Farmstead is the Readers' Choice winner in the Best Cheese Shop category.

The company was founded in 2003 by the husband-and-wife team of Matt and Kate Jennings. They're a well-qualified duo: Matt graduated from culinary school in Vermont in 1995, worked for artisan cheese stores and producers across the country, and studied with master cheesemongers in the U.K, France and Italy. Kate is a classically trained pastry chef.

As co-owners of Providence, R.I.-based Farmstead, Matt and Kate develop close relationships with producers and hand-select fine foodstuffs, specializing in small production, limited release cheeses. As an extension of this hands-on approach, Farmstead aims to educate its customers on the subtleties and history of cheese, offering product tastings, cooking demonstrations, and cheese and beverage pairing classes.

Farmstead's signature cheeses include "Sarabande," co-designed with Dancing Cow Farm of Vermont and boasting hints of hazelnut, sherry, and fresh farm cream at its peak ripeness. Another, called "Drunkin' Providence," is flavorful cheddar washed with Thomas Tew Rum from Rhode Island's Newport Distilling Company.

The Jennings founded Farmstead's sister restaurant, La Laiterie, in 2006 to augment their offerings. Located next to the cheese shop, the bistro serves seasonally influenced meals with fresh ingredients from local sustainable farms; the menu sometimes changes daily. Matt and Kate designed the restaurant themselves, accenting their rustic cuisine with hand-made rust colored paper lights and an interior made from reclaimed barn wood, forged iron and Vermont soapstone.

For those who can't make the trip to Wayland Square, the historical shopping district Providence, to inspect Farmstead's cheeses in person, the company offers a comprehensive website along with speedy delivery options. Rest assured, the cheese will still be just as stinky when it arrives.

Neal's Yard Dairy is a nominee for a Luxist Award for Best Cheese Shop.

Neal's Yard Dairy was founded in 1979, offering Greek-style yogurts, crème fraiche and, of course, cheese. Initially a distributor of lackluster wholesale cheeses, the Dairy began to evolve into a world-renowned specialist when owner Randolph Hodgson drove his rickety Citroen to a countryside farm and returned to London with a load of delectable Devonshire Garland cheese.

By sampling more cheeses and talking to customers, Hodgson grew his palate and his business--and outgrew the physical location of Neal's Yard. In 1992 the company moved to 17 Shorts Garden, where it still has a shop. The Dairy also expanded to include maturing rooms under the brick railway arches that support the main line from London Bridge to Dover, as well as a Neal's Yard Creamery located on Dorstone Hill, overlooking the Wye Valley in Herefordshire.

Hodgson still keeps close ties with cheesemakers and customers--he hand-picks cheddars by visiting England's West Country every eight weeks, sampling young cheese to select which batches will be matured for Neal's Yard Dairy. His Citroen has been replaced with a fleet of climate-controlled vans that shuttle cheeses around London, where mature cheese is sold through his two shops.

For those located outside the British Isles, goods from Neal's Yard Dairy are available in restaurants around the world, and by direct order from the company's website. Though the original batch of Devonshire Garland is long gone, there are still plenty of similar West Country cheeses available.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

Farmstead is a nominee for a Luxist Award in the Best Cheese Shop category.

The company was founded in 2003 by the husband-and-wife team of Matt and Kate Jennings. They're a well-qualified duo: Matt graduated from culinary school in Vermont in 1995, worked for artisan cheese stores and producers across the country, and studied with master cheesemongers in the U.K, France and Italy. Kate is a classically trained pastry chef.

As co-owners of Providence, R.I.-based Farmstead, Matt and Kate develop close relationships with producers and hand-select fine foodstuffs, specializing in small production, limited release cheeses. As an extension of this hands-on approach, Farmstead aims to educate its customers on the subtleties and history of cheese, offering product tastings, cooking demonstrations, and cheese and beverage pairing classes.

Farmstead's signature cheeses include "Sarabande," co-designed with Dancing Cow Farm of Vermont and boasting hints of hazelnut, sherry, and fresh farm cream at its peak ripeness. Another, called "Drunkin' Providence," is flavorful cheddar washed with Thomas Tew Rum from Rhode Island's Newport Distilling Company.

