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I love cheese. No, wait - I adore cheese. I don’t mean that rubbery, bland molten and stringy stuff you generally find on pizzas, nor that weird orange stuff you find melted inside a quesadilla. Don’t offer me a highly processed slice of square, plastic-wrapped plastic ‘cheese’ unless you want to wear it.

I’m talking about Real Cheese.

Pungent cave-aged Gruyere and the blue-veined Roquefort from France. Dreamy, creamy brie-like cheeses such as Fromage d’Affinois or stinky Reblochon (also from France). Pungent blue cheeses such as Gorgonzola or the semi-hard and flavourful cow’s milk Provolone from Italy. I adore fresh chevre from Redwood Hill Farms, in northern California, or from local cheese maker Laura Cheney. “Blessed are the cheese makers” indeed.

So, you can see I was thrilled when a specialty cheese shop opened in my ‘hood last year, The Artisan Cheese Gallery

Their close proximity, here in Studio City, saves me the pilgrimage to the other notable cheese specialists in town, namely The Cheese Store of Silver Lake and - my absolute favourite - The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills.

Owner Melody Dosch is similarly enamoured with cheesy comestibles. She cultivates relationships with (and devotes a large section of her display cases to) the wares of quite a number of artisanal and boutique cheese makers, dealing personally with a dozen or so on an ongoing basis. These include Californian dairies such as Andante Dairy in Tomales Bay, Winchester Cheese Company, Rinconata Dairy, Santa Margharita and Fiscalini Dairy in Modesto; farms such as Donnay Farms, Minnesota and Capriole Farms in Indiana; also Oregon Gourmet in Albany, Bobolink Dairy, New Jersey and Haystack Mountain Dairy, in Longmont, Colorado.

In fact, Melody purchases cheeses from over fifty American artisans and cheese specialists.

I went over to the Artisan Cheese Gallery for a special event recently where Melody had invited Paula Lambert, a cheese maker from Dallas, to do an in-store presentation, provide samples of her most excellent and unusual cheeses and sign her two glossy cookbooks, The Cheese Lovers Guide and Cheese, Glorious Cheese.

Melody carries a number of Paula’s cheeses, including:

Hoja Santa, a goat’s milk cheese wrapped in Hoja Santa leaves; Blanca Bianca, a raw washed rind cow’s milk cheese (she says it’s one of her favorites); Scamorza, a smoked mozzarella made from cow’s milk; a stunningly creamy yet tart Goat’s milk Mozzarella; Queso Oaxaca, a traditional Mexican cow’s milk cheese; Montasio Festivo, a goat’s milk cheese with a unusual and flavourful chipotle chili rind and Caciotta, a plain cow’s milk infused with Mexican mint.

Melody says she first had the pleasure of meeting Paula and tasting her marvellous cheeses at an American Cheese Society conference in Louisville, Kentucky, about three years ago. Says Melody of the stylish southern dame, “She is one of the most elegant women you will ever meet.” She’s right.

A selected range of Paula Lambert’s excellent cheeses, as well as boutique cheese from all over the country, can be found at The Artisan Cheese Gallery

Also available are salads and sandwiches made daily to order (available 11am-4pm), such as Duck Confit paired with fig spread and Le Marechal cheese or AGC Muffaleta (approx $10) or the classic Grilled Cheese sandwich, made with Ballard Family Dairy cheddar on BreadBar pain de mie and with or without organic heirloom tomatoes ($8.25 or $9.25).

12023 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, CA 91604
Phone: 818-505-0207
Fax: 818-505-0282

Paula Lambert’s cheeses - The Mozzarella Company

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.