Murray’s Cheeses
While I am not necessarily appreciative of all the qualities I inherited from my wonderful grandmother (shoulders like a linebacker and a propensity for peculiarly-shaped moles among them), I am deeply grateful she passed on her almost obsessive love of cheese. Grandma’s tastes were fairly simple – store-brand cheddar suited her just fine, two pieces or so a day. However, I am a bougie snob and compulsive overeater, so I have been known to devour an entire block of goat feta or wheel of Camembert without coming up for air, the same way another person (a much less disgusting person) might eat an apple. It’s absolutely my undoing. In fact, I love cheese so much I consider it a personal affront when other people do not share my enthusiasm for it. People like Chris A. (whose last name will remain unposted to protect his anonymity. Also it’s kinda long), my dear friend who on several occasions actually turned up his nose at my cheese offerings. Since our group spends at least three nights a week dining together, this situation needed to be remedied immediately, so I bought him a course at Murray’s Cheeses for Christmas 2007, which turned out to be not only a delightful way to spend an evening, but a new place to volunteer AND eat cheese for free! Like, where do I sign???
Just stepping into Murray’s is like heaven for me; this is what God’s locker room must smell like. The staff is always helpful and pleasant to a fault, and the crack team of cheese whizzes running their Education Department are infectiously passionate about what they do. Our course was The Politics of Cheese, where we learned about laws governing the usage of raw milk in French cheesemaking and what legally constitutes a true Camembert, among other fascinating cheese facts, all while getting good and buzzed on the red and white wines liberally provided by our server. At the end of the class I sought out the program coordinator, Taylor Cocalis, to tell her what a great time I had and how much I loved Murray’s. She immediately suggested I sign up for their volunteer list, which I promptly did, and got to attend a free class (and nibble more than my share of exquisitely addictive Marcona almonds) simply in exchange for setting up and cleaning up for a similar class. Talk about helping yourself by helping others!
Murray’s schedule of classes changes bimonthly, and they have every possible course you can think of, from the straight Cheese 101 Basics to their Meet the Cheesemaker series, to a day-long course on making your own cheese at home. $50 gets you a standard 90-minute course (some are of course a bit more expensive), with a plateful of six or seven different cheeses, breads, dried fruits and nuts, and several refills on your wineglass. It’s extremely filling, so you’re not even thinking about dinner afterwards, and we actually learned a lot. They also keep the store open a little past business hours so you can take a bit of the course home with you. Chris even screwed up his courage and went back to pick up some selections for a party his boyfriend was having later that week. By all accounts, he did good. Plus there is much less facemaking when confronted with cheese these days. So my work here is done.
Murray’s Cheeses, 254 Bleecker St. (between 6th & 7th Ave.), New York, NY 10014
888.MY.CHEEZ or (212) 243.3289; http://www.murrayscheese.com; take the 1 to Christopher Street or the A, C, E, B, D, F, V to West 4th Street
It’s amazing