On September 7 I had the honor to adress a group of some 35 cheesemongers from the Paris region at the invitation of Les Fromagers de France. The subject of my 90 minute talk : The United States of Cheese. It was an overview of the American artisanal cheese movement from the mid-19th century to today. In 90 minutes there’s only so much you can cover, but the objective was to give our French colleagues a context for understanding our products and our approach to cheese.
Now, I’m no shrinking violet in front of a room filled with people, but to propose a 90 minute talk in French on American cheese to French cheese professionals (there were some very highly respected people in that room, including the President of the Ile de France sector of the Fromagers de France) had me taking a deep breath. But they were kind and attentive, posed intelligent questions and for the most part were very open to the whole subject.#
We covered the conjunction over a 60 year period of the advent of the railways, cooperative dairying, pasteurization, the development of industrial scale cheesemaking, the introduction of process cheese, and the interruption of two world wars and the explosion of convenience foods and appliances. We looked at the reaction to all this in the second half of the 20th century by some enterprising goat ladies, and the enormous growth of artisanal cheese in the last 30 years. I outlined the structures supporting the American artisan cheese industry: the ag schools and Wisconsin’s CDR that offer research and development, the private education opportunities for mongers, the ACS and it’s conferences, webinars, competitions, American Cheese Month, and other US cheese and cheesemonger competitions. We looked at some splendidly tattooed monger photos (thank you, Culture Magazine!), the popular dairy breeds, where the animals are, saw some comparative statistics on cheese production, consumption, import and export from France and the US.
I was able to explain that while there is a lot of pasteurized, industrially manufactured cheese and intensive dairy practices in our country, there is also a growing and deeply committed sector practicing extensive, sustainable farming and hand-made cheese....and that this is an exact parallel to the French dairy industry; I even reminded them that some of their largest dairy companies are buying our cheese businesses.
While there were one or two in the room who were carrying the French flag (oh, that cheese department has a big sign that says Fromagerie...must have french investors, otherwise why would they dare take our word? ....response: because it’s an hommage to and respect for all that has been done here in France), the audience was very respectful, engaged, and interested.
And then the tasting! Humboldt Fog minis, Condor’s Ruin, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Cabot Clothbound, Rogue River Blue, and Barely Buzzed.
The French we most taken by the cheeses that were least familiar to them: the goat, the sheep, the coffee, and the blue all got special mention, though each cheese had its fans. They were delighted to taste cheeses with different histories: Cabot’s joint venture with Jasper Hill, Rogue’s triple play expression of terroir, the spark of daring and imagination that led to Barely Buzzed, the classic craftsmanship of the non-alpine alpine Pleasant Ridge, the technical mastery in the Humbolt Fog, and the sheer deliciousness of the Condor’s Ruin coming from a relatively new cheesemaker in the deep south.
The one distributor in the room, who already works with our American cheeses, loved what he tasted, and simply rues the fact that our cheeses come at a price point that is simply out of step with what cheese consumers in France pay for their amazing cheeses. That’s a challenge that will take hard work, ingenuity, persistence to be met...but as our cheeses demonstrate so beautifully, those are qualities that we Americans possess in generous quantites.
