The Comic-Con of the Cheese World starts on Wednesday
It’s here, the biggest North American cheese event of the year, the American Cheese Society conference! Each year, the conference takes place in a different city, with a different theme. This year, the host city is Providence, Rhode Island, and the theme is: Cheese Camp! I’ve been to two ACS conferences, Sacramento in 2014 and Raleigh in 2012, and the conference was frequently referred to by many attendees, affectionately, as “cheese camp”. I guess this year they decided to make it official!
The conference is a hybrid cheese version of Comic-Con meets the Oscars meets TED, with seminars, tastings, competition, business development sessions, parties and much more taking place over 4 days. Attendees from the worlds of cheesemaking, cheesemongering, dairy, science, education, the food world and more converge, to discuss, study, and celebrate all things cheese.
While featuring cheesemakers from all across North America, the focus is on the region in which the event is being held. Last year’s, in Sacramento, was heavy with California and West Coast cheesemakers, while this year’s will be dominated by east coast and New England cheesemakers. Small cheesemakers don’t always attend every year due to expense and travel time, so they’ll often wait for the ACS to come near them geographically before making the investment.
Some of the highlights include the ACS competition — in which winning a ribbon can put a small cheesemaker on the map in a big way; The Festival of Cheese, featuring 1,600+ competition cheeses and gourmet foods (yes, it really is the biggest cheese all-you-can-eat you’re likely to ever encounter); Meet The Cheesemaker, at which members of the cheese world can meet the makers (a unique opportunity for new cheesemakers to connect with cheesemongers from across the continent. You can see photos from Sacramento here); Inductions into the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers, and more.
The day before the conference kicks off, there are pre-conference tour events, traveling to local cheesemakers, farms and culinary destinations to spend the day exploring and tasting. That day also features an evening “Cheese Crawl” of local bars and restaurants, featuring cheese and pairings at each station.
Early-bird rates are long gone, but all-conference or daily tickets are available at the convention center. The most popular ticketed events will generally be sold out already, but if there’s a tasting or seminar that you really wanted to attend, get to the door early and park yourself there, because there are almost always dropouts and no-shows, and a few seats usually open up (some of my favorite events from past conferences, I got into in this manner).
For the public, the main event is the Festival of Cheese, which is open to the public as a ticketed event. You can also get into the conference by volunteering, which gains you admission to many of the events (although you may be cutting cheese or taking tickets at them).
If you do attend, I recommend pacing yourself. If you attend the full conference, you’re likely to see the same cheesemakers multiple times, so don’t get too obsessed with cheese completism: you don’t need to taste EVERY cheese, and will probably feel better if you focus a little, and take it easy sometimes (and maybe consume a green vegetable or two). Gordon Edgar’s blog has a great piece with tips and tricks for making the most of your first ACS conference.
If you’re going to be at Providence this year, come say hi, Cheese Notes will be wandering around starting Wednesday evening!
gummygunk
stormborns
dededos
dailybridgerton
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