Steven Jenkins - Biography

Variously described in print as New York’s City’s "highest-profile grocer" (New York Magazine) and the "enfant terrible of the fancy food business" (The New York Times), as well as having been featured in New York Magazine’s "100 smartest New Yorkers" issue, Steven Jenkins has returned to New York’s highly respected Fairway Markets after having established one of the industry’s most successful consulting companies.

His career in the food business emanated from his hard-earned status as this country’s most accomplished and respected cheese specialist. Because of this frequent writing, judging and lecturing, he is known in cheese circles throughout Europe as well and has been a member of France’s elite and ancient Guilde de St. Uguzon since 1976. He was further honored in 1980 by being inducted into France’s super-honorary Taste-Fromage. His first book, Cheese Primer was decidedly a chef-d’oeuvre (eight years in the making) and was bestowed the James Beard Foundation Award in 1997. Jenkins is a board member of the American Cheese Society and is an active participant in the important work by the Old Way Preservation and Exchange Trust "The Jenkins Chronicles," which can be heard on National Public Radio’s "The Splendid Table" with Lynn Rossetto Kasper.