Serious Cheese: Goat Cheese as a Marker of Gentrification
Photograph from wili_hybrid on Flickr
There was an article in last weekend's New York Times that I found utterly fascinating. In a memoir-style piece, author Jennifer Mascia described the epiphany she experienced when realizing that goat cheese had made it to her East Harlem supermarket. To her, this signaled that gentrification was truly taking hold.
When I read the story, I wondered why goat cheese—a very basic, rustic food—has become so symbolic of "gourmet" food in America, specifically the gastronomic revolution that has taken place in the last 30 years. One could even argue that goat cheese is more indicative of gentrification than even the supremely-yuppified arugula.
Seven years ago, I lived in the paradigmatic neighborhood for gentrification—Park Slope, Brooklyn. Granted, gentrification there began in the 1970s and 1980s with the exodus of Upper West Siders priced out of what was once one of the cheaper parts of Manhattan, but there was another wave that happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
This wave produced restaurants like Dizzy's, an upscale diner. It's the kind of place where you can order "two poached eggs served over cubed focaccia and drizzled with olive oil, Parmesan, and fresh basil." It was there where I once overheard a kid at the next table over—he was maybe four years old—order a cheese omelet. The server asked him what kind of cheese he wanted, and he said, "I want goat cheese."
The epicenter of goat cheese is in France's Loire Valley, where most of the producers are small-scale and nonindustrial. These hardworking farmers, whose calloused hands gently ladle sheets of stark-white curd into molds of various shapes and sizes, are as far from the term "gentry" as you could imagine.
The history of goat cheese in America begins in the late 1970s, with pioneering cheesemakers like Laura Chenel—Alice Waters discovered her cheese, then proceeded to help build a national culinary revolution. In the three decades since then, and especially in the last 15 years or so, goat cheese has made it to the mainstream.
And so with regard to this weekend's Times article, I find myself wondering whether goat cheese appearing in a largely Latino neighborhood is a marker of gentrification, or a marker of the mainstreaming of goat cheese in America? I don't know the answer to that (if you do, please chime in), but I do know that regardless of the ideological implications, I'm still going to eat my goat cheese—and enjoy it.
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.
View other entries from Serious Cheese.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
13 Comments:
My local Sam's Club carries Laura Chenel goat cheese in the 12 ounce size. Not only is it very well priced, but it sits with the Parmigiano Reggiano, the aged Black Diamond cheddar, and the Maytag blue in the cheese case. I live in the Midwest, so I see it not as a sign of gentrification (because aren't suburbs by nature newer and, thus, not able to gentrify?), but of the increasing sophistication of the mainstream American palate. Even in fast food restaurants, the trend is "natural" or "Angus" beef and other "premium ingredients". Five Guys, which could not be more mainstream in its menu, tells you where the potatoes that comprise the day's fries come from. Goat cheese in Sam's means that non-foodies are taking more of an interest in what they eat and seeking more variety.
Jamie -- I loved your story about the little boy who wanted a goat cheese omelette. I was in Whole Foods last week (picked up some great Comte and an excellent stinky blue from Spain) and the sample of the day was Epoisses. A small boy of about three asked his mother what the cheese was and if he could have a sample. She told him it would be like Brie. He announced that Brie is his favorite cheese and then happily munched on his sample taste. Go figure!
Mizbee at 3:37PM on 05/19/09
I just picked up a pyramid of Valencay today and can't wait to enjoy it. Gentrified or not, it's just good stuff!
I also live in the Midwest and see goat cheese everywhere. I guess I never really thought about what the widespread availability of goat cheese means in our society. In my view, it means that more people are realizing that goat cheese is delicious. One of my sisters, who has never been a cheese aficionado, is over the moon for goat cheese and prefers it to any other kind.
mncheese at 4:07PM on 05/19/09
I also live in the midwest and *love* goat cheese. I don't care what kind of trend it is, I'll just call it good. And continue to love the fact that my goat cheese comes from goats about 30 mins away. Yum.
Mhlia at 4:17PM on 05/19/09
I measure the mainstreaming of a food product against McDonald's, like when they introduced "chipotle" barbecue sauce, Angus burgers and most recently the "gourmet" products of the McCafe line.
That said, only since moving to Sunset Park did I come to the realization that demographics define what is available in grocery stores. I thought I had gone crazy the first few weeks after I stumbled into multiple stores that seemed to not know of the glorious pork products available to the greater population, and when I tried baking I had to go to Target to get toffee bits- toffee bits!
