Product Description

Revealing the colour and texture of each cheese, this book describes every cheese's origins, method of production, appearance and flavour. There are also suggestions for accompanying wines recommended by Robert and Isabelle Vifian.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #647841 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

excellent photos for identification and full tasting notes
Whether you just like the odd nibble, or are a total afficionado, this book is an excellent guide to the whole gamut of French cheeses.
The photos are invaluable when faced with a French supermarket cheese counter, and the descriptions give a good indication of taste.
There are so many regional variations that no book could cover them all, but this one does a good job with the major types.
I could do with a small space for personal tasting notes on each page, but that is a minor criticism - I'll just end up with lots of Post-It notes stuck on the pages!

An excellent field-guide style reference
As a professional cheesemonger, I find this book indispensable. Although the layout can be a bit confusing, and the index is rife with inaccurate page numbers, the content is so strong that I highly recommend it to other professionals and food aficionados. One excellent point that is made several places in the book is that cheese can be enjoyed at different stages of maturity. In fact, the captions under photographs of cheese will often comment on how long the cheese was matured, or better yet, how it compares to what is usually eaten by the locals.

Careful recommendations are made for pairing the cheeses with French wines, which is always helpful.

I return to this book time and time again, either for reference, or to ferret out the minutae that dwell in every entry.

If only we had a reference of this quality for all the traditional foods of the world!

A handbook. Beautiful and informative, but hard to use.
If you know something about French Cheese, and don't mind poring through the whole book to search out generic information, such as the basic cheesemaking processes, you will find this book rewarding. If you are looking for an introduction and recommendations for where to start, this book won't help. The photos are beautiful, and the desriptions of the individual cheeses are very authoritative and complete. But, the bewildering array of cheeses in this book will not help you much as you stand before the cheese counter in the better French supermarkets or your favorite fromagerie trying to choose which of the 500 or so cheeses to eat with today's meals.

After living in France for three months, I now can appreciate what this book offers. But, in addition to the "field guide" type of descriptions, I would have appreciated some help in learning how to buy and store cheese (such as why the softer cheeses should be stored on a bed of straw in the shops).

There are delightful snippets of information included, or should I say buried, throughout the book, and the photos are truly wonderful. But, for anyone getting started, I would choose a book such as "Cheese Primer" by Steven Jenkins.