Murray’s Cheese Master Vona Metcalfe scores and cracks open an 80-pound wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano in a Castle Rock King Soopers.
Photo by Haley Lena
What might seem like a simple food to include for special occasions or in a favorite family recipe can be more complex than it may seem.
Every time a person wearing a red jacket behind the Murray’s Cheese counter cracks open a wheel of cheese, they are among the first to learn about its history.
“We’re curd nerds,” Vona Metcalfe, a Murray’s Cheese Master, said.
Metcalfe, who works at the King Soopers on Promenade Parkway in Castle Rock, has cracked open hundreds of cheese wheels during her time with Murray’s Cheese.
Just over 20 years ago, Metcalfe was looking for a temporary job and began working in the deli of a King Soopers. It was when the store was being remodeled that Metcalfe was asked if she would be interested in working behind the cheese counter.
“I said absolutely because I’m a foodie,” Metcalfe said. “I’ve worked in restaurants my whole life.”
From that moment on, she began to train with Murray’s Cheese.
Murray’s Cheese was originally founded in 1962 as a small mom-and-pop shop in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Over time, Murray’s Cheese wanted to share its cheese with more than just New Yorkers. In addition to its products being available online, a curated selection of specialty cheeses is in more than a thousand Kroger and Kroger-owned stores nationwide.
Murray’s Cheese products are hand-selected by its trained team members who travel across the globe to taste numerous items.
To craft a unique array of fresh and authentic products, Murray’s Cheese takes part in a tradition of cheese aging by operating four cheese caves that provide the ideal environment for cheeses to ripen to perfection.
All about the experience
Vona Metcalfe has worked in the cheese industry for more than 20 years, experimenting with flavors and pairings.
Photo by Haley Lena
Whether it’s selling cheese by the slice or putting together charcuterie boards for events, Metcalfe and Ash Ramos, a Murray’s Cheese specialist in Castle Rock, love having the opportunity every day to engage with the community and experiment with flavors.
“We’re all very enthusiastic… we like talking about food and cooking all day,” Metcalfe said. “We’re very passionate about what we do and it’s a lot of fun.”
Ramos, has become a “Certified Cheese Professional” through the American Cheese Society.
To take the certification exam, Ramos said it takes months of studying and training. According to the American Cheese Society, an individual must acquire 4,000 documented hours of paid or unpaid work experience in the cheese industry within the last six years.
Although they have been in the cheese industry for years, Metcalfe and Ramos are continuing to find unique pairings.
Metcalfe said they will use their testing logs to document what honeys, preserves and crackers work with different types of cheeses.
“A lot of things that you think won’t pair together, go together very well,” Metcalfe said.
She added that if people are looking to put their own cheese boards together, it’s important to know the different families of cheeses and strive to choose one from each family.
Metcalfe also gets excited when she gets to help someone plan a meal or explore recipes. She said that cheese brine is actually popular for some soup recipes as the butterfat gives the dish more flavor.
For Ramos, being able to make connections with people and educate them on different types of cheeses is the best part of the job.
“We’re making things that taste great and bringing people together,” Ramos said.
Cracking open history
Parmigiano Reggiano is a ‘protected designation of origin’ product and must be properly authenticated.
Photo by Haley Lena
With an average aging time of 12 to 30 months, one of the cheeses often found at Murray’s Cheese locations in Douglas County is Parmigiano Reggiano.
“It is a very old cheese and it’s a very specific recipe that has to be followed,” Ramos said.
Parmigiano Reggiano is a protected designation of origin product, meaning that its production is highly regulated. This type of cheese must be made using raw cow’s milk from the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Mantova in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.
Ramos, who has worked as a Murray’s Cheese lead, compared it to champagne.
“It has to come from Champagne, France to be called champagne,” Ramos said. “Everywhere else, even if you use the same recipe, (it) will be called sparkling wine.”
Parmigiano Reggiano has been a staple of Italian cuisine since the 1300s, according to Murray’s Cheese, and at one point in time, the cheese was so valuable that it was used as currency.
The Parmigiano Reggiano wheels sit in a brine bath for more than 20 hours before they are transferred to an aging facility. A brine bath is a solution of water and salt used to cure cheese and help develop the flavor and texture of the cheese.
From the diameter of the wheel and the thickness of the brine to the color and flavor, the wheels are inspected to ensure they meet the requirements to be sold as Parmigiano Reggiano. There are stamps and impressions on the wheel showcasing the verification and authentication process.
The wheels are stamped with the number of the farm from which the wheel was produced, it is branded with the month and year it was made and it includes a code made from milk protein that provides information about where the wheel was made.
Metcalfe and Ramos crack one of these wheels open every week or two. They would typically use a wire cutter to slice the cheese, but the nearly 80-pound wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano requires it to be scored before using a tool that is similar to a chisel to crack the wheel open.
In addition to the aroma, Ramos said a person can taste the difference from the center of the wheel versus the outside of the wheel.
“There’s always more to learn about this stuff,” Ramos said.
Dining and Cooking