And now I too gauge my apartment's worth based on its proximity to a Fairway or comparable supermarket (subway access be damned).
LikesToEatJunk at 4:20PM on 05/19/09
there was that NY Times article recently, right, about how goat is the most widely consumed protein in the world? it's odd that goat cheese should be a sign of gentrification. I saw goat milk in the C-town on 161st and st. Nicholas ave here in Manhattan, which by most appearances is still a relatively ungentrified Dominican neighborhood. Goat milk was something i'd previously purchased only in fancy little bottles from fairway or whole foods or farmers markets upstate. this goat milk, however, came in a cardboard quart carton, and was just tossed in the refrigerator case next to the buttermilk. So i was confused- was this a sign gentrification or not? my father claimed no: he said it was just for people who couldn't tolerate regular cow milk.
now the bottles of Pom Wonderful and tubs of Oikos greek yogurt just a few steps down from the goat milk- those, i think, are signs of gentrification.
mr guy at 4:42PM on 05/19/09
@LikesToEatJunk, I think using McDonald's as a gauge is a smart approach. I wouldn't be surprised to see goat cheese in their "premium" salads, sometime soon.
jamieforrest at 4:43PM on 05/19/09
1) attempting to make my farm-raised grandmother have a taste of goat cheese in a tart i made last year, she scrunched up her nose and said "it tastes like goat".
2) would the widespread availability of fancy cheeses be more akin to people owning other widely-available luxury goods, i.e. lexus automobiles, coach purses, louboutin shoes?
anysuchname at 5:18PM on 05/19/09
Drat, I should have checked the local stores for their goat cheese/Velveeta ratio before signing that apartment lease this evening.
chanterelle at 10:26PM on 05/19/09
My wife grew up on fresh goat's milk. The problem was, there was lots of wild garlic on their farm, so everything tasted like garlic. Now, I love garlic, but not on my cereal. Or in my tea.
I actually don't care for goat's cheese...it just tastes so 'goaty' in the way we get it. And I love strong, pungent cheese.
NotAmerican at 12:27AM on 05/20/09
I seriously contemplated buying a goat so that I could make cheese. It's that good.
eeels at 10:48AM on 05/20/09
kudos to the Mickey D's-O-Meter. I think sometimes the MSM is just so out of touch with the reality of people's food tastes. Brings me back to the '08 campaign trail when they still brought up someone as being a latte sipping elite. Here in Washington you can drive out to the most podunk town and still find someone in a beatup brokedown pickup ordering a skinny latte that tastes better than most of the coffee in Jersey.
djtcf1 at 1:41PM on 05/20/09
I think that bringing up how goat milk is working class in France, or that it's the world's most widely-consumed protein, is beside the point. The question is about American supermarkets, where what they're eating in France or in the third world is rarely the point.
Goats are incredibly common animals in many countries around the globe, but they have not traditionally been common in this country. When we learn about barnyard animals in grade school we learn that the cow goes moo and the chicken goes cluck and the pig goes oink and the lamb goes baa, but if we learn anything about goats at all it's that they eat tin cans. This is not to say that no one's ever had goats in America (so, please, save the ripostes about how your great-aunt got up every morning at dawn to milk Nanny); it's to say that goats have not been a traditional, mainstream barnyard animal.
So, I think that the appearance of goat cheese in supermarkets IS a sign of an American palate that is growing in sophistication. But I agree with the NYT writer that its appearance in East Harlem is a sign of gentrification.
When I first moved to Morningside Heights, in 1993, before the Fairway, the only large supermarket was an extremely seedy C-Town on 125th St between B'way and A'dam, where I couldn't even find plain yoghurt. When I moved to Washington Heights in 1999, I couldn't find it there, either; I couldn't even find leafy greens. There wasn't a market for them.
That this is shifting is a huge sea-change in the way people eat. And it makes me very happy!!
klg19 at 4:57PM on 05/20/09
It's safe to conclude that it is a sign of gentrification, but also of the larger trend, more or less nationwide, of expanding food choices. My local average "supermarket" now stocks dozens and dozens of mustard varieties that were never there when I was a kid. And stop me about the vinegar choices...just endless. It takes up nearly an entire aisle.
Savory1 at 2:13PM on 05/22/09