The Cheese Board Collective Works
It's easy to imagine that Berkeley's Gourmet Gulch, a four square block chunk on the northern side of town, started when its most famous occupant took up residence. But at least one purveyor existed there before Chez Panisse. A small cheese shop, started by Elizabeth and Sahag Avedisian, who wanted to run a specialty foods store and pursue other interests on the side. The store became popular and began to grow.
Caught up in the politics of the time, and based on their own communal experiences on kibbitzes, they took the still radical step of making the cheese shop a worker-owned cooperative. Thus was born the Cheese Board Collective, which runs the best cheese shop in the East Bay and arguably in the Bay Area and perhaps even the country.
At least that's how I think of it. To other people, the Cheese Board is a top-notch bakery. To others it's one of the best pizza places in Berkeley. To people outside the Bay Area, unaccustomed to alternatives to hierarchy, the collective that runs the shop probably just strikes them as another fruitcake idea from Berkeley. The collective's new book, The Cheese Board Collective Works, a title with at least three meanings that I've figured out, tries to make sense of these disparate aspects of the store, never forgetting that the Cheese Board's main purpose is to be a part of its community, a cornerstone of the neighborhood. The book is filled with stories about different people's experiences, primarily members of the collective, who all make the same hourly wage, work all the stations, and have equal voting power in decisions which need to be made. They are honest about the flaws in the collective system, but there is a common joy about their work environment and their empowerment as a result.
It is also a cookbook. After the stories, though they continue to weave and flit their way throughout the recipes, are instructions for making some of the Cheese Board's most beloved baked goods. I've never been a big fan of their bread, but their scones are some of the best I've ever tasted, and I'm eager to try the recipe. And though their pizzas are spontaneous creations, they have some combinations which have worked particularly well.
There is, of course, a discussion of cheeses as well, though it occupies a smaller part of the book than I imagined, accustomed as I am to thinking of the Cheese Board just as a cheese shop. It is a bit of an introduction to cheeses, though most of the discussion in the cheese section is about ideas for cheese plates. Nice ideas that everyone who loves this course will enjoy, though those looking for a more thorough instruction manual on the subject should check out The Cheese Primer (incidentally the only other book the Cheese Board sells).
It's hard to know how valuable this book is for people not in the area (or formerly of it). A pivotal aspect of the Cheese Board is how entwined it is within the community. Still, it's a good overview of what still strikes many people as an odd way to organize a group of people, and it has a lot of useful ideas for cheese plates, not to mention great recipes. For those in the area, it's a great way to learn more about this collective which is more of an institution than Chez Panisse.
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