New Yorkers looking to improve their cheese boards have a new set of classes to consider this fall. The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium is partnering with Airbnb Experiences on hands-on sessions in Manhattan and Brooklyn, combining lessons on the cheese's production and aging with guidance on assembling a game-day grazing board.
A Tribeca Preview Kicks Off the Series
The program includes a flagship session at Tribeca's EVÈNTO this fall, according to perishablenews.com. As amNewYork reports, chef Andrea Belfiore of Ciao Evento hosted the flagship “Get Game Day Ready with Parmigiano Reggiano” session, where guests made grazing boards and homemade pasta. Belfiore co-hosted the event with creator Ella Kahan of ChewYorkCity, guiding participants through how the cheese is formed, matured and tasted.
Five public editions of “Get Game Day Ready” are scheduled to be bookable exclusively through Airbnb Experiences, according to perishablenews.com. The New York series is set to run from September through November, with reservations handled through Airbnb Experiences.
What Goes Into the Cheese — and the Board
Where the Classes Fit in New York
The rollout arrives in a city with a large visitor economy: New York City Tourism + Conventions reports that New York received 64.5 million visitors in 2024, while inbound visitation reached 97% of the city's record 2019 total. That figure establishes the scale of the audience for dining and experiential activities, but the tourism agency's data does not quantify how many visitors participate in food-focused programs. The Airbnb sessions also join an existing market for organized cheese education. Murray's Cheese's official booking information shows that its New York education program operates as a ticketed class series, with reservations confirmed through Eventbrite. In that sense, Murray's represents an established cheese-school format, while the new Parmigiano Reggiano offerings package tastings and board-building as Airbnb Experiences.
Parmigiano Reggiano is a protected designation of origin product made from cow's milk, salt and rennet in designated areas of northern Italy, including Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Mantua. The cheese must be aged for at least 12 months, and longer aging changes its texture and flavor: younger wheels are smoother, while older cheese becomes more crumbly and develops pronounced nutty, spicy and dried-fruit notes. White tyrosine crystals are associated with the more mature styles.
Belfiore has said he favors a 36-month wheel and uses Parmigiano Reggiano as an anchor for a tagliere, or Italian cheese board. He has also advised shoppers to check the ingredients and packaging, including the cheese's dotted rind and black-and-gold markings, when assessing authenticity. Suggested accompaniments include fruit, honey and balsamic vinegar of Modena, with prosciutto, toasted nuts and dried fruit adding variety to a larger board.
More Cheese-Forward Bookings Around the City
Beyond the flagship class, Parmigiano Reggiano is weaving itself into a handful of already popular New York Airbnb listings. Brooklyn's Rusty Supper Club is running a dinner party built around the cheese in seasonal pairings, and Airbnb's own listing describes a special edition where every course reveals a new side of Parmigiano Reggiano. At Golden Cat, Michelin-trained private chef Nicholas Tran is hosting intimate eight-seat sessions on cheese maturation and culinary applications, and Airbnb separately lists a multicourse Parmigiano Reggiano supper Tran builds in a hidden Manhattan apartment.
Elsewhere on Airbnb's New York listings page, Parmigiano Reggiano features in a multicourse feast. ChewYorkCity co-hosts five grazing-board classes involving tastings of different ages, per Airbnb's listing.
Following a Paris Pilot, With London Next
The New York rollout follows a similar collaboration the Consortium launched in Paris earlier this year, which perishablenews.com describes as a successful pilot. Airbnb lists offerings in Paris and New York, and its Paris offerings include a private atelier tasting three ages of the cheese with artist Jean André and sommelier Gwilherm de Cerval, followed by a guided sketching session. The Consortium has said experiences will also launch across London this fall.
