The American Cheese Society conference has been an annual highlight for me for the past 25 years. I get to learn, connect with colleagues and eat cheese until I cry “uncle.” Held in steamy Louisville earlier this month, the three-day meeting brought together makers, mongers, suppliers, distributors, shop owners and groupies like me. My favorite event is the walk-around Meet the Cheesemaker tasting, when dozens of creameries from around the country showcase their wares. When a cheese stands out for me in that cacophony, I know I’ll enjoy it even more in a calmer setting.
Read moreBest New American Cheeses? Ask a Monger
Monger favorite: Alemar Cheese Apricity
After a long pandemic pause, American creameries are launching new cheeses again. Hooray! Optimism is trouncing uncertainty and yielding some exciting newcomers for our cheese boards. American Cheese Month—that would be May—is a great time to celebrate this creativity and encourage our cheesemakers to keep at it. I asked some of the nation’s leading retailers to name a new domestic cheese that they’re loving. Consider this your bucket list for the months ahead.
Read moreCheese for the Win
Everyone I talk to seems at loose ends right now. What’s the right thing to think, say, feel, do when your country is experiencing an emotional earthquake? Cheese seems trivial, perhaps, but to dairy farmers and cheesemakers it is not. It’s a livelihood. It’s the future for their land, their livestock, their families.
Read moreBrave or Foolish?
What does it take to get American cheese into a European cheese shop? And will anybody buy it if you do? Raymond Hook, a New York City-based specialty-food broker, is close to someanswers. Working with partners, Hook is attempting to build a global audience for cheeses from Oregon’s Rogue Creamery, Virginia’s Meadow Creek Dairy and Georgia’s Sweet Grass Dairy, among others. The export learning curve has left a few bruises, but Hook is an optimist. Today: London. Tomorrow: the world.
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