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Thanksgiving cheese

Posted on November 29, 2010 | 7 comments

Hey there. I went into my typical pattern of internet silence around the big food holiday. Too much to do in the week before Thanksgiving, as all U.S.-grocery store workers know. You have to wonder about anyone who works in retail food who has time to blog in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

On the “Culture Magazine” facebook, they asked, “What cheeses are you serving for Thanksgiving and I responded, “Whatever doesn’t sell!” That’s true to a point. I would have brought, for example, the Nettle Meadow Kunik if we hadn’t have run out but I wasn’t going to buy any out from under customers, at least for Thanksgiving when the cheese is not the main focus of our food table.

But I did buy the Uplands Creamery Rush Creek Reserve, a raw milk Vacherin Mont D’or-style cheese from the folks who are the only three-time winner of the American Cheese Society Best in Show (for Pleasant Ridge Reserve). True, it didn’t sell, but they didn’t arrive in the store until Wednesday at 1 PM so they were hardly neglected.

Anyways, here is artsy photo of the cheese plate from the Thanksgiving thing in our apartment:
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Here’s the more detailed picture:
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From top left: Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel/Tumbleweed, Uplands Creamery Rush Creek Reserve, French Fromager D’affinois*, Swiss Antique Gruyere, and Croation Paski Sir** You can’t really seem ‘em but there is a huge selection of Potter’s Crackers from Wisconsin that went along with this.

I forgot to take a picture of the cheese I brought to my parents’ house but that’s ok, right? Feel free to share your Thanksgiving cheese thoughts or pictures in the comments.

*As someone once wrote, “like flystrips around dairy cows, the D’Affinois draws the casual cheese eater at parties away from the expensive stuff”
**This was a free sample that I just got so I threw it on the plate. I am breaking a long-held policy here of not mentioning cheeses that people ask me to mention, but this is a really good sheep milk cheese that we will try and carry when it becomes available. You can read about it here

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Patricia Unterman likes my book

Posted on November 22, 2010 | 4 comments

I almost didn’t want to link this because it gives me way too much credit at the expense of my cheese co-workers.* But any praise from a well-known food writer that says, “Rainbow Grocery, the worker-owned, natural foods supermarket, currently has the best cheese department in San Francisco, taking into consideration range, price and quality,” is something that should get out there. Especially from a writer who once compared shopping in our store to shopping in the Soviet Union.* 😉

*Without the work of Mariah, Jenny, Pete, Anna, Kelly, Pat, and D’louie during the transition years from the old store to the new one, no one would be talking about our cheese department and I certainly wouldn’t have had a book on cheese published.
**It’s true though, that at least one old Russian lady has fled the store when the found out it was a collective.
*** The comparison was in here, but she was actually saying how much more she liked the store at our current location

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Food Holidays

Posted on November 18, 2010 | 1 comment

What
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an awesome
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time of year
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to work
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in
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cheese.
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At the Oakland Museum with Lonely Planet

Posted on November 15, 2010 | 3 comments

So, a few weeks ago, I got interviewed by Lonely Planet. After the interview, Rana, a worker-coop veteran and ex-Rainbow Grocery worker, called me up with an unexpected request. Basically, they had a table at one of the Pixar events at the Oakland Museum . Since it was “Ratatouille”, they were thinking (Yes, I’m making this up but I’m not sure I’m wrong) Ratatouille… rats… rats like cheese… let’s serve cheese.

Anyways, they had a great idea: find out which local cheesemakers accommodate visitors and then make day-trip travel itineraries. This is where I came in. Now, for my own book events I have tapped pretty much every local cheesemaker I know as well as quite a few from out of town.* I had resolved to not ask for any favors for awhile. Also, I had promised myself that I would have no events in November and December because of the craziness of the food holidays. But I like Oakland, museums, and Lonely Planet and this seemed like a fun event so I said, ok, last time for 2010.

And it was great.

Here’s me at the museum with my badly-in-need-of-a-haircut hair. We had to rotate cheeses, but on the table at the moment of the picture was (from foreground to background) Harley Farms big Monet, Loma Alta, Nicasio Square, Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel, Redwood Hill Chevre with Roasted Chile, and Redwood Hill Smoked Cheddar:
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Mind you, I was exhausted. I was at work at 7 AM at Rainbow, received about a half ton of cheese, placed my orders, did a little prep in our cheese room and left at 3:30 for The Biggity. There were already people milling about when I got over there and, as is the pattern of people seeing free cheese, I had to set up while folks tried to pick cheese off the edges of the table. Watch your fingers folks, these knives are sharp.

Part of the reason they wanted me to do the cheese was so that they could have a lot of varieties on their 6 ft. table. Cheesemakers repping their own cheeses take up a lot of room. This worked for everyone because the cheesemakers know I can adequately describe and answer questions about their cheese. Well, at least the ones who came through with donations. 😉

I had expected there to be a crazy pre-movie rush: a twenty people deep rush of rude cheese grabbers, but no, it was really relaxed and calm. Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers were even playing at the other end of the outdoor area. This was my first Oakland Museum of California** Friday night event, but I would go back in a second, even if I wasn’t pushing cheese at people.

Also, I grabbed the extra travel itineraries so ask for ‘em at the cheese counter if you want one!

