appetizers.

Juan Carlos Murillo is the head chef at Jim’s Place Grille, where he is responsible for such creations as Carlito’s pasta chicken, a grilled breast of chicken prepared with fresh spinach fettuccine in a chipotle cream sauce.

Jim’s Place East, 5560 Shelby Oaks Drive (388-7200)

Jim’s Place Grille, 3660 Houston Levee (861-5000)

siba@gmx.com

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

“This Is It”

The Majestic Grille is a hard restaurant to define. Its menu has a grilled cheese sandwich across from quality steaks. Its tables have white linen covered by paper tablecloths. Its décor is understated, yet there’s an eclectic rotation of bossa nova and funky jazz playing in the background.

These contradictions, however, might be what make the 10,000-square-foot bar and grill at 145 S. Main work. Owners Patrick and Deni Reilly come from different backgrounds too, but they’ve worked to create a classy meeting place with room for everyone.

Patrick, originally from Ireland, has worked in restaurants in London, New York, Chicago, and Florida. Before starting up the Majestic, he worked nearby at Swig, the martini bar.

Deni, who hails from New Jersey, has been involved in the hospitality industry for a long time, working at hotels or as a meetings planner.

“My skills and his skills blend well, and that’s why it works,” Deni says.

The building that houses the restaurant was constructed in 1912 as the Majestic No. 1 movie theater. It’s easy to imagine how it looked back then, with the mezzanine above the front door taking the place of a projection booth. Original railings surround the second floor.

Warren Jordan, whose father owned the theater, gave the Reillys a photo taken of the property in 1920. The picture features the theater’s employees and a young Jordan. The Majestic Grille’s staff recreated the photo and included the 88-year-old Jordan in the same spot he stood all those years ago.

The Majestic No. 1 operated until 1936. Then Julius Lewis Men’s Shop moved from Beale Street to the site and operated until the 1950s. The building opened again in the 1970s as Blue Light Studio.

It entered its restaurant days about 10 years ago. That’s when Breckenridge Brewery came in and installed beer-making equipment, now covered by a mural at the back of the restaurant. Breckenridge gave way to another brew pub, Gordon Biersch, which in turn closed a couple years ago, making way for the Majestic Grille.

“Conceptually, it’s a 1940s bar and grill, an old- fashioned, nice American restaurant,” Patrick says.

The Majestic Grille seats 220 inside, with room for 50 more on the front patio along the trolley line. The food is straightforward, with a variety of big salads, hamburgers, steaks, seafood, and pasta.

“It’s not meant to be complicated,” Patrick says. “There are no fusions here.”

Cooks prepare a meal for employees from 3 to 5 p.m. each day. The night crew comes in early to eat, while the day crew sits after a hard day of work. While this might not be the way staff breaks are handled at most Memphis restaurants, it’s a high-end style of management.

“It’s just the way it is,” Patrick says. “Everybody sits down and breaks bread. It’s crazy to work in a good restaurant if you can’t eat.”

That philosophy extends to other areas.

The Majestic Grille offers its employees health insurance and is setting up a 401(k). It also requires that staff have direct deposit. It makes for a stable work environment.

“We want this to be a career, not just a fly-by-night job,” Deni says. “We want people to have a good place to work where they can earn some money but also learn things along the way. We want them to have the same passion about this that we do.”

The interview process is lengthy. Prospective employees meet with three or more managers, with at least one of them a supervisor. Hired applicants then train on everything from wine selection to service.

If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. But it’s been worth it so far.

Deni recalls the restaurant’s first Saturday night. There was a party of 30 on the mezzanine, the bar was full, and every seat in the house was occupied. The lights and music were perfect. Patrick and Deni had been at the restaurant all day. Still, they enjoyed the controlled chaos in front of them.

Remembers Deni: “We sat in the back and said to ourselves, ‘This is it. This is our restaurant.'”

