Clark Wolf loves cheese -- and cheesy wit. As I adjusted my camera to capture the gorgeous array of artisanal cheese and fruit displayed at the front of the room during his Cheese Tasting 101 course Sunday evening at the Central Market Cooking School, the author, consultant, and cheese expert piped in, "They say cheese!"
When asked if I could get his picture in front of the display, he laughed, "Yes!" and posed, "I stand before my cheeses."
The class would be peppered with such humor, along with Wolf's infectious enthusiasm for fromage.
Wolf explained that cheese was what first ignited his passion for food. After working as a waiter on a railroad line, he then opened a cheese and wine shop at the base of Nob Hill in San Francisco, where a chance meeting led to a friendship (and dinners, once a week) with the Godfather himself, James Beard. When asked what was served on these occasions, "It was always a surprise. Once I arrived to find the old, 350-pound man wielding a blowtorch over a four-quart pan. He took a spoon and said, 'Listen to this!' and (thwack), 'That's what crème brûlée should sound like!' Then I learned what crème brûlée should taste like. We ate the entire thing...and I learned about the importance of benchmarks." Wolf, like Beard, believes in order to accurately judge whether something is good or not, one must first taste the standard-setters in that arena. It's a simple concept that made for an all-around decadent and delicious Sunday evening.
Full article here
Comments