Image of Gruyere Cheese Plate courtesy of Whole Foods Market

Artisanal cheese is one of those amazing soul satisfying agricultural products that can be eaten out of hand, or paired with everything from meats to sweets and makes all of it taste better–even soups.

Good thing, too, since January is soup month at Field & Feast.

To talk about cheese as an accompaniment to soup, and as an ingredient in soup, we went to Antonelli’s Cheese Shop in Hyde Park in Austin, Texas.

John and Kendall Antonelli, a young couple dedicated to one another and to their new lives as cheesemongers, opened the shop in February 2010 and have never looked back.

At the time the Antonellis opened their shop Austin had several excellent grocery store cheese departments, such as the one at Whole Foods Market. What it didn’t have, though, was a neighborhood shop where customers could enjoy intimate, unhurried one-on-one instruction about artisanal cheese and cheesemakers.

I visited the shop after it had only been open a month, and while I was there, their thousandth customer checked out at the register. John and Kendall didn’t even try to suppress their joy–and disbelief. “When you start a new business,” John told me later, “you don’t plan for lines. You plan for crickets.”

Join me as I visit Antonelli’s Cheese Shop in Austin to  learn about the versatility and the glory of cheeses as an accompaniment to soup and as an ingredient in soup.

The Glory of Cheeses with John and Kendall Antonelli Play Now | Play in Popup