Talking with Amanda DeMann about cheese is a transformative
experience. She proselytizes with as much fervor as a church full of
Pentecostals, so it’s no wonder that people have started calling her
“Cheesus” (rhymes with Jesus… get it?!). She got her start innocently
enough when she happened upon a French cheese book. Crammed with
historical info and sexy photos, it appealed to her “super dork-out
side,” her Dairy Belt roots (she’s from Minnesota), and her education
(she studied photography in NYC). It wasn’t long before her hobby
turned into a full-blown passion: One fine day she was lunching at
Bluehour, which had just started a new cheese program. Disappointed
that the waiter could not tell her whether the Catalonian goat’s milk
cheese had an ash rind or a natural rind, or whether the hoch
ybrig (sounds like “hockey brick”) was similar to cave-aged
gruyere, DeMann called the restaurant the following day to offer her
services, and a legend was born. Since then she’s been plucked from
obscurity by upper-crust lesbians to lecture on an Olivia culinary
cruise of the Mediterranean and, most recently, headhunted by New
Seasons to oversee their cheese department in lovely Happy Valley.
Are you liking your new job?
Yeah! I went from having 25-30 cheeses to over 300; I also get to
learn more about olives. The Happy Valley demographic can support a
menu of higher-end cheeses, $35-45 a pound. Of course nobody should eat
a whole pound. You’re not gonna shit, or you’re gonna shit your face
off, if you eat that much cheese.
You were a cult figure at Bluehour. Do you miss that?
Yeah. I miss the hustle and bustle of Bluehour. I was kind of iconic
there; people would call and make reservations on nights I was working.
It almost became less about the cheese and more about how excited I
got. I could have been pushing Cheez Whiz and they would have bought
it.
Have you ever met a cheese you didn’t like?
I don’t think so. I’ve learned to appreciate milder cheeses that
maybe aren’t my favorites. I tend to like really full-bodied,
super-stinky, eat-in-the-backyard crazy cheeses.
What about Cheez Whiz?
There’s a time and a place for it, like on a road trip with a Bugle,
and you make a little ice cream cone out of it. That’s super good.
All-time favorites?
Époisses! If it didn’t stop me from getting a job I’d
have it tattooed across my knuckles. It’s a Burgundy cheese that dates
back to the time of Louis XV. It’s been washed in Marc de
Bourgogne—a burgundy brandy. It’s so unctuous, when you cut into
it, it just oozes. It’s the sexiest cheese ever. I’d rub it all over my
face if I could.