By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — When Saul Zabar, current president of the eponymous gourmet food shop, turned 82 on Friday, he celebrated with a wheel of cheese heavier than many of his shoppers.
The 150 pound, three-foot diameter wheel of Beemster Graskaas — a Dutch cheese milked from cows during their first post-winter trip outside — also commemorated National Cheese Day.
“I’m a cheese eater, and I sample everything that I can get my hands on,” said Zabar, who once worked as Zabar’s outside cheese buyer after joining the family business, at 80th Street and Broadway, in 1950.
New York City, along with San Francisco, led the current movement of Americans gravitating toward more adventurous specialy cheeses, according to cheese expert Michael Blum of Beemster.
Blum was on hand to discuss the process behind cheese production, which can include 25 years of training to become a master cheesemaker.
“That’s sort of the new wave of cheese, making sure the consumer knows where it came from so that they know what they are eating,” said Blum.
Chris Nuut, a 27-year-old video editor who just moved back to Manhattan and is still searching for an apartment, was among the customers at the cheese day celebration.
“It’s a good excuse to buy a bunch of cheeses,” Nuut said. “Can’t go wrong with that.”