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Little Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s history is long, strange, and tumultuous. Tucked into the Horn of Africa, it’s bordered by Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti. It’s association with Soviet bloc nations in the ’70s and ’80s helped the country build one of the largest, best-equipped armies in Africa. But all that firepower does nothing for the populace when drought comes calling, with famine in tow. When you add extreme political corruption and instability to the picture, it’s easy to see why, for all its rich history and cultural treasures, it’s a place where someone might risk everything to leave.

“I escaped from Ethiopia to Sudan,” says Jember Ameha, the owner of Collierville’s Blue Nile restaurant. “It was a time when you were either for or against the government, and if you were against the government, they would try to find and kill you.”

With help from Memphis’ Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Ameha was able to immigrate to America to start a new life. He worked a number of jobs — from operating a forklift to filling various management positions for Schering-Plough — and he integrated well into Midtown, where he regularly shot tournament pool at the P&H Cafe. But he missed Ethiopia. Well, at least he missed the food.

“I always wanted to open up a restaurant, but I didn’t want to open something that wouldn’t last,” he says of weighing the risks a family man takes by going it alone in the the food business against his life-long desires. Ameha eventually talked the P&H’s former proprietress, storied brew-slinger Wanda Wilson, into letting him host an Ethiopian night at her popular beer joint.

“It was so beautiful,” Ameha says. “In the middle of it all, Wanda was there serving food in an Ethiopian dress. And 99 percent of the people who tried the food loved it.”

Still, it would be a few more years before Ameha would feel comfortable enough to take the leap. While shopping around for used restaurant equipment he visited an ice cream parlor on Poplar in Collierville and got just the break he’d been looking for.

“I asked the owner what she wanted for all the equipment, and she said, ‘If you’ll take over my lease, I’ll give you a very sweet deal.'”

With its eye-relaxing lavender walls and retro, diner-style furnishings, the Blue Nile’s atmosphere is a strange hybrid of classic American convenience and exotica. The pungent, drool-inducing aroma of berbere, the dominant, curry-like spice mix in Ethiopian cuisine, is thick, and videos of traditional African music play behind the bar.

As a rule, all menu items at the Blue Nile are cooked fresh-to-order, but during weekday lunches, a well-stocked $7.99 buffet dominates the scene.

“I hadn’t wanted to do a buffet, but we have so many business people and FedEx employees who come in for lunch,” Ameha says. “If you’re cooking to order it’s not always easy to make sure they get the kind of service you want to give them. Some said, ‘You should have a buffet,’ and I am always listening to my customers.”

Pork-obsessed Memphians will be sad to discover that, due to Islamic and Orthodox Christian influences, there’s no pig on the menu. But all ‘cue aside, the Blue Nile’s pungent beef stews, tartars (kitfo), succulent chicken (and egg!) curries, and hearty combinations of potatoes, carrots, lentils, collard greens, and cabbage should appeal to die-hard soul food connoisseurs.

“Many people have this idea that Ethiopian food is over-spiced. And yes, it is,” Ameha says, explaining that the chili powders are blended with special herbs so as not to burn the mouth. Ethiopian-style vegetables and stews (which almost always begin with a slow, caramelizing sauté of red onions) also take flavor from the ghee, a clarified butter laden with garlic and ginger. Also, much of the heat is mitigated by the injera, a spongy, stretchy pancake-like bread made from fermented teff flower.

“Once people have Ethiopian food, they crave it,” Ameha says. It was his own cravings for good home cooking that helped him meet his chef Eshete Gebretsadi, who — as it happens — is also his wife .

“When someone [originally from Ethiopia] invites you to their home for food, you don’t say no,” Ameha explains. “My wife’s family was the only Ethiopian family in Germantown. I met them over a dinner.”

For a man who always dreamed of opening a restaurant, the meeting was fortuitous.

“I can’t cook at all,” Ameha admits. Fortunately for residents of Collierville and adventurous Memphians, Gebretsadi can. Her Doro Wat — chicken & boiled eggs simmered in a luscious sauce of berbere — is rivaled only by her butter-sauteed beef (Lega Tibs.)

