The Grocery Stores That Crack A Fresh Wheel Of Parmigiano Reggiano

No matter how much parmesan cheese one person can eat, most non-professional cheese lovers will never lay their hands on an entire wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. Weighing in at somewhere around 70 to 85 pounds a piece, these giant disks of cured curds are not only impractical to bring home (just think of the storage alone); they also require special skills and tools to bust them apart into manageable-sized blocks. There's something super cool about breaking open a fresh wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano, however, and while you probably won't get the chance to do it yourself, it's good to know that you can watch a trained cheesemonger crack a wheel in person at a local grocery store like Whole Foods, H-E-B, or Wegmans.

Cracking a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano (which is not the same as plain Parmesan, for the record) only takes a few minutes in the right hands, and it's kind of perfect for grocery store entertainment because you'll get to taste a little cheese in the middle of a grocery run, but it also won't distract you from finishing the rest of the shopping list. If you've been going to your local grocery store for years and never happened upon a Parmigiano Reggiano cracking, don't be discouraged; all you need to do is spend a little more time in proximity to the cheese counter.

If you're looking for a Parmigiano Reggiano demonstration in your area, head to a grocery store with the best fancy cheese selection. Stores like Whole Foods, Wegmans, and H-E-B can do these tasty demos because they sell a lot of artisanal cheese, so it makes sense for them to buy wholesale cheese in bulk and break it down into more expensive individually wrapped pieces. That means that wherever there's lots of good cheese, there are likely people who know how to cut it all up. 

The easiest way to figure out if your local store is planning to break down a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano is to simply chat with someone working at the cheese counter, which shouldn't be a big deal if you already love to hang out around the cheese. If there's a Parmigiano Reggiano event coming up, the cheese team will know the date, and if they don't, they'll at least be able to tell you how soon the next wheel will be cracked since they know how much cheese they have in stock. As a bonus, if you make friends with your local mongers, they might even save you some scraps like parmesan rinds for super creamy sauces and other off-cuts that can boost your cheese-buying budget.