{"id":38502,"date":"2020-07-02T16:18:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T20:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=38502"},"modified":"2022-06-28T11:23:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T15:23:21","slug":"ruminations-precious-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/ruminations-precious-objects\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruminations: Precious Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6><em>Wheels aging in Formaggio Kitchen&#8217;s cheese cave<\/em><\/h6>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">I<\/span> work for a museum and run a visual arts magazine. Each week, I attend several exhibition openings, talks, or workshops, and if there\u2019s one thingI can count on, it\u2019s that a mediocre cheese board and a too-sweet bottle of Pinot Grigio will be present. When I\u2019m on the hunt for something better than the flavorless brie I snack on in gallery lobbies, I head to my favorite cheese shop: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formaggiokitchen.com\/\">Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After several visits to Formaggio, I realized that a good cheese shop is like a good museum; It inspires, educates, and excites the senses thanks to the experts behind the scenes. Like viewing a sculpture on a pedestal, unwrapping a cheese at your dining table is the final stage in a long (and often underappreciated) process.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d heard rumors of a cave tucked behind the sprawling counter at Formaggio\u2019s Huron Avenue location, where owner Ihsan Gurdal sought to store imported cheeses in a more traditional, stable setting than a refrigerator. I was fortunate to peek my head into the cave on a sunny spring day when Julia Hallman, Formaggio\u2019s general manager, escorted me down the shallow staircase amidst the hustle and bustle of the kitchen\u2019s lunch rush. Something about descending into the cave was like peering into hallowed archives at the Met while on a guided tour, minus the hand-held audio guide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t consider ourselves affineurs,\u201d says Hallman, who throughout her thirteen-year tenure has done just about every job inside the shop. \u201cRather, we want to pay the cheese and cheesemakers respect by giving each cheese the best long-term storage possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like art!\u201d I exclaim as Hallman laughs in agreement.<\/p>\n<p>When a work of art enters into a collection at a museum, its first stop is the registrar and conservator where it will be examined\u2014and if necessary cleaned, repaired, and recorded in a database. These crucial first steps ensure that the artwork has arrived in the condition it was promised, which means checking for any scratches, fading, broken parts, or water damage. But sometimes, a long journey in a crate or years of improper storage can leave an artwork in poor shape, creating a hard task for the conservation and curatorial team.<\/p>\n<p>When Gurdal started importing cheeses to the United States, he found himself in the tough position that art conservators sometimes face. Many of the imported cheeses had been damaged during travel, poorly stored, or were otherwise compromised. Gurdal came to understand the importance of cheese storage and care during his many trips to Italy and France, so building a cheese cave, though novel for the US in the \u201890s, seemed like an obvious solution.<\/p>\n<p>The first iteration of Formaggio\u2019s cave was MacGyvered-yet-effective. In 1996, Gurdal transformed his office\u2014situated in the damp basement below the Huron Avenue storefront at the time\u2014by installing several wooden racks, a specialized air conditioner, and a small fountain pumping out a steady stream of water.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-five years later, the original cave has been dubbed \u201cOld Cave\u201d and holds what Hallman refers to as the more \u201cdelicate\u201d cheeses\u2014the ones that require more moisture, like washed rinds and blues. The prized possession? A sheep\u2019s milk brebis from France\u2019s Pyrenees Mountains with a yellow and gray spotted exterior. \u201cThis cheese really exemplifie swhy the cave is so important to us,\u201d Hallman says while carefully examining several wheels. She explains that this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cheese.com\/ardi-gasna\/\">Ardi Gasna<\/a> (a Basque sheep\u2019s milk cheese) is made by a cheesemaker with a multi-generational history and finished by a renowned affineur, Christian Pardou, who is known for working with small, local cheesemakers in the region. \u201cThe cave allows us to store the cheese with confidence that we are honoring its legacy and giving customers the best possible version of that cheese,\u201d Hallman says.<\/p>\n<p>Back upstairs, the handwritten cheese labels and tiny jars of jam on the shelves make me feel as though I\u2019m no longer on my weekly shopping trip, but transported back in time. This, I realize, is possible because the staff at Formaggio are more than just gourmet food lovers\u2014they\u2019re curators, conservators, historians, and educators actively preserving works of art.<\/p>\n<p>Formaggio is a testament to storing your art well, and your cheese better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why storing cheese is a lot like storing a painting <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[25257,25264,25259,25265,930,1233,19297,18677,3798,25258,13414,2282,916,1296,25266,14030,991,1179,25255,25256,23883,4361,25260,25262,1763,25261,25254,25263,774,2747],"coauthors":[25253],"class_list":["post-38502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ruminations","tag-affineurs","tag-ardi-gasna","tag-artists","tag-basque-sheeps-milk-cheese","tag-blue-cheese","tag-brie","tag-cambridge","tag-cheese-aging","tag-cheese-art","tag-cheese-as-art","tag-cheese-cave","tag-cheese-shop","tag-cheese-storage","tag-cheesemakers","tag-christian-pardou","tag-formaggio-kitchen","tag-france","tag-french-cheese","tag-huron-avenue","tag-ihsan-gurdal","tag-julia-hallman","tag-massachusetts","tag-massachusetts-cheese-shops","tag-milk-brebis","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-cheese-shops","tag-pinot-grigio","tag-pyrenees-mountains","tag-washed-rind","tag-washed-rind-cheese"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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