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Cheese people: Anne Saxelby of New York City

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Anne Saxelby’s story is a journo’s dream and has therefore been told many times. But hey, don’t stories become alive that way, by being told again, and again, and again? So here we go… A beautiful young woman from the Chicago suburbs moves to New York City to study art, and subsequently works at galleries and as a museum intern. However, none of these so glamourous sounding things really appeal. The art world seems too precious to her. So she has a rethink, and decides to swap paintings and sculptures with cheese and wine. » Weiterlesen…

Eating Germany VII: a report on my Beyond Bratwurst talks at some US colleges

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For all of you who wonder if I ever return to my desk in Berlin: yes, I will! But at the moment I’m still on the American east coast, proudly showing my new book around while giving talks at Hamilton, Ithaca, Cornell, NYU… It is an immense pleasure and honor to meet so many students willing to listen and learn when I tell them about German cheese, history, national identity, and we then taste some of those Alpine beauties together. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese places: Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge/Massachusetts, USA

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When I first came to Cambridge/MA in 2009 it was for a seminar on reading old cookbooks as historic sources, given by the amazing food scholar Barbara Ketcham Wheaton (she is doing another one in June this year – go by all means!!) at the Schlesinger Library. It was an intense, studious week which has left all kinds of lasting impressions on me, not the least very good friends and a home away from home at the end of beautiful, posh Brattle Street. » Weiterlesen…

Riesling and more at the Dr Frank estate on Keuka Lake/Finger Lakes, NY

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Here I am, touring Upstate New York talking to students at various colleges about the joys of real cheese, book writing and German history – it’s an honor to be able to gently push some of you guys into a direction you might not have thought existed before we met!  Reminds me of the affinage process, when cheeses are gently guided to mature into something the cheese“maker“ has done a lot to get to, but can never be totally sure will happen in the end. Takes a lot of listening and attention and dedication, in both cases. All this to say that I’ve been in total cheese mode, with wine down the priority list, to :“stuff to drink and enjoy“ » Weiterlesen…

Eating Germany VI: sweet, tiny Nordseekrabben aka brown shrimps

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We call them crabs, but to be correct, these tiny pinkish brown creatures are shrimp, fished by specialized boats in the North Sea. As a kid, on the rare occasions my parents took my two younger brothers and me to a restaurant, I would invariably order a shrimp cocktail. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese of the month April 2014: Graukäse from the Ahrn Valley in Alto Adige/Italy

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Graukäse, grey cheese… doesn’t sound exactly sexy, does it? And on top of that unfortunate name, the poor chap habitually has to suffer disfiguration in the form of onion rings and vinegar. Folks, this is just unacceptable. Stop dissing Graukäse and dousing it with cheap acidity right now! Instead, start taking in its real taste. If you feel like totally blank now, surrounded by question marks – before you hit the escape button: this is about the northern Italian cousin of the German Handkäse-Harzer-Korbkäse family. » Weiterlesen…

Cheese places: La Fromagerie, London/UK

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The world of fine cheese is a universe in itself, one of the many food-defined layers that stretch around the globe. It has its own bright stars which serve as guidance to all the other twinklers, simply because they glow with a different kind of energy, passion and experience. One of the most important for cheese is in London, cheese simply wouldn’t be the same without La Fromagerie in Marylebone and the woman behind it: Patricia Michelson. » Weiterlesen…

April 28 & 29, 2014: Meet me at the Bedford Cheese Shop in NYC!

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I’m happy, proud and so excited to announce that I’ll be hosting two classes (yes, two!) at the glorious Bedford Cheese Shop of Brooklyn fame in New York on April 28 and 29. They run from 6.30 till 8.30pm and represent the culminating point of a row of talks, tastings and events that month. It’s all to celebrate my new book, a history of food in Germany ( » Weiterlesen…

Spring drink: pink!

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Is it about the birds singing me cheerfully into the day now every morning, or about the still low rising sun I then greet on my run? The giddiness of the people on the street, drunken with light and mild air? The promise of evenings outdoors after the winter? Probably all at once – and we didn’t even have a really hard winter this year, here in Berlin; I’m told snow flakes are still flurrying on the northern end of the American east coast. So no matter if you feel like celebrating the end of it or need to cheer yourself up due to the perseverance of winter: drink pink! » Weiterlesen…

Old stuff from the Rhine: 1996 Pettenthal Auslese trocken from Heinrich Braun

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The wonderful thing about not being perfect is that it makes life a constant source of wonderful surprises. In this case: I don’t use any of those wine cellar apps which allow you to always know what you’ve got and when you should drink it and who wrote about it and with how many points and and and… There is about enough technology in my life! That means that sometimes I dive a bit deeper and my hand stretches out in an unusual direction while facing the wine shelves – and there you go, out comes a dusty bottle like this one: 1996 Riesling Auslese trocken Niersteiner Pettenthal from Heinrich Braun in Nierstein. » Weiterlesen…