National Cheese Lover’s Day Brings the Flavor

Cleveland’s take on artisan style cheese.

Written by Aubrey Evans

National Cheese Lover Day

The holiday season isn’t over just yet. National Cheese Lover Day is coming up on January 20th and for cheese lovers, this is a big deal. Though it may sound cheesy, the holiday celebrates all of the melting flavors. Fine artisan cheese is the center of family traditions, holidays and childhood memories.

Cheesy Family Traditions

Elyse Broderick, a senior student-athlete at Cleveland State University, comes from an Italian family in which cheese is present at almost every family function. Her family begins their meal with antipasto, – the first course of a traditional Italian meal, similar to an American appetizer.

"Our antipasto always has a ton of cold cuts, and they are always loaded with cheese,” Broderick said.

For some cheese lovers, it can be hard to pick a favorite with so many varieties tied to family traditions and personal taste.

“If I had to pick a favorite, it would definitely be either parmesan or mozzarella,” she said.

Her love for cheese started at a young age, as she recalls sneaking into her parents’ bedroom at night while they were watching TV and stealing pieces of cheese off of the charcuterie board they would snack on. 

“Cheese is sort of a comfort food for me,” she said. “It's everywhere in my family, so it just kind of reminds me of home.” 

For some Clevelanders, cheese isn’t just a family tradition – it’s a career.

From Medicine to Cheesemaking

In 2018, Dr. Kandice Marchant, a long-time hematopathologist at the Cleveland Clinic, had a change of heart and decided it was time to try something new. 

Born and raised in Wisconsin, cheese was a big part of Marchant’s life. After moving to Cleveland to attend graduate school, she met her future husband and began traveling across Europe.

“The cheese in Wisconsin was mostly Velveeta and Kraft singles,” Marchant said. “It wasn't authentic artisanal cheese.”

It was the trip to Europe that sparked her discovery of European artisan cheeses. She fell in love with the soft and creamy styles of cheese that she had never tasted before.

“It’s just something about the softer cheeses that I found more enjoyable,” she said. “The skinnier the better, the creamier the better and the oozier the better.”

One year, for Christmas, her husband, Roger, gifted her a weekend at Murray’s Cheese in New York City where she participated in a three day long “Cheese Bootcamp.” She tasted 75 cheeses that were paired with different wines and beers, and even learned the ins and outs of cheese chemistry and microbiology.

“I realized that the chemistry for turning milk into cheese curds is very similar to the chemistry involved in turning blood into blood clots,” she said.

Her focus of research medicine was in blood coagulation, which is the process where blood thickens to form a plug to stop bleeding from a damaged blood vessel.

“I had one of these ‘aha’ moments, and I thought, I really have to learn more about this and read more about this,” she said. “So I bought a book on cheesemaking and sort of cooked my way through the book.”

Her fascination with cheesemaking quickly turned into a hobby that she began to share with others. Slowly, people started enjoying her cheeses.

The Cheese Doctor Is In

The more people liked Marchant’s cheese, the less crazy coming up with a second career sounded. So, she began to build her business, Marchant Manor Cheese, from the ground up.

Located in Cleveland Heights, Marchant Manor Cheese is home to Marchant’s handcrafted, European-style artisan cheeses. The shop hosts a variety of community events – from cheese chemistry sessions to fondue nights, which offer people opportunities to learn, taste and explore something new.

Marchant makes all of the shop's cheese. Every Friday and Saturday she travels an hour south to an Amish dairy farm in Stark County to begin the cheesemaking process.

“On any given Friday, I’ll probably make anywhere from four to seven different types of cheese,” she said. “Since mine are soft cheeses they have a lifespan of about two to three months.”

Her favorite cheese to make is her award-winning blue cheese, which won a first place blue ribbon at the Ohio State Fair last year.

Marchant shared that blue cheese is a little bit more complex as it takes roughly a month to produce. The milk is added to the blue veining, Penicillium Roqueforti, which is a type of mold.

“It’s a fun process because you have to poke holes in the cheese to allow airflow so the blue mold grows,” she said.

Whether you are the world’s biggest cheese lover, carrying on family traditions or simply wanting to try something new, there is cheese for everyone at Marchant Manor Cheese.

Photos in Marchant Manor Cheese and its various cheeses, provided by Aubrey Evans.