#acscheesecamp

[culturecheese]

On my way to #CheeseLands at Outside Lands Music Fest in SF, and of course my flight has an Artisan Cheese Plate—if only I wasn't still recovering from #ACSCheeseCamp...

[cheesenotes]

ACS Cheese Camp 2015 Wrap-up

Another American Cheese Society conference has come and gone, and as the luminaries of the cheese world pack their bags and head from Providence to points across North America and beyond, it’s a good time to reflect on this truly unique event, which manages to surprise and amaze me every time I attend. 

This is my third time at the cheese rodeo (I attended Sacramento in 2014 and Raleigh in 2012), and I do have to say, maybe it was the official theme of Cheese Camp — the official hashtag was #ACSCheeseCamp — but the feeling of community was particularly strong this year. Last year’s conference had a more serious temperament, perhaps engendered by what was then the high boil of the “no aging on wood” ruling by the FDA and the ensuing kerfuffle. This year, there were no such issues on the front boiler, although it should be noted that there were some ripples in the placid surface of the Camp Lake, due to recent holds on ashed cheeses by the FDA, and the imminent release of the FDA assessment of listeria risk in soft-ripened cheeses (see my previous post). There was a certain sense that the ramparts might need to be manned again soon, but for now, it was all S’mores and campfire songs (sometimes literally: the Vermont-themed opening reception had a S’more station). 

267 producers from the US, Canada and Mexico participated this year, with 1799 entries submitted to the ACS competition that awards ribbons in a dizzying array of categories, with 355 ribbons given out. You can see my previous post about the winner, Celtic Blue Reserve, here, but it was notable that in a year when the feeling of community was so strong, the winner was Magaret Peters-Morris, a long-time cheesemaking consultant turned creamery owner, who is well known in the industry for assisting many cheesemakers build their creameries, improve their products and elevate their cheesemaking. Another long-time mentor in the cheese community, Peter Dixon, won ribbons for the first time as well, both for his collaboration on the Vermont Herdsman with Brooklyn affineurs Crown Finish Caves and for his own Suffolk Punch cheese. 

From the first Cheese Crawl through the breweries of Providence to the Festival Of Cheese that closed the four days out, this event is a marathon, to be sure, with cheese consumption reaching admittedly epic proportions at times. But it was all in pursuit of a deeper understanding of this world of cheese that the participants inhabit, and there were some really great sessions that I attended (indeed, the problem with ACS conferences is always that there are more concurrently scheduled seminars than one could ever possibly attend, so hard choices need to be made on what is a must-make and what can, with regret, be passed on). 

Some highlights for me (which I will be expanding on in later posts): 

Delicious Molds and Mushrooms with Veronica Pedraza of Meadowood Farms and Dr. Ben Wolfe of Tufts University. This session — with a cheesemaker who is also a mushroom hunter and Dr Wolfe, an expert in the microbiology of the rind — explored the science of Fungi, and the parallels and divergences of the microbial communities that inhabit the cheese rind and their larger cousins in the world of edible mushrooms. Veronica even set up a row of cooking stations, and had luminaries of the cheese world like Max McCalman and Andy Hatch cooking for the rest of us!

From Pure Physics to Art: Understanding Affinage, with Laurent Mons of the Academie Opus Caseus, and David Sandelman, an expert in the science of building affinage facilities. This session was a deep dive first into the physics of controlling temperature and humidity, and understanding the intersection of temperature and dew point in controlling humidity, and then, with master affineur Mons, a session on the fundamental concerns and technologies of an affinage space.  

Quattro Portoni: Water Buffalo in Northern Italy, with Bruno