The Blue Nile offers a number of vegetarian dishes, but the near-universal use of ghee is bad news for vegans. There’s no bar or wine list, but a modest selection of foreign and domestic beer is available.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Be Real

“In Europe, a restaurant without cheese on the menu is like a restaurant without wine,” says Jose Gutierrez, chef/owner of Encore restaurant. “Now even in Europe, there are restaurants that don’t offer cheese, but why would you want to do that?”

Encore, of course, has a cheese course. Dish, Wally Joe, and Bari are among the other restaurants in Memphis that have cheese on the menu. At Mantia’s International Market, there’s even a cheese-of-the-month club called Friends of Fromage.

But let’s face it: Most of us don’t feel that an essential part of the dining experience is missing if a restaurant doesn’t offer cheese. When we think of cheese, we think of something bright-orange and individually wrapped.

Much of what we consider cheese — be it a log, sauce, dip, or slice — is “processed” cheese. The Food and Drug Administration ruled that it can’t be sold as cheese. Instead it has to be labeled “cheese product,” “cheese spread,” or “cheese food,” because it is made from one or more real cheeses, other unfermented dairy products such as cream, emulsifiers, and additional ingredients such as water, salt, spices, and artificial color and flavorings. The good thing about processed cheese is that it melts wonderfully, doesn’t separate when heated, and has a mild, unobtrusive flavor. Its shelf life is nearly indefinite, and scraps that accumulate during the cheese-making process can be reused for the next batch.

“Real” cheese, by comparison, is made from the curdled milk of cows, goats, sheep, and other animals. Differences in the levels of milk fat, bacteria, molds, aging time, processing method, and even the animal’s diet will produce separate types of cheese. Most of these cheeses lack all the benefits of processed cheese but are far superior in flavor and quality. Connoisseurs may wince, but some people think of processed cheese as a variety just like Camembert, Cheddar, or Parmesan. However, comparing real and processed cheese is like saying that a Shirley Temple and a martini are the same thing.

“People here are slowly beginning to realize that cheese can be more than that yellow slice you put on a burger or sandwich,” says Jason Severs, chef/owner of Bari Ristorante, which offers a menu with more than 30 Italian cheeses.

But old habits die hard, and people like what they grew up with. Real cheese can be intense and runny and not very pretty to look at or smell. “We have a customer who just loves the stinky cheeses,” says Alyce Mantia, owner of Mantia’s. “One day, he stood at the register waiting to check out when a girl came in the store and thought we had some rotten food somewhere.”

Like picking a good wine, finding the right cheese can be intimidating. “When we opened Mantia’s nine years ago, we started with 12 cheeses,” says Mantia. “Now we have about 150 on our permanent list. That can be overwhelming. When people come in and look at the board with cheeses that they’ve probably never heard of, they often end up ordering some Brie.”

So, how do you choose? If you are at a restaurant that offers a cheese course or a store with a cheese selection, don’t be afraid to ask questions. You don’t want to go home with four ounces of cheese for which you’ve paid $7 only to discover that it’s not what you wanted. The $15 a month that members pay to belong to Mantia’s Friends of Fromage gets them a selection of three cheeses.

“If we get a new cheese, I usually include that,” Mantia says. “Or, if we decide to pick a well-known cheese like Manchego, we’ll add some quince paste because that’s the traditional accompaniment in Spain. We try to keep it interesting, because we want the customers to be able to explore.”

Once you’re ready to enjoy some of the better cheeses, don’t be disappointed at the sight of a one- or two-ounce portion at restaurants. “Cheese can be a very intense experience for your taste buds, and you usually can only take so much of it,” says Scott Lenhart, chef at Dish. “Sure, if you have a flavorless, boring cheese you can keep on eating it like butter, but good cheese is something that should be savored like a piece of rich quality chocolate.”