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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
    • Cheese O'Clock Video Archive
  • Recipes
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
    • Comfort

Next-Level Chopped Salad

May 13, 2025 janet@janetfletcher.com

I did not know that chopped salad had a celebrity pedigree, but AI just informed me. I went searching for some history on the dish, which I associate with red-sauce restaurants, and learned that it likely originated in Beverly Hills in the 1950s. Chopped salads with chickpeas, salame and mozzarella were a favorite with tony Angelenos, fancied by starlets like Natalie Wood and ladies-who-lunch like Nancy Reagan. Seven decades later, they’re still popular. They’re colorful, crunchy and amenable to improv. Include what you like; omit what you don’t.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Rogue Creamery, Smokey Blue, chopped salad, blue cheese, Oregon cheese
5 Comments

Next-Level Chopped Salad

May 13, 2025 janet@janetfletcher.com

I did not know that chopped salad had a celebrity pedigree, but AI just informed me. I went searching for some history on the dish, which I associate with red-sauce restaurants, and learned that it likely originated in Beverly Hills in the 1950s. Chopped salads with chickpeas, salame and mozzarella were a favorite with tony Angelenos, fancied by starlets like Natalie Wood and ladies-who-lunch like Nancy Reagan. Seven decades later, they’re still popular. They’re colorful, crunchy and amenable to improv. Include what you like; omit what you don’t.

Read more
In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Rogue Creamery, Smokey Blue, chopped salad, blue cheese, Oregon cheese
Comment

The Blue We Need

February 4, 2025 janet@janetfletcher.com

Most cheese counters I visit—even the best ones—have a big gap in goat blues. The options just aren’t there, domestic or imported. It’s not an easy style to make, according to the cheesemaker who just launched the one pictured here. Goat curd is dense and wants to mat. If it doesn’t remain open and airy, it’s hard for blue veins to grow. But the flavor of a well-made goat blue can be captivating—more tangy than buttery, sometimes closer to feta than to Stilton. I’ve fallen for several over the years—Persillé de Rambouillet from France, Andazul from Spain, Harbourne Blue from the U.K.—but then they vanish. Let’s hope this California newcomer finds an audience and sticks around.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Goat Tags goat cheese, blue cheese, California cheese, Shooting Star Creamery, Central Coast Creamery, Reggie Jones, Avery Jones, goat’s milk blue cheese
8 Comments

New Blue for the Holidaze

November 12, 2024 janet@janetfletcher.com

A debut from Jasper Hill Farm is always newsworthy on Planet Cheese, but this recently launched blue could be a supernova. The Whole Foods monger who alerted me to it called it “lovely to say the least” and cradled the package in her arms like a baby. Even my husband enjoyed it, which, when it comes to blue cheese, is not a bet I ever make. It’s fruity, winey and moist, with an offbeat shape and novel packaging. Everything about this Vermont newcomer screams “holiday cheese boards.”

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Withersbrook Blue, raw milk cheese, Eden ice cider, Jasper Hill Farm, blue cheese, American blue cheese, raw milk blue cheese, Vermont cheese
8 Comments

How Sweet It Is

January 10, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com
Blue cheese with sweet wine

I used to think of Gorgonzola Dolce as a “starter blue”—the white Zinfandel of blue cheese. It’s so moist, mellow and likeable, perfect for people who are wary of blue cheese and don’t enjoy the spicier types. “They’ll get there eventually,” I would think, just as pink-wine drinkers usually advance to more complex reds at some point. But there’s a reason Dolce (“sweet”) outsells traditional Gorgonzola by almost ten to one. It’s a pleaser and, to be honest, I often prefer it myself. On polenta it’s sublime.

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In From: Italy, Milk: Cow Tags Gorgonzola, Gorgonzola Dolce, polenta, blue cheese, Italian cheese, Dolcelatte
18 Comments

All Aboard for Cheeselandia

March 22, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com
Glacier Penta Crème

If you want a break from current events, imagine a peaceful nation whose citizens just want to get along, make friends and eat cheese. Such a place exists, if you can believe it, and it’s called Cheeselandia. I just learned about it and I have a passport already. If you like Wisconsin cheese, or at least want to know more about it, the border patrol will let you in.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Wisconsin cheese, Cheeselandia, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, cheese board, blue cheese, Carr Valley Cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Landmark Creamery, Hook’s Cheese, LaClare Farms
Comment

Drama Queen

November 29, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com

A buttery Stilton is the conventional choice for a holiday cheese board, but who wants to be conventional? This year, try a nice wedge of Shropshire Blue, Stilton’s more colorful twin. It’s every bit as tasty as Stilton but more of a drama queen. I was delighted to see it at a cheese counter recently because it’s relatively uncommon in the U.S. I suppose merchants find it easier to sell what’s familiar—Stilton—than to take a chance on stocking a cheese you don’t know.

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In From: Britain, Milk: Cow Tags British cheese, Stilton, Blue Shropshire, Shropshire Blue, Cropwell Bishop, blue cheese, holiday cheese board, annatto
6 Comments

Hello Gorgeous!

May 11, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 578 _DSC4104.jpg

Could cheese get any prettier? This new beauty from Jasper Hill Farm gets top marks for appearance (from me, at least) and extra credit for being made with raw milk. Plus, it’s a mixed-milk blue—half cow, half goat—a rare taste experience. Jasper Hill has already proven its blue expertise with the exquisite Bayley Hazen. Has this Vermont creamery nailed yet another one?

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat, Milk: Mixed Tags Jasper Hill Farm, American Cheese Month, blue cheese, American cheese, American artisan cheese, Vermont, Vermont cheese, mixed-milk cheese
6 Comments

New Blue to Dream About

January 19, 2021 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 70 _DSC2792.jpg

Do you eat more blue cheese in winter? I know I do. That big, spicy flavor is what I want when it’s cold outside. I love it melted on polenta, crumbled in an escarole and radicchio salad with walnuts, or on a cheese board after a bowl of vegetable soup. So this new blue from New York landed in my kitchen at just the right time. I think it’s dreamy, and even my husband—not a blue-cheese enthusiast—gave it a rave.

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In Milk: Sheep, From: U.S., Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat Tags blue cheese, mixed-milk cheese, New York cheese, Old Chatham Sheepherding Company, Old Chatham, American cheese, American artisan cheese
4 Comments

Homemade Panforte for Holiday Cheese

December 15, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese 50_DSC2623-1.jpg

It’s not the holidays around here without homemade panforte. Although I’ve never met a panforte I didn’t like, I like mine best. It’s moderate on the spicing and heavy on the toasted nuts. Plus dried figs, honey, cocoa, aniseed. Oh, yum. Back in the day when we had dinner guests, I would put thin slices on the cheese board with a mellow, creamy blue (here: Fourme d’Ambert) and open a sweet wine. This year at my house, it’s panforte for two, but that won’t be a problem.

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In From: France, Milk: Sheep Tags panforte, blue cheese, Fourme d’Ambert, cheese board, Far Niente
15 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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