Cuttting the cheese

As you may have guessed by now, I am trying to be serious about cheese; this normally means reading, tasting, and immersing myself more and more in the world of cheese. Another way of being serious about it is by teaching classes and trying to expand my knowledge by hearing what other people have to say while teaching. This is why I keep taking classes at Murray's Cheese and at any other places that offer new topics. NYC is great for that as so many of the cheese stores have an educational program.

However, this time I am doing something different. I will be teaching a condensed version of my Cheese Politics class at the New School. My friend Maya is teaching Food Politics here and invited me to talk about Cheese as a food full of politics.
As a good Academic, I consider this opportunity unique. Not only because it is at my graduate institution, but because the topics that I hope to explore are different. The first difference with my other classes is that this one won't have a tasting component. That is really difficult when talking about a food that it is so much about the smell, the texture, and the flavor. However, what I hope to do is to talk about cheese as a political process, not just the making and aging of it, but also all the decisions that are taken in its commercialization, consumption, popularization, and fame.

I hope to learn as much as I hope to teach this group of students. I will have a full report on it, as I think it will be a great tool to understand how people see cheese not just as a food to enjoy, but also a food with a cultural/political baggage.

On a different topic: The knives and cheese cutting utensils are mine. I was cleaning them over the weekend and took a picture of them for the blog, but didn’t know how to use it. Here they are for your reference. I know the names of some of them, but not all. If you recognize them post their names in the comments.