http://www.phcheese.com/home daily 1.0 2018-06-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e7efa2b6a28effed8b3ac/1529773836727/17201367_10154504049808693_2812181510793035309_n.jpg Home https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e7bd770a6ade8bc97daeb/1529773027370/WP_001417.jpg Home - "A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost an eye"   - Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin http://www.phcheese.com/translations daily 0.75 2018-06-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e61da0e2e7265f3cbf671/1529770735476/203_3.gif Translations Go here to purchase a copy. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e61231ae6cf66f71220f7/1529772121723/book_91.jpg Translations Go here to purchase a copy. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e6154aa4a9952396bc43f/1529766352774/book_92.jpg Translations Go here to purchase a copy. http://www.phcheese.com/publications daily 0.75 2019-05-18 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e8599352f53e6655ddd5e/1529775724706/Cuisinieretlart.jpg Publications To purchase the book go here. I contributed a chapter entitled "La naissance des clubs de gastronomes et le Gesamtkunstwerk gastronomique." https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2fc6f6758d46fa66f7995c/1529857791380/519C76meFAL.jpg Publications I contributed entries on Paris-based cheese shops. To purchase the book go here. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b4e2a698a922d189834fb19/1531849331938/download.jpg Publications I contributed an entry on Voltaire's philosophical novel Candide and an entry on 18th-century writer Antoine-François Prévost d'Exiles. Excerpt from the entry on Candide: The richness of Candide lies in the fact that the book reveals popular eighteenth-century philosophical theories, ones which are also linked to the Enlightenment. Another central theme in the story involves the triumph of action over scholarly discourse, the latter which ultimately proves to be inept. Several characters embody the type of false savant hated by Voltaire, especially Candide’s tutor, Pangloss whose mechanical repetitions of the phrase “Tout va bien…” is directly contradicted by the accumulation of misfortunes befalling the characters. Throughout Candide, the narrator mocks characters who think they possess knowledge even though they do not understand its meaning, merely repeating ready-made sentences summarizing philosophical theories and doctrines. Between Pangloss’s optimism and Martin’s pessimism, it is only after having traveled the world and lived through trying experiences that Candide creates his own way of understanding the world. His quest could thus be understood as a search for happiness. In fact, one of the main topics of discussion in salons of the mid-18th century was the possibility of earthly happiness for every man and no longer in a heavenly paradise for a selected few after death. There are three places in the narrative where this happiness is possible: Westphalia, Eldorado, and at the end of the tale, in Candide’s garden. Each corresponds to an ideal: ignorance of the problems of the world in the gardens of the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh; the utopia of the Enlightenment put into practice in Eldorado; finally, the culture of one’s own happiness in the face of the problems of society. In the end, Voltaire shows that real happiness can only be achieved by working on oneself, focusing on human problems rather than metaphysical ones, and acting concretely. Excerpt from the entry on Antoine-François Prévost d'Exiles: This superiority of the sensitive man, the honored hero of the eighteenth-century novel, implies a clear renunciation of the imperatives of seventeenth-century moralist philosophy, which postulated the possibility of controlling the passions by way of the conscience. The equanimity and repose, which characterized the French conception of the honnête homme, gave way to an entirely different virtue, one which could only be acquired by the hardship and trials of multiple excessive passions. It was no longer a matter of being oneself against everything, but of allowing oneself to be invaded and transformed by passion. The legitimacy that Prévost’s novel accords to irrational and paroxysmal behavior, to the spectacular manifestations of sentiment, was entirely new in 1731. In fact, it did not appear as a literary motif until later in the century, and is exemplified in Denis Diderot’s La Religieuse (1780) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5ce086752cb6cf0001445047/1558218667141/20190518_144413.jpg Publications Scholars can trace the origins of the cultural field of gastronomy by examining French utopian literature from the turn of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. Utopian literature from this period re-situated gourmandise in an Enlightenment discourse focused on sociability and sensuality. It elevated the act of eating to a topic worthy of serious scrutiny and shifted the conversation from food as sustenance to food as pleasure. This article examines culinary consumption in three utopias: Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s L’An 2440, Bernardin de Saint- Pierre’s Paul et Virginie, and Charles Fourier’s Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générals. The culinary utopias which reflect Brillat-Savarin’s Physiologie du goût (1825) the most are not structured around survival, moderation, and reason. Instead, they are defined by emotions, pleasure, and excess. This study borrows from Roland Barthes’ dichotomy between “domestic utopia” and “political utopia” to make sense of this evolution. More so than his predecessors (Mercier and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre), Fourier politicizes the domestic sphere of the kitchen with the purpose of ensuring the right to a minimum standard of sensual pleasure. Despite their differences, the radical mindset developed in all three utopias helped pave the way for gourmandise to become a democratized and celebrated national activity, one that would eventually lead to new cultural figures and professions (the gourmet and food critic). You can purchase a copy of French Forum here. