b'my favorite cheeseYou talk to most people, and when the conversation concerns cheesespecifically, their favorite italian cheesemore often than not, you will hear them say,parmigiano! i love parmigiano, but that is not my favorite italian cheese.You can stop taking notes now, because what i am about to reveal has nothing todo with some hidden secret about the art of cheese making, nor is it a profound observation based on empirical research. i have a theory that the flavors we favor most are often related to some happy moment in our childhood. i know that ishow it happened for me, especially when it comes to cheese.Mine was a family of farmers. i, however, grew up in the big city of palermo,the capital of Sicily. think of Manhattan, only louder, more crowded and with much better fish. My father always wanted to make sure we would not forget thefact that our family came from the country. We are and always will be the proud descendants of a dynasty of farmers. our Sunday outings to the country were unforgettable. it was a privilege to accompany my father as he went to buy the freshest produce, butter, cheese and olive oil directly from the farmers who produced it. it was on one of these occasions that i fell in love with the taste of provolone. Maybe it was because i was in the company of my dad, maybe it was the romance of the moment, or maybe it was the explosion of flavor that seemed to buzz about like sparkles of live electricity. Waves of flavor danced sinuously, sensuously across each papilla of my tongue whilst holding me in a kind of culinary trance. Some people talk this way whendescribing their perfect kiss. i am much more mundane than that; i talk like this when i describe the taste of provolone!10'