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

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

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!

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!

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

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…