French Cheese Board Competitors

Founded in 1940 by Murray Greenberg, Murray’s is proud to be a Greenwich Village-based business and part of the neighborhood’s rich food history. It’s a pretty safe bet to say that we’re cheese obsessed: our goal is to find the most delicious cheese across the globe, and then feed it to you! Murray was a Jewish veteran of the Spanish Civil War who was rumored to be a Communist – but pay no mind, he was a smart capitalist who built a great reputation for the business. In the 70s, Murray sold the shop to his clerk Louis Tudda, an Italian immigrant from Calabria. In those days, it was a humble butter and eggs shop that had a lot of block cheeses and catered to the little Italian enclave that Bleecker Street was at the time. Rob Kaufelt bought the Murray’s in the early 90s and began traveling the globe, finding new cheeses that no one had ever heard of and bringing them back to the US. He and our lucky team travel regularly both in Europe and across the US in search of the new and great artisan cheeses being produced from California to Vermont and from Athens to Wales. And everywhere in between. The main thing that makes Murray’s special is our passion for cheese – we share that with our friends and customers, whether you’re visiting one of our shops in New York, stopping by a Murray’s kiosk at your local supermarket, trolling on our web site, taking a class with us, or working with our wholesale department for your restaurant.

We believe in organic dairy as a force for good. Twenty-five years after our founding, we’re carrying the torch for the food revolution that started in our backyard and inspired our founders. We’re still using it to cultivate goodness in the people, land and communities around us. We are an organic cheese producer, an artisanal cheese distributor and a retailer of specialty food products. Based in Petaluma, CA, Cowgirl Creamery makes cheese from organic milk supplied by three small farms in Marin and Sonoma Counties. We know firsthand the power of organics and its role in sustainable agriculture to support healthy communities and delicious food. We believe that the secret ingredient to delicious cheese starts with the land. That’s why we partner with local dairies in Marin and Sonoma counties to source the organic, pasture-based, cow’s milk for everything we make. Through Tomales Bay Foods, our distribution arm, supports and promotes artisan cheesemaking and sustainable agriculture, offering over 200 artisan and farmstead cheeses from all over California, America and Europe through their website and the Cowgirl Creamery retail locations.

After years spent traveling the globe with yeast and flour in hand, consulting for many of the best bakeries in the world, Master Baker Lionel Vatinet realized his lifelong dream and opened La Farm Bakery in Cary, North Carolina in 1999. La Farm Bakery is a modern bakery that continues the centuries-old baking traditions and techniques and honors the ordinary yet extraordinary boulangeries that once flourished in every little town in France. Here, Vatinet produces 15 different styles of breads, and an additional 20 seasonal breads throughout the year using a European-style hearth oven. Lionel possesses both a superior understanding of the fundamentals of French bread baking and the American zeal for innovation, and as a result continues to develop new, exciting breads such as the Asiago-Parmesan, White Chocolate Mini Baguette, Cinnamon-Raisin-Pecan-Currant, Spelt and Multi-Grain. Lionel is best known for his signature “La Farm” sourdough bread – an impressive 5-pound boule with an intense flavor, similar to those still enjoyed on farms throughout France. We welcome you to our shop and into our kitchen, where we take pleasure in sharing our recipes and secrets. Watch us in forming dough, toasting granola, decorating tarte aux fraises, then taste our artisan breads, tarts, pastries, sandwiches and specialty products -- experience the taste hundreds of years of French cuisine.