McCalman, Max 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born 1953; children: Scarlett. Education: Hendrix College, Conway, AR, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—crownbiz@randomhouse.com.

CAREER:

Designated a Maître Fromager and Garde et Jure, Guilde des Fromagers, France. Artisanal Restaurant Group, New York, NY, master of the cheese; Artisanal Cheese Center, New York, NY, Maître Fromager and dean of curriculum.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best Reference Book award, James Beard Foundation, 2006, for Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best.

WRITINGS:

(With David Gibbons) The Cheese Plate, photographs by David Gibbons, Clarkson Potter (New York, NY), 2002.

(With David Gibbons) Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best, photographs by David Gibbons, Clarkson Potter (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Cheese expert and hospitality industry veteran Max McCalman has been designated a Maître Fromager by the French cheese guild. He has put his expertise to use in books about his favorite subject. In The Cheese Plate, McCalman presents a "unique book," according to Library Journal contributor Judith Sutton. Rather than a guide to individual cheeses, The Cheese Plate is instead a guide to cheese in general: its history, how to store and serve it, good cheese and wine pairings, and sample cheese plates with some classic international cheese recommendations. Sutton felt the book provides "an amazing amount of information." For Michael Schrader, writing in Nation's Restaurant News, the same work offers "an interesting survey of cheesemaking," and a reviewer for Gourmet Retailer called The Cheese Plate "an illuminating book."

While The Cheese Plate is aimed largely at industry professionals, McCalman's second title, Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best, is intended as a rating system for all cheese lovers. Arranged alphabetically, about two hundred cheeses are ranked numerically for a number of features, including taste and appearance. Cheese also provides information on availability, production, and a description of the stages of ripeness of these different types of cheese. Like the earlier book, wine and cheese pairings are also suggested, but the list of cheeses is much longer in Cheese than it was in The Cheese Plate. A Publishers Weeklycontributor felt that the 2005 book "succeeds more as a beautiful glossy catalogue … than as an introductory text." A reviewer for Gourmet Retailer was more positive, however, calling the book "a must-have for anyone in the specialty cheese business and their customers." Likewise, Schrader, writing again in the Nation's Restaurant News, called the same work "a sine qua non for all cheese lovers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Gourmet Retailer, March, 2002, "New Cheese from a Maître Fromager," review of The Cheese Plate, p. 23; January, 2006, review of Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best, p. 30.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Judith Sutton, review of The Cheese Plate, p. 103; August 1, 2005, Andrea R. Dietze, review of Cheese, p. 114.

Nation's Restaurant News, May 5, 2003, Michael Schrader, review of The Cheese Plate, p. 140; September 19, 2005, Michael Schrader, review of Cheese, p. 158.

Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2005, review of Cheese, p. 46.

ONLINE

Artisanal Cheese Web site,http://www.artisanalcheese.com/ (October 25, 2006), biographical information on Max McCalman.*