Last year, it was my New Year’s resolution to learn more about cheese.
In pursuit of this knowledge, I decided to take a cheese pairing class of month at the lovely Curds&Co in my area. It’s a fabulous cheese shop owned and managed by an awesome team of women.
Over the course of twelve classes, I got to know the management team well (shoutout to Marisa and Gillian!). My “Stay Gold, Horny Girl” sweatshirt definitely prompted discussion when I wore it to a class and that turned into me explaining the site and floating the idea by of a class inspired by romance novels. It’s the kind of idea that you think is great but really freak out when someone actually takes you up on it and that’s exactly what happened! I received an email the next day with plans to develop a fun Valentine’s Day class that paired cheese with romance genres.
The classes usually have four cheese that are paired with wine and various accoutrement. I’ve never had a bad pairing and props to the team for never repeating a cheese during my twelve classes.
The actual class I co-hosted was great! We had thirteen people, some of whom were friends whose support warmed my heart. Marisa was my co-host and she would introduce the bites, I’d talk about the subgenres, and then she’d continue with a more in-depth discussion about the particular cheese. People were free to ask cheese or book related questions at their leisure. Afterward, the entire shop (minus alcohol) is 10% off to attendees!
Now I’m sure you’re curious about the pairings; this was before the wines were poured and all were served chilled:
Adventure Romance (Top left)
Cheese: Toma Della Rocca by Alta Lange in Italy
Food pairing: Gochujang Chile Sauce by We Love You
Wine pairing: Sangio by Union Sacré in California
Adventure romance is supposed to be thrilling and is all about battling the elements, so this pairing has a bit of pepper and spice. I cannot recommend this sauce enough; it’s a staple in our household. The cheese is a mix of sheep, goat, and cow leading to a variety of textures. Sometimes the cheese is creamy. Sometimes it’s a bit more dense and cakey. Adventure romance often has characters in unfamiliar environments, which is why we paired a more traditional Italian cheese with a Korean sweet and spicy sauce.
Forbidden Romance (Top right)
Cheese: Taleggio
Food pairing: Unicorn Garden Jam by Brin’s
Wine pairing: Foxi by Fondo Bozzole in Italy
I mentioned that a lot of forbidden, erotic romances have a focus on billionaires and are a luxury fantasy. This jam has pomegranate, strawberry, and rose. It was made in conjunction with The Met where the labels are inspired by works of art. This label was inspired by “Unicorn in Captivity.” The wine was a little fizzy, reminding me of a champagne, and the cheese was smooth and silky.
Historical Romance (Bottom left)
Cheese: Wrangeback by Almnas Bruk in Sweden
Food pairing: Pickled Red Onion by Kansas City Canning Co.
Wine pairing: Leptir by Sanctum Wines in Slovenia
Wrangeback is Sweden’s oldest cheese! Marisa even passed around photos from the first time this cheese was captured on film. We wanted to focus on old and classic flavors, given that historical romances harken back to older time periods and that many of us carry some nostalgia for getting started in the genre by reading historicals from our moms or grandmas. Pickled anything is always a good staple for a charcuterie and a lot of Slovenia vineyards were started by French Carthusian monks during the 12th century.
SciFi Romance (Bottom right)
Cheese: Red Rock by Roelli in Wisconsin
Food pairing: Pine Cone Bud Syrup by Primitivizia
Wine pairing: Midash by Chertok in Vermont
This was by far my favorite pairing. It was just so…weird. Red Rock is this bright orange cheese with veins of blue running though it, but it’s not considered a blue cheese by definition. It gives me vibes of an alien planet and when served at room temp, reminds me fondly of Cheez Whiz. The syrup apparently has a variety of uses, from drizzling on ice cream to using as glaze for pot roast. These particular pine cones are protected and the woman that makes this syrup has a special permit to forage for them in Dolomite Alps National Park. How cool is that! The wine is co-fermented with apples and grapes; yes, I bought a bottle.
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I’d love to host another one in the future or a separate bookish night taking on a new genre, like horror novels for Halloween.
Do any of these pairings sound good to you? Which would be your favorite?
I see True Love Experiment (forbidden romance? Haven’t read it) and The Lily of Ludgate Hill (historical romance). Did you have books for the other romance genres?
All of my interests in one post!
What a fun event! I see a couple of books in the picture. What other books did you feature, Amanda?
You did this IN MY TOWN and I didn’t know? (Well, a town over, but STILL.) I didn’t even know this shop existed!!! Thank you, now I know what I’m getting my partner and I for our anniversary!
Also, if you do another of these I will be first in line!
OMG – I must go to there! So long to drive but yummy cheese and great books 🙂
@Kareni: So we had a mystery book add-on for the tickets and I brought an assortment of new releases for each of the genres. For adventure, I had some copies of THE SPY AND I by Tiana Smith and for sci-fi, I brought the newest ICE PLANET BARBARIAN book and a copy of BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood (not exactly sci-fi, but I think the paranormal elements were “out there” enough to qualify). For forbidden romance, I leaned more toward sexy rather than billionaires just because of what was releasing at the time. I brought AT FIRST SPITE by Olivia Dade and SEX, LIES, AND SENSIBILITY by Nikki Payne.
People picked a book out of a bag and I let the managers sift through whatever was left at the end of the night.
@taffygrrl: I posted about it a couple times on the site! I also recommend Caroline Linden’s ROMANCING NEW ENGLAND newsletter. Every month, she sends out a great list of romance events in the area.
And for anyone interested in going to the shop, the staff are wonderful and so helpful. I’ve never had a bad class out of the dozen I attended. The shop is also filled with tons of yummy extras. There’s a banana jam they carry that is soooo good. Stock also changes seasonally so there’s always something new.
@Amanda, thanks for the added details; that sounds like a great collection of books. And now you have me wanting to try banana jam!
What do you mean by “(Top Left)”, “(Bottom Right)”, etc?
@Juli: I’m referring to the picture within the post, so that people can identify the pairings on the tray.