The Jennings founded Farmstead's sister restaurant, La Laiterie, in 2006 to augment their offerings. Located next to the cheese shop, the bistro serves seasonally influenced meals with fresh ingredients from local sustainable farms; the menu sometimes changes daily. Matt and Kate designed the restaurant themselves, accenting their rustic cuisine with hand-made rust colored paper lights and an interior made from reclaimed barn wood, forged iron and Vermont soapstone.

For those who can't make the trip to Wayland Square, the historical shopping district Providence, to inspect Farmstead's cheeses in person, the company offers a comprehensive website along with speedy delivery options. Rest assured, the cheese will still be just as stinky when it arrives.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

Formaggio Kitchen is a nominee for a Luxist Award in the Best Cheese Shop category.

Formaggio Kitchen has been an institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts for over 30 years. It is a gourmand's paradise doubling as a neighborhood grocer. Visitors go to Formaggio Kitchen to stock up on cheeses, cured meats and baked goods, always leaving with something they've never seen before that is sure to become a new house staple. Chefs, both professional and amateur, rely on Formaggio Kitchen for that special ingredient they can't find anywhere else.

Each year, Formaggio Kitchen staff travel to the far reaches of the planet in search of the world's finest artisan products. Their shelves are brimming with products made by individual artisans, each as wonderful as the next: honeys from Sardinia & Piedmont sit aside farmhouse jams from Pays Basque & l'Ardeche, while spicy organic tomato sauce from Liguria neighbors briny Brittany fleur de sel.

Marble slabs support cuts of cheese artistically arranged each morning. Its cheese selection is from cheesemakers around the world, from North America to Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and Italy. At any given time, there are more than three hundred cheeses available to Formaggio Kitchen customers.

But it is Formaggio Kitchen's cheese caves, built out of an old office deep in the nether-reaches of the basement beneath Huron Avenue, that makes it most proud. Constructed in 1996 (as the first of its kind in this country) with all the damp, musty, chilly characteristics of an Alpine hillside, the caves now hold its precious stock at their ideal temperature and humidity, creating both a place to age young wheels and maintain moisture in older ones.

Formaggio Kitchen has locations in Cambridge, Ma., in Boston and New York City. Each store carries a similar selection of imported and domestic delicacies, but each has its own flair. The Formaggio Kitchen website offers an overwhelming selection of cheeses from around the world, in addition to an abundance of oils, vinegars, spreads, chocolate, spices, breads, olives, meats, seafood and antipasti.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

Can you shop online and have your specialty cheeses and fine dining too? iGourmet.com thinks so, and it seems plenty of others agree as it has been nominated for a Luxist Award in the Best Gourmet Food category and was named 'best gourmet food website' by Forbes for five years in a row: from 2003 to 2007. It's a family business that originated from three generations of cheese importers and started as a mail order business (known as "International Gourmet") well before the internet was even invented. With no "brick and mortar" shop, igourmet.com has an extensive website complete with large photos, flavor descriptions, usage ideas, and recipes in an effort to not only offer exquisite edibles but also educate its customers so they really get what they're shopping for.

iGourmet.com offers everything from meats to sweets to oils and vinegars, but they especially pride themselves on their extensive line of gourmet cheeses imported from France, Italy, Sweden, and every other European country that exports it. They also offer a wide array of unique gift options for the holidays or any time of year in the form of luxe and beautifully packaged gift boxes, gift baskets, and cheeseboards plus a selection of 6 different gourmet monthly club options including Cheese of the Month (of course), Tea of the Month, and Connoisseur of the Month clubs.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

Murray's Cheese in Manhattan is nominated for a Luxist Award in the Best Cheese Shop category.

Murray's Cheese started as a humble little egg and butter shop back in 1940, opened by a Spanish civil war veteran named Murray Greenberg who would buy cheese on the cheap and resell it. The shop has changed hands only a couple of times over all of the last 60-some years, and has had a few different addresses too, but one thing has stayed the same: it's always sold great cheese and dairy.

Great cheese hasn't always been gourmet cheese, however. As recently as 10 years ago, under the management of current owner Rob Kaufelt, Murray's started to 'get serious about the good stuff' and focus on selling high-end cheeses for people who know the difference. It was a slow start for the pricier inventory but today the shop is packed with customers (even in this tough economy) willing to pay upwards of $20 or $30 for a block of exquisitely flavorful and sometimes very rare cheese.

