I'm late to the game on finishing this book and boy am I sorry! This was a five star read for me! Joe Berkowitz has a gift for writing engaging nonfiction. Not only did I learn a great deal about cheese (and who doesn't LOVE cheese!) but I laughed out loud so many times! The next time I serve a charcuterie board I'll be able to wax poetic about the flavor notes of the cheeses I've selected and sound like an expert (or a cheese lover with a bit of cheesey vocabulary). This book will lift your spirits (even if you don't like cheese - but if you don't, we can't be friends!) and make you want to seek out the nearest cheesemonger! It will also make you want to gift this book and wedges of Comté, Jasper Hill Cloth Bound Cheddar, and Cowgirl Creamery Redhawk to all your friends - because they'll LOVE it (and the cheese)! Seriously - this will be happening for Birthday's and Christmas this year!

I'll be adding American Cheese to a blog post this April @biggestlittlelibrary.net/blog and adding this book to our Christmas Gift Guide publishing November 15th!

This also means I've just got to pick up copies of Joe's other books - Away with Words: An Irreverent Tour Through the World of Pun Competitions and You Blew It!: An Awkward Look at the Many Ways in Which You've Already Ruined Your Life (Great titles!)

American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World by Joe Berkowitz is a very highly recommended book about cheese. How could a book about cheese not be worthy of five stars? "Cheese is literally heaven. It’s what happens after milk sheds this mortal coil and ascends to a higher plane of existence."

I've been excited to read American Cheese since I first heard about it and it is worthy of my every expectation. There is no doubt that Joe Berkowitz loves cheese so he is the perfect choice to share the world of American artisan cheese with the rest of us. What is even more entertaining is that he does so in an informative and humorous fashion.

After his first encounter with an artisan cheese tasting and experiencing Rogue River Blue at Murray's Cheese in New York, Berkowitz began to explore the artisan cheese culture. He visits tastings, cheese mongers, makers, affineurs, cheesemonger competitions, dairy scientists, cheese celebrations, and restaurants with cheese carts. There is a whole cheese culture that celebrates cheese. He volunteers at Murray’s Cheese shop, attends the Cheese Ball and meets Madame Fromage, follows the California cheese trail, he visits Cheeselandia, and talks to dairy scientists at Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research. It is a plethora of cheese happenings and cheese information!

If you love cheese, and anyone who is looking into a book called American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World likely does, as you read be sure to have a pen and paper handy so you can write down all the new cheeses to taste. I had to scramble looking for something to write on almost immediately so I'd like to give the rest of you a heads up. I am thrilled to learn that "According to Dr. Ahuja, those among us who can endure limitless dairy products have a genetic mutation that keeps our lactase intact into adulthood. In other words, cheese lovers are technically X-Men." Yes!

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
The review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I received an advance galley through NetGalley.

<i>American Cheese</i> is my kind of book. Author Joe Berkowitz had a near-religious experience with artisan cheese that awoke him to the diverse flavors and textures of the world's cheese, resulting in a country and world-spanning odyssey to understand the joys of modern cheese and the industry as a whole. It's enlightening. It's laugh-out-loud funny through. Perhaps most of all, I felt as if I had connected with a friend who gets it.

I love cheese. I chronicle every cheese that I try and constantly seek out new experiences. It has become one of my prime (and most expensive) hobbies. I've had many of the cheeses he viscerally describes in this book, and discovered many more to add to my wish list (and yes, there is an actual wish list). Even more, he gets to experience and describe incredible things I never will, like volunteering at Murray's Cheese in NYC, attending and eating his way through the Cheesemonger Invitational, hanging out with cheese influencers like Cheese Sex Death (one of my favorites online), traveling the California Cheese Trail (totally a goal of mine, though as a native Californian, I was appalled that the author didn't know California made cheese), and attending world-class cheese events in France and Italy. Through his words, I was vicariously there, and left desperately craving the cheeses he describes.

Throughout everything, he is easy to relate to, modest, and hilarious. Some choice quotes include:

"I wanted to run outside doing full Kermit-arms and scream for everybody to try this cheese right now, which probably wouldn't be the weirdest thing anyone overheard on Bleecker Street that day."

"Cheese is literally heaven. It's what happens after milk sheds this mortal coil and ascends to a higher plain of existence."

Seriously, if you love cheese, get this book.

Joe Berkowitz writes about a transcending experience with an American artisanal cheese during a date night with his wife that changed both of their lives for the better. After his eye-opening date night, Berkowitz writes of his travels across the world to discover the unique life of cheesemongers and cheesemakers. He introduces wonderful characters who welcomed him into the American cheese world without question. He is witty and fun and his eagerness to learn and taste as many cheeses as he can is a joy to read.
Before reading American Cheese, I would have thought I knew a little something about cheese – I was sorely mistaken. I left this book with a list of cheeses to find and eat and an appreciation for the world of American cheese which for many years seems to have been ignored and has now finally proved itself to be in the big leagues.

I don’t know what I expected but this wasn’t it. I just couldn’t get into it. I love cheese but not that much. Sorry! Not for me.

Obsessed lovers of cheese or anyone who enjoys a good piece of cheese grab this book.A inside look at artisanal cheese making in America,An enjoyable informative fun read,#netgalleyAmericancheese

A modern twist to an ancient subject, cheese. This was a very well thought out and interesting approach to something that has been written about by so many others. Reading books on food and wine gives me such great pleasure and I am sure it will been enjoyed by fellow foodies.

A delightful look into the creation of and the culture surrounding artisinal cheese in America. Berkowitz travels from America's Diaryland Wisconsin to the World Cheese Awards. At times precocious, this is an interesting journey into the people that are involved this society of artisinal cheese.

Berkowitz is a self-described cheese monster. His awakening began at a Valentine's Day cheese tasting with his wife, and soon took him around the world to meet cheese experts, enthusiasts, and eccentrics of all types. He has a unique and funny voice that will draw in even those of us who aren't completely obsessed with cheese. Will appeal to those who enjoy travel writing, memoir, humor, and food writing.

After an unexpectedly near-divine culinary encounter one evening, author Joe Berkowitz finds himself transformed into an enthusiast for artisanal cheese. Inflamed with a newfound and fast-growing passion, he eagerly delves into a world that takes him from local cheese shops, to California dairy farms, and to cheesemonger competitions. His travels make for not only entertaining reading, but they also make for a solid introductory education on the ends and outs of mainly American artisanal cheese. And although at times things started to feel a little too niche to the point where even as just a reader I actually felt a little out of place as Berkowitz describes his experiences among cheese aficionados and experts, his wit and self-aware humor keeps things grounded.

Even if you’re someone like me who prefers to stick to their usual cheddar and mozzarella, there’s much to enjoy in this infectiously enthusiastic love letter to quality cheese.