Sasha Davies: “The Guide To West Coast Cheese”

Where would French Week be without a little foray into the world of cheese? Sasha Davies, a Portland, Oregon based cheesemonger and author, took the time to chat with me about the cheeses of California, Oregon and Washington. We talked about her new book and how American cheeses stand up to those stinky white blocks of France. She also tells us of a certain cheese with a peach-colored rind that makes her "weak in the knees." Which cheeses make your knees buckle?

Sasha Davies
Sasha is a knowledgeable cheese maven with her first book recently published: The West Coast Guide to Cheese. She earned her chops working in a variety of cheese settings: Murray's Cheeses in New York and Steve's Cheese (recently closed) here in Portland, to name a few.

The author also educated herself further by embarking on a cheese odyssey, a four-month road trip across the United States, visiting small-scale artisan cheese-makers along the way. She tasted and listened, capturing their stories with in-depth, recorded interviews. Her website, Cheese by Hand documents these experiences, interviews and impressions of all the creameries she has visited. Her book will undoubtedly serve as an encyclopedia to the West Coast Cheese scene. I can see myself using it instead of a travel guide, to plan a delicious road trip up the Coast, stopping at the listed cheese caves all the way up to the Canadian border.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Kitchn.