Murray's Cheese has rolled with the punches and maintained its neighborhood feel throughout many years of change, and now thanks to technology even if you don't live in the Manhattan or New York area you can still enjoy shopping via the website, mail order service, or even the gift catalog complete with a "cheese of the month" club option.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

Chicago is known more for its deep-dish pizza than for its cheese, but then again, Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine has only been around for five years. Founded in 2004 by Greg O'Neill and Ken Miller, the purveyor of artisan cheese, bread and wine has carved a European-style niche in the Windy City. Pastoral is also a nominee for a Luxist Award for Best Cheese Shop.

Through its two brick-and-mortar locations in Chicago and across the country via mail order, Pastoral aims to make haute cuisine accessible to both discerning connoisseurs and eager masses. The outfit offers over 150 kinds of cheese -- made in small batches and cut to order -- in addition to ten types of freshly baked artisan bread, gourmet olives and cured meats.

O'Neill and Miller are well equipped to run Pastoral. The former boasts a two-decade career in marketing, working around the world for firms including Motorola, Verizon and Colgate-Palmolive; the latter trained as a chef at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School and studied under chef David Waltuck at Chanterelle, a renowned Big Apple eatery, and later went on to do programming work for the Navy's nuclear submarines before finding his true calling in cheese.

Pastoral's wares can be seen, browsed and ordered -- but, unfortunately, not sniffed -- at www.pastoralartisan.com. The company ships nationwide.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

There are literally hundreds of different kinds of cheese in the world, all with different characteristics, flavors, and origins. Many different factors determine how a cheese turns out but some of the most influential are what kind of milk is used (cow, sheep, or goat), how it's prepared, and how long the cheese is aged. As a general rule, the longer a cheese is aged the more aromatic and flavor-intense it is. Here's a guide to just a few of the world's most popular cheeses and what makes them unique.

Cheddar One of most widely used cheeses here in the States, cheddar cheese is made from cow's milk and was first 'born' in England in a little village called Cheddar. It comes in mild, medium, and sharp varieties and can be off-white to dark orange in color.

Blue Cheese is a white cheese with unique blue/black spots and veins in it that are the result of mold. Made from a combination of sheep, goat, and cow's milk, blue cheese has a both a strong smell and a very strong flavor -- for many it's an acquired taste.

Swiss Originating in Switzerland, Swiss cheese is unique for its 'eyes' which are the holes left by bubbles that form during the aging process. The larger the 'eyes' the more intense the flavor.

Feta originated in Greece and is made with a combination of sheep and goat's milk. It's a white, soft or semi-firm cheese that is aged for several months and has a mild to strong tangy flavor.

Asiago cheese hails from the Asiago High Plateau in Italy (at least originally) and has a full, nutty-flavor. It comes in two main varieties, Fresh Asiago made from whole milk and Asiago d' Allevo made from part-skim milk and aged much longer.

Brie is a soft, light white to yellow cheese with a thick, somewhat tasteless, edible rind. It originated in France and is traditionally made with raw milk, meaning true Brie is not available in the United States due to pasturization laws. Many pasteurized varieties are available, however, and are usually enjoyed sliced with fruit or bread.

Limburger Perhaps most famous for its "stinkiness," Limburger cheese originated in Belgium (before becoming popular in Germany) and gets its trademark odor from bacteria living in the rind. The cheese itself, made from cow's milk, has a mild tangy flavor and is often enjoyed with beer.

Have another cheese you'd like to know more about? This website has an easy-to-navigate alphabetical guide.

It's easy to see why the first artisanal cheese produced from the goats from the Beekman Farm has been given the name Blaak. It wears an edible black rind of ash. The ash helps mellow the acidity and promote ripening. The result is an Italian-style semi-hard cheese made from a 60:40 mix of goat and cow milk. The blend combines the best of both worlds, the slight tang of goat cheese with the delectable creamy mouthfeel of cow's milk cheese. The cheese is aged four months in the Beekman 1802 caves and is coated with ash at each turning to promote the ripening of the wheel. It's available at various purveyors in New York including Murrays Cheese, Garden of Eden, Stinky Brooklyn and Marlow & Daughters or you can order it online for $45 for a 2-3 pound wheel.

According to the Mayo Clinic, some moldy cheeses are safe to eat after the mold has been sliced off, while others are toxic.

The answer depends on the type of cheese, says Mayo Clinic nutritionist, Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. "Molds are microscopic organisms that have thread-like roots that burrow into the foods they grow on," she says.

