Editorials

June 15 - Editorial: The Truth About Gorgonzola Cheese

The birth of Gorgonzola is attributed to the legend of the love between a young cheese maker and his girlfriend, a pretty farmer - who according to the local boys was a cheese maker in her own right.

One wicked night, legend says, he lingered with her and neglected finishing his day's work. Having better things to attend to, he quickly finished up what he could without washing his hands and left the rest for the next day. When mixing the curd from the milking of the previous evening with the fresh morning milk, the bold young man in love obtained a cheese never made before.

Some people called it a miracle, but those who knew better kept their silence, exploiting for their own ends the juicy story of the bold love between the cheese maker and his penicillin deprived lass, thus keeping their names forever from gossip. Thus is the legend passed down by word of mouth only and not by hand - so to speak..

Literature, however, documents how Gorgonzola cheese has been known for centuries. Chiabrera, near the end of the 16th century, referring to the shape of his grandmother's head, ended one of his sonnets in these terms: "…shaped like a Gorgonzola." He was referring to the lack of genetic variety in his family, evoking the shape of the cheese.