*I feel bad for other authors who can’t offer free cheese as a bribe to get people to come to their events.
** And hey, my book is available at the Museum bookstore! Everyone working at the museum was super nice, especially the book buyer.

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Sonoma Harvest Festival

Posted on November 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to post about being a cheese/dairy judge at the Sonoma Harvest Festival a couple of months ago, but I haven’t been able to retrieve the pics from my camera yet. Soon, I promise. It’s timeless, right?

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FDA press release on Estrella Family Creamery

Posted on October 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Here is the FDA press release on the Estrella situation.

And (thanks Tami Parr) here is a good update about the situation from The Seattle Times.

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The FDA and small farmers

Posted on October 25, 2010 | 2 comments

I’m taking down this post temporarily because it is a heated issue and I will not be on the internet for about a week. I’m getting a lot of backchannel mail from it which leads me to think I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. When I have a little time, I will clarify.

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One last Cheese-a-Topia post

Posted on October 19, 2010 | 2 comments

Here are a few on my favorite cheese folks with Bay Area roots:

group o' cheese folks
Sheana, Emiliano, Brad, Ocatvio, and me. What an awesome picture!

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Cheese-a-Topia Favorites: Best in Show

Posted on October 18, 2010 | 5 comments

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Finally, here’s my last entry on my favorite new (to me*) cheeses at this year’s American Cheese Society Conference. This is one of the things that differentiates me from other food bloggers… I feel no need to be timely.

Out of respect for the cheese makers, I probably wouldn’t reveal what cheese I voted for as Best in Show if the cheesemaker for the actual winner hadn’t pulled me aside at the awards ceremony and asked me point blank if I voted for his cheese. The Best in Show winner: Extra-Aged, Pleasant Ridge Reserve** is an amazing cheese. Forage-based, nutty, pungent, grassy, great for cooking, even better for plain ol’ eating, this is the only cheese to win the ACS Best of Show more than once and this is the third time!

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It was especially poignant that these folks won this year because the founders of the company, Mike and Carol Gingrich, announced that they were retiring from the cheese business a week after the conference. The cheese will carry on in the very capable hands of Andy Hatch, but when I found out that this was the Gingrich’s last conference, I was very glad they won. I also know I was not the only cheese person with tears in his eyes when they walked up through a standing ovation to accept their award.

The cheese I voted for Best of Show…

The Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery Bonne Bouche. I wrote about this cheese years ago, before it was actually released actually,*** because I happened to be in Vermont when they work working on their final recipe. Since then, this cheese has been perfected. I am not hyping you when I say that the Bonne Bouche I tasted at the judging was the most technically perfect French-style, US-made, cheese I think I have ever tried. Soft-ripened goat milk cheese, covered in ash, creamy, assertive, and complex. It blew me away.
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I love the Spring Brook Tarentaise**** as well. Similar to the Pleasant Ridge, it’s an Alpine-style cheese, but this one is softer but much stronger and more intense. It’s definitely too strong for some, but I love to see a US-made cheese riding that side of the line. I had the previously mentioned Caldwell Crik Chevrette in my top 3 instead of this one, but the Tarentaise was right in there. I had a plate of my final 6 cheeses and it was a very tough decision.
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By the way, check out the hall where the awards ceremony was held this year! I wish I had taken a picture when it was full!
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*well, up to now it was new to me. I know all the cheeses I’m writing about today pretty darn well
**reservations aside about the confusing near-redundancy of naming something “extra-aged” and “reserve”.
*** Here’s it is in the back of our rental car!
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****Most folks in California have only tasted the organic milk Thistle Hill Tarentaise (also from Vermont) which does not have as intense a washed-rind and which is not aged as long as the Spring Brook. They have very similar recipes but are very different cheeses!

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Jim Boyce R.I.P.

Posted on October 13, 2010 | 2 comments

Jim Boyce died last week. He was the long-time owner of Marin French Cheese Company and a really nice guy. I didn’t know him well, really just from going to the same events for many years now, but his loss will be felt by everyone in our cheese community.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Marin French since they are my hometown cheese plant. I grew up stopping there on any family trip to Pt. Reyes or Limantour Beach. While Marin French (or simply The Cheese Factory to locals) is the longest continually operating cheese plant in the country,* it has had a number of owners over the years. Until Jim took over and revamped the operation, I had actually stopped buying their cheese, even though it kind of broke my heart. Jim and family totally turned the operation around.

At the American Cheese Society Competitions, it was always an epic battle between him and Sid Cook as to who would win the most ribbons. True, they usually always had the most entries in the competition as well, but I know I wasn’t the only one who looked forward to their friendly taunting and ribbon-mugging. It was always one of my favorite parts of the conference. It was even suggested that the cheese society get a separate scoreboard for the two of them so we could all know the ribbon count.

I got to sit at the same table as Jim and his wife at one ACS cheese tasting event. We went around the table eating amazing cheeses and when we got to the perfectly ripe and luscious Epoisses, we tried it and I said, “Ah, it’s ok, but it’s no Schloss.”** They laughed, but they also had the good grace to demure.

Marin French has won lots of awards but Jim was always humble and always there to support new cheesemakers and donate cheese to worthy events. He will be missed.

*Eat it Vermont!

**Except for both being washed rind cheeses, they are not really similar beyond both being stinky and pungent. Epoisses is rated as one of the best cheeses in the world and almost no one gives Schloss the credit it deserves for being such a long-time American classic.

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