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2e843370a6ade8bc98ed82/1529857454880/cover-450x600.jpg Publications To read my article on Grimod de La Reynière’s mock funerary feast of 1783 go here. http://www.phcheese.com/cheese-diaries daily 0.75 2018-07-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b562eda03ce64ba8da41569/5b56302e70a6ad58609e4a63/1532375102502/IMG_20180707_185752.jpg Cheese Diaries https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b562eda03ce64ba8da41569/5b56301970a6ad58609e432b/1532375082398/IMG_20180707_131931.jpg Cheese Diaries https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b562eda03ce64ba8da41569/5b562ff8352f53b8bffb52a3/1532375049977/IMG_20180708_174524.jpg Cheese Diaries https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b562eda03ce64ba8da41569/5b562f0daa4a9947dc9ef51e/1532374966512/20180709_173317.jpg Cheese Diaries https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b562eda03ce64ba8da41569/5b562ef3575d1f3b7708fd60/1532374801933/20180709_185415.jpg Cheese Diaries http://www.phcheese.com/almanach-des-gourmands daily 0.75 2018-06-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7d35758d46fa66f0c2c4/1529838933025/CIMG0378.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7cc8352f53e665748afe/1529838826819/CIMG0375.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7bda6d2a73177aa5af13/1529838690421/CIMG0373.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7c8770a6ade8bcafc2f9/1529838761478/CIMG0374.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7b9a88251b309106db7b/1529838518916/CIMG0372.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7b3a562fa77676bd03e9/1529838428956/CIMG0371.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7d046d2a73177aa5c020/1529838881681/CIMG0376.JPG Almanach des Gourmands https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f7d6c0e2e7265f3e71b4f/1529838987969/CIMG0380.JPG Almanach des Gourmands http://www.phcheese.com/master-crayfish daily 0.75 2018-06-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f75fc6d2a73177aa554f3/1529837091039/20180621_150307.jpg Upcoming Novel http://www.phcheese.com/about-1 daily 0.75 2018-06-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2fac36562fa77676c0de16/1529850964119/P_20160728_191553.jpg Bio - When Max is not writing and teaching, he works at the ferme de Rochebesse in the Ardèche, herding goats, making cheese, and most importantly daydreaming. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2faba11ae6cf66f730f897/1529850798147/IMG_20180327_123444.jpg Bio - Bio: Max Shrem is a writer and translator. He received his doctoral degree in French literature from New York University where he wrote a dissertation on the first restaurant critic Grimod de La Reynière nicknamed Master Crayfish. He has published on the history of food criticism in France, and has lectured at top-tier universities, including Brown University, Bucknell University, and the University of Notre Dame, on topics ranging from terroir to the Michelin Guide (see list of conference presentations below). At NYU, he developed from scratch a food-related course at the Paris campus that culminated in a round-table discussion on the connection between the culinary arts and performance arts. The participants included former Michelin restaurant critic Franck Pinay-Rabaroust and performance artist Emmanuel Giraud. In the fall of 2014, he created and taught a food literature class for Boston University’s Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) in Gastronomy program. Currently, Max is writing Master Crayfish, a historical novel based on the tumultuous relationship between Grimod de La Reynière and his wretched mother Suzanne Françoise Élisabeth de Jarente de Sénac. He teaches French at the Chadwick School in Palos Verdes where he shares his passion for French history and culture with his students. Max is also a serious cheese lover. Before and even during his graduate studies, he worked with cheese in various capacities, everything from managing the first New York outpost of Formaggio Kitchen to writing about cheese for Men’s Journal. He interviewed over a hundred cheesemakers for his "Cheese Course" column at AOL’s food blog Slashfood. And most recently, he contributed to the Oxford Companion of Cheese. Max worked as a seasonal fromager for five years at renowned Paris-based cheese shop Fromagerie Trotté where he helped brothers Pascal and Jean-Philippe Trotté age cheeses in their cheese cave. With his fluency in French and cheese expertise, he also had the rare privilege to be one of the few (if any) Americans to sell French cheeses in a Paris cheese shop. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/t/5b2f92e36d2a73177aa73596/1529844454132/IMG_20180327_123444.jpg Bio http://www.phcheese.com/contact daily 0.75 2018-06-24 http://www.phcheese.com/cheese-tastings daily 0.75 2018-06-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b2fb25aaa4a9952398b3e8f/5b2fb26cf950b77f29d97801/1529852526149/Cheese%2BPlate.jpg Cheese Tastings https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5458651fe4b0aee1cfcb00c9/5b2fb25aaa4a9952398b3e8f/5b2fb25b8a922d7f9cdcd125/1529852509196/chariot%2Bfromage.jpg Cheese Tastings http://www.phcheese.com/services daily 0.75 2014-11-08