There are good molds and there are bad molds. Most molds are harmless and safe to eat (unless you are allergic to mold, of course). These molds are even used to make some kinds of cheese, including brie, roquefort, gorgonzola, and camembert. Some bad molds produce mycotoxins, which can make you sick.

With hard and semisoft cheese, such as parmesan, Swiss, romano and cheddar, you can cut away the moldy part and eat the rest of the cheese, says Zeratsky. "Keep the knife out of the mold itself so that it doesn't cross-contaminate other parts of the cheese," she warns. "Cut off at least one inch around and below the moldy spot."

With soft cheeses, such as brie, chevre, blue cheese and ricotta, however, the mold that grows cannot be safely removed so these cheeses should be discarded. The same goes for any cheese that has been shredded, crumbled or sliced.

You've probably had regular gouda and smoked gouda before but the Winchester Cheese Company goes far beyond that, making a variety of fine artisan flavored goudas. The Winchester Cheese Company is owned by Jules Wesselink who was born in Holland and has owned California dairies since the 1950s. His dairy has 500 Holstein cows. The cheese is made by Valerie Thomas, Jules Wesselink's daughter, and David Thomas, her husband. The cheese is made the traditional way with fresh raw milk. Flavors to try include their jalapeno gouda which is aged a minimum of 60 days and contains jalapeno and red peppers to give it a moderately spicy taste. It won First Place at The American Cheese Society contest. They also make cumin gouda and garden herb gouda in addition to smoked gouda and a super aged gouda which is aged over a year and has a surprising sharpness. Prices start at $11.95 a pound.

Who could resist an invitation from a woman who says cheese changed her life. Barrie Lynn, the Cheese Impressario is a dynamo in a gold sequined and leopard print apron who hosted a special rum, cheese and chocolate last night. I've been to pairings of wine and cheese and chocolate before but never rum. But specialty rums (especially the rum selections poured by Henry Preiss) worked very well with Barrie Lynn's cheese selections.

One of Barrie Lynn's finds is Holland's Family Farm in Wisconsin.Rolf and Marieke Penterman are first generation Wisconsin dairy farmers who moved from the Netherlands to Wisconsin in 2002. They make incredible aged Gouda with rich and complex flavors. Of particular note is the Foenegreek Gouda which is creamy and distinctive. It's impossible to have one piece without immediately wanting another just to take your mouth on the same journey of surprising flavor again. It would be a rock star on a cheese plate, paired perhaps with dried apricots or grapes. The Burning Nettle Melange Gouda is also far more pleasant than the name might lead you to believe. It has a grassy herbal bite that would make it a great start to a meal.

This cheese set represents the vision of one cheese guru, Alberto Marcomini, an Italian known as one of the world's top cheese experts. The set of cheese knives includes a hard cheese knife, fork tipped service knife, large semi-hard cheese knife and a soft cheese knife in one side of a large box. The other side holds a small semi-hard cheese knife, marbled and soft cheese knife, cheese spreading spatula, Parmesan knife, two-handled Coltella knife and a serving fork. The entire comes in a pine presentation box with leather straps and the box lid serves as a cutting board and presentation tray. The ultimate set for making a professional display of fine cheeses. It sells for $2,000.

Taste may be subjective but that doesn't stop us from trying to determine the best foods and hand out awards for them. Last week brought the 2007 World Cheese Awards in England. Over 2,000 cheeses from around the world were evaluated by around 120 judges who painstakingly tasted and evaluated the cheeses based on texture, aroma, looks, and of course, taste. The judges narrow the cheeses, choosing gold, silver and bronze award winners, 13 trophy winners and the world champion. So what's the best cheese in the world this year? The honor went to the Brie de Meaux from Renard Gillard. The World Cheese Awards site has a list of the rest of the winners if you are interested in conducting a little taste test of your own.

Cowgirl Creamery is one of the premier artisan cheese makers in the US and operates out of the San Francisco Bay Area, where they hand-make all of their cheese with organic, locally sourced milk. They have shops in San Francisco and Washington DC, but if you stop by their factory in Point Reyes Station, California, you can get a tour of the facilities and see cheesemaking in action. If you can't get to one of these locations, you can order their cheeses online. The Cheese all the time club is a year-long program where Cowgirl Creamery ships out 1 pound of one of their best cheeses every month, along with "a little something that brings out the full flavors in the cheese." The 12-month subscription is $540.