Posted by David Hamilton on December 13th, 2009

In defiance of economic conditions, my wife and I recently had the opportunity to dine with some friends at Jean-Georges in New York.  The grandparents foolishly offered to host the kids overnight, and before they finished the sentence, Hillary and I were in the New York suburbs.  If you haven’t heard of JG, it’s the flagship of JG Vongerichten, quite possibly the best chef working in the United States. 

The place lives up to its reputation, and every course of the seasonal prix-fixe menu gives the impression that four or five exceedingly talented people worked hunched over the plate for about an hour to make it happen.  One simple surprise, though, was the cheese plate.  It’s actually a cheese plate in the way that a Bugatti is a car.  It’s a gigantic silver cart, with about thirty cheeses, accompanied by a gentleman who is willing and able to offer a 2-3 minute thesis defense on each chunk on the cart.  We weren’t surprised by the variety of Vermont and New York products, but Southwest Virginia’s Meadow Creek Dairy, mentioned in last week’s Cheese News blog entry, had a place on what must be one of the most competitive carts in the world of cheese.

We selected the MCD “Mountaineer,” which is completely different than the Grayson for which MCD is known.  This is a firm alpine-style cheese, made from the same Jersey-cow milk as the award-winning and atmosphere-altering Grayson, but utterly (udderly) different.  The cheese, paired with some sort of fig jam, was a dense, toasty(?) flavor-bomb.  Our Vermont chauvinism was severely dented, and I encourage anyone in Virginia who wants to keep it local to try this cheese.  It’s only available during winter, and it’s worth whatever they charge.

Filed under: Agriculture, Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration