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Janet Fletcher

180 Stonecrest Dr
Napa, CA, 94558
(707) 265-0404
{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

Janet Fletcher

  • Home
  • About
    • About Janet
    • Media
    • Client List
    • Contact
  • Planet Cheese
    • Planet Cheese Blog
    • Planet Cheese Signup
    • Cheese Library
  • Store
    • All Items
    • World Cheese Tour
    • Books
  • Classes
    • World Cheese Tour Classes
    • Other Classes & Events
    • Custom Class/Event Request
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    • Spring
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Happy Anniversary, Roquefort

March 11, 2025 janet@janetfletcher.com
AOC Roquefort with walnuts

Anniversary? Birthday? I wasn’t sure what to call it, but Roquefort is celebrating a milestone this year. That most iconic of French blue cheeses received the first AOC—appellation d’origine controlee—100 years ago this summer.

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In From: France, Milk: Sheep Tags AOC, appellation d’origine controlee, Roquefort AOC, French cheese, Roquefort PDO
6 Comments

Goat Cheese Dresses Up

January 30, 2024 janet@janetfletcher.com

For someone who doesn’t typically want stuff in or on my cheese, I sure do love this herb- and spice-rubbed beauty. In fact, I can’t think of too many goat cheeses I enjoy more than this aromatic gem from France, which I wouldn’t hesitate to serve to goat cheese avoiders. People who think goat cheese is always tart and chalky are amazed when they encounter a chèvre as sweet, nutty and creamy as this one. So whether you’re a goat cheese enthusiast or on the never-chèvre side, prepare to be amazed.

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In From: France, Milk: Goat Tags chèvre, goat cheese, French cheese, Tomme de Fontenay, Rodolphe Le Meunier
14 Comments

Missing Cheese is Back in Action

January 2, 2024 janet@janetfletcher.com

Well, cheese fans, the year is off to a great start. A beloved French cheese—one of my favorites—has returned to the U.S. after a five-year absence. To be honest, I had given up hope of ever putting it on a cheese board again, but I hadn’t realized its very survival was in doubt. Now, thanks to some out-of-the-box thinking, this magnificent sheep cheese is on more secure footing and has a future.

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In From: France, Milk: Sheep Tags Abbaye de Belloc, sheep cheese, French cheese, Pyrenees cheese
10 Comments

Oops. Missed One!

November 7, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com

Sometimes it seems like my brain is at capacity. If a new cheese name goes in, another one gets pushed out. In last week’s post about great French Basque cheeses, I inadvertently omitted the newcomer that got me thinking about Pyrenees cheese in the first place. Former cheesemonger Steve Jones alerted me to Tomme per Diou, and there aren’t many cheese people I trust more. I can’t wait to share this raw-milk wheel in my classes (which reminds me: the 2024 World Cheese Tour class schedule is online) and to see more retailers stocking it.

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In From: France, Milk: Goat Tags Tomme per Diou, Basque cheese, French goat cheese, raw milk cheese, raw milk goat cheese, French cheese, Pyrenees cheese, Béarn cheese
Comment

Before You Travel with Cheese, Know the Regs

September 6, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com
Paris Cheese Shop

Fromagerie Laurent Dubois, Paris/Photo: Susan Sturman

Ever wondered what cheeses you can legally bring back from Europe? Would you take a risk on any of the French cheeses pictured above? Maybe you would bury a couple of beauties in your suitcase and “forget” to declare them? I’ve covered this ground before, but with so many people traveling internationally again, it’s worth a refresher. Even a cheesemonger friend of mine who’s headed to Switzerland soon didn’t know the regs.

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Tags raw-milk cheese, traveling with cheese, cheese and U.S. Customs, bringing cheese home, Salers, Reblochon, French cheese, bringing cheese home from Europe
13 Comments

The Magic Touch of Hervé Mons

July 5, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com
Hervé Mons Cheese Board

After years of disappointing encounters, I stopped buying Camembert and Tomme de Savoie. The French Camembert sold in the U.S. always tasted lifeless to me. The Tomme was often stale or cardboardy. My wonderful taste memories from France did not jibe with the sorry specimens I was finding at American cheese counters. But then came Mons. Thanks to French affineur Hervé Mons and his team, we’re getting superb versions of these two classic cheeses, and others as well. In anticipation of Bastille Day, I assembled an all-Mons cheese board. So much deliciousness on one tray! Then I reached out to Fromagerie Mons to see if they could explain his magic touch.

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In From: France, Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat, Milk: Sheep Tags Camembert, Tomme de Savoie, Brebis Pyrénées, Mons Fromagerie, Hervé Mons, French cheese, fromage, Bastille Day, Whole Foods, Cathy Strange
10 Comments

Summer of Chèvre

June 28, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com
Summer of Chèvre

A creamy goat cheese coated with sweet paprika, shallots and garlic, Fleur Soleil is my new summer crush. With a bottle of rosé, a fresh baguette and a salad, there’s lunch. Or dinner. Or a picnic. I could eat this dreamy cheese all day long. The texture is almost fluffy, and the seasoning is bold but not overdone. Just in time to pair with summer tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and peppers.

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In From: France, Milk: Goat Tags goat cheese, chèvre, Fleur Soleil, fresh cheese, French cheese, summer cheese, rosé and cheese, cheese and rosé, Chèvrefeuille
12 Comments

Fromages Without End

September 7, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 161 _DSC3812.jpg

Who knows whether Charles de Gaulle really said, “How can you govern a country that makes 246 cheeses?” If he did, he was underestimating. I think I’ve had 246 French cheeses myself, and I’m still discovering new ones. Take a look at the seven beauties I served last week in my “France Off the Beaten Path” tasting and see how many you know. Two were new to me. And I have to say, the class favorite surprised me.

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In From: France Tags French cheese, fromage, Charles de Gaulle, fromages, Pascal Beillevaire, Tomme de Savoie, Corsiscan cheese
12 Comments

Wandering the Backroads

July 6, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 27 _DSC4363.jpg

My dream job—and maybe yours, too—would be traveling the backroads of Europe as a Cheese Explorer, hunting for undiscovered cheeses at local farmers’ markets and in off-the-beaten-path bistros. I don’t get to do this but, fortunately, others do. That’s how American distributors keep receiving exquisite, unusual wheels from Europe that are hardly known there. This goat’s milk beauty comes from a scenic part of western France called Venise Verte (“Green Venice”). Did you even know this lush, canal-laced region existed? I didn’t, but I intend to go at the first opportunity. Maybe I’ll stumble on more goat cheeses as fabulous as this one.

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In From: France, Milk: Goat Tags goat cheese, French cheese, chèvre, fromage de chèvre, Hervé Mons, affinage, Venise Verte, Tomme de la Chataigneraie
5 Comments

Star Power

June 7, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 91 _DSC4354.jpg

This little French beauty has a charming name and a touching back story. But more important, it’s delightful and just right for warm-weather cheese boards. Add a leafy green salad with lots of chopped fresh chives, a baguette and a bottle of Sancerre. Acclaimed affineur Hervé Mons had a hand in this cheese’s creation, so you know it’s sublime.

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In From: France, Milk: Goat Tags goat cheese, French cheese, French goat cheese, Hervé Mons, Chabichou, Chabichou du Poitou
14 Comments
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Welcome to my world: a fragrant, fascinating universe devoted to great cheese. In this and future Planet Cheese posts, you’ll find profiles of the world’s best cheeses plus insights into everything cheese: shops, recipes, interviews, pairing discoveries, classes, videos, travel. If you haven’t already done so, sign up here - it’s complimentary - and join me in learning something new about cheese every week.


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     Photographs: Douglas Fletcher, Ed Anderson, Megan Clouse, Faith Echtermeyer, Eva Kolenko,
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