This isn't just stacking palettes of crackers. Parmesan requires climate-controlled warehouses, and must be often tested, repositioned, and (yes) guarded. It's also a more risky investment.
I recently watched the documentary Chef's Table on Netflix [1] and in the first episode, there was another interesting story about saving Parmesan cheese.
The earthquake damaged a lot of Parmesan wheels, leaving them vulnerable to spoilage. This would mean a huge loss of investment and possibly bankruptcy for a lot of the parmesan producers.
A chef from Modena then created a recipe called Risotto cacio e pepe that was both easy to make and required Parmesan. He used the to simultaneously raise awareness about the consequences of the earthquake and promote sales of the damaged Parmesan [2]. He ended up selling 360.000 wheels of Parmigiano, possibly saving a lot of cheese makers from going out of business.
I learned a lot about Parmegiano Reggiano when I was working at Whole Foods. I was told they crack more wheels than any other grocery chain in the world, and that each wheel cost like $1800.00 (well, it did pre-COVID). IIRC, on average, they crack one wheel per store per day.
You can also sign up for classes where you watch them crack a wheel and then do a sample of various cheese flavors.
It is interesting to find out more about the production side of these wheels. Thank you!
PDO and PDI help a lot when it comes to providing excellent and consistent ingredients.
You could grow anything in the US and there are indeed great producers for everything. The problem is recognition.
PDO/DOP Parmigiano, prosciutto and olive oil and san marazano tomatoes are in the you cannot do wrong cathegory. They are always excellent.
A pizza maker in the US will have a lot harder time discovering great ingredients made in US. Not because they don't exist, but because anyone can label almost anything.
We buy those wedges at Costco and they last us about 2 months haha! But we use the stuff everywhere: On pasta, on grilled asparagus, in risotto, etc. Everything's better with good Parmigiano!
My most common consumption method for Parmigiano-Reggiano is standing in front of my fridge at 2am breaking chunks off the wedge, with a squeeze bottle of honey and whatever berries I have on hand. Can recommend.
I hosted a friend from Catalonia who was amazed and bewildered by the variety in shelves full of crisps: Chee-Tos, Doritos, Pringles, that sort of thing. And that was in a corner gas station's convenience store.
When I visited her in Catalonia, we visited a Carrefour, and I took note of the varieties of olives available. Also, the mounted legs of jamón serrano, curing in the open air. Complimentary olives were served at every Italian restaurant there, and her sister eagerly served me a jamón sandwich at her café.
My three year old daughter can tell the difference. We keep reggiano on hand and if you give her an inferior Parmesan she will ask for the “good one”. My grocery store buys the wheels from Italy and it’s much better to grate it on demand.
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