French Cheeses: The Visual Guide to More Than 350 Cheeses from Every Region of France

When I was a child and the milk soured, my ever-frugal mother would set it aside in a bowl and allow it to continue it's transformation into something wild and strange. When the curds and the whey separated, she would pour the contents into a cheese cloth stretched across a strainer and then gather and lift the cloth and squeeze the exess fluid from the curds. We ate the cheese as is...a form of "cottage" cheese I suppose. I was reminded of this when I read FRENCH CHEESES from Eyewitness Handbooks which contains a short history of cheese-making in the front section of the book.

I like this book, and since I am not a cheese expert, I cannot say whether it will make one an expert or not, but it has enlightened me a bit as I continue to experiment with the various kinds of cheeses available in the gourmet section of the grocery stores and the delicatesson in our neighborhood.

I have eaten various cheeses in Paris and other parts of Europe, and thought them better than anything I can buy in the States though I have eaten "fancy" cheeses in some upscale restaurants. I realize the French and others use unpasturized or raw milk in many of their cheeses and the U.S. frowns on the use of untreated milk so perhaps this is a factor. CHEESES identifies cooked versus raw versions.

However, many of the cheeses in this book are not found in U.S. stores because a limited supply exists and/or the product is consumed or sold locally. Generally these are artisanal cheeses (made by hand). CHEESES includes a map showing the farm areas of France and each cheese entry pinpoints the geographic location of the product. You can match the map with the cheese of interest to you and perhaps search for it on your next excursion to the French countryside. In the meantime, the list of producers in the appendix may prove helpful.

I am a big fan of this book since the publication of the original Japanese version titled 'Encyclopedia des Fromages (this includes cheeses from other 15 countries)'. 'French Cheeses' did not only closely follow the original text but also have added wine recommendations, which are very useful.Photographs are beatufifully printed in this version, too. The only problem I have is the large names of 'foreword writer' and 'consultant' on the cover (and the authors' names do not appear on the front). As far as I have compared the two versions, I have not encountered any differences in the text between them. So, what the consultant contributed? Are these 'big names' added because the publisher thought Japanese-written French cheese book would not look attractive? I want to hear from the publisher on this. Anyway, this is a great book for cheese lovers.

As a professional cheesemonger, I find this book indispensable. Although the layout can be a bit confusing, and the index is rife with inaccurate page numbers, the content is so strong that I highly recommend it to other professionals and food aficionados. One excellent point that is made several places in the book is that cheese can be enjoyed at different stages of maturity. In fact, the captions under photographs of cheese will often comment on how long the cheese was matured, or better yet, how it compares to what is usually eaten by the locals.

Careful recommendations are made for pairing the cheeses with French wines, which is always helpful.

I return to this book time and time again, either for reference, or to ferret out the minutae that dwell in every entry.

If only we had a reference of this quality for all the traditional foods of the world!

If you know something about French Cheese, and don't mind poring through the whole book to search out generic information, such as the basic cheesemaking processes, you will find this book rewarding. If you are looking for an introduction and recommendations for where to start, this book won't help. The photos are beautiful, and the desriptions of the individual cheeses are very authoritative and complete. But, the bewildering array of cheeses in this book will not help you much as you stand before the cheese counter in the better French supermarkets or your favorite fromagerie trying to choose which of the 500 or so cheeses to eat with today's meals.

After living in France for three months, I now can appreciate what this book offers. But, in addition to the "field guide" type of descriptions, I would have appreciated some help in learning how to buy and store cheese (such as why the softer cheeses should be stored on a bed of straw in the shops).

There are delightful snippets of information included, or should I say buried, throughout the book, and the photos are truly wonderful. But, for anyone getting started, I would choose a book such as "Cheese Primer" by Steven Jenkins.

My husband and I are Americans living in the south of France for one year. Don't go to live in France without taking this book. This is a beautiful book. It is an encyclopedia of French cheeses. The pictures and the details are superb. It is informative, entertaining and full of cheese facts that even the French people don't know about. You will be able to tell your French friends and the Fromagere more about their cheeses than they want to know. We have left them stunned with our knowledge of cheeses. They just eat the cheeses. They don't read about them.