If you don’t like cheese, you’re no friend of mine. Few if any comfort foods are devoid of it, they instantly make any sandwich better and, as we all know, the moon is made out of it. For John Gutierrez, cheese is more than a topping, it’s a passion, and on Thursday at 2 pm, his coagulated dream curdles in the form of Cheesemongers of Santa Fe, a cut-to-order artisan cheese shop smack in the middle of Marcy Street.
When did your love affair with cheese begin?
When I was a customer in Forward Foods in Norman, Okla. It's owned by my business partners in this venture here. In fact, all of the refrigeration in this shop are the first cheese cases I worked with, from the original store. I used to go in every time I got a paycheck, spend hours there and it became more than something I just enjoyed, it became an academic interest, really. I started buying books and reading about cheese in my own time, and I was eventually hired there.
What's been the most interesting part of opening up this shop?
It's all pretty tiring (laughs). It's been a bit of a dream—I get to bring in all of my favorite things. It's like an old-school deli, you get to eat what I like to eat. I work with who I want to work with, I can buy from as many different people as I want to buy from—I have over 70 vendors.
Say you're stuck in a deserted island with nothing but Walmart-brand slices of cheese product for sustenance. What do you do?
Jump into the water.
Santa Fe Reporter