Smell 2013: cheese, what a stench!



The expert Michele Grassi

The title is obviously ironic, especially said by me who loves cheese. Their aroma, their wonderful stench was the theme of the most interesting conference at the 2013 edition of  Smell, showing so a Festival in great shape. The expert of cheese making techniques, O.n.a.f. tasting master and cheese critic Michele Grassi enraptured the public with a journey through the richness of more than 600 italian cheeses, of which 43 d.o.p. that are no way inferior to the french ones in terms of high quality but that for sure offer a wider variety reflecting our particular geographic form conpared to the plateau on the other side of the Alps. As reported on his website and as Michele repeated quoting Isabel Allende, "cheeses are milk, bacteria and fantasy" therefore there's no wonder if picking milk in a certain place, at a certain time of the day you can obtain till to 10 different kinds of cheese. Nature does most of the job and the only way to taste it at its best is to know it better.



Senses get lost in the Monte Veronese d.o.p. aroma

During the day, like everybody I'm always in a hurry and I get angry for not having time to enjoy anything. On the contrary, even in slicing cheese one should pay attention to exalt its shape and its aroma at best. For example how many of you slice down parmesan cheese by mistake? I say this every time, food is meant to be enojed with every sense and cheese is no exception. In order to determine the quality of what we're going to taste, first of all we must observe and touch. Looking and touching it often already make us understand firmness, aging, and even the provenience. In fact Michele tell us inhabitants of Brescia don't like cheese with holes like emmenthal because by cultural heritage they are used to dense cheeses with no holes.



Aroma, the d.o.p. cheese guide written by Michele Grassi

Even though we cannot speack of scent for cheese, its smell is crucial in a tasting. As you already know, what we strictly intend as taste is the poorest sense we have: aside percieving sweet, salty, acid, bitterand umami, while chewing we perceive the aroma rising internally from the palate to the nose. That's why tasting a mountain pastures cheese on top of the mountain is not the same than eating it at home, because it mixes with the mountain smells glorifying its quality.
Call me greedy, but tasting Monte Veronese d.o.p. in three different agings (made 20 days ago, three monts aged and three years aged) with its aromas getting more and more intense, made me crave for a trip to the Soave hills to eat it at its best coupled with the wonderful local wines.

Photo Credits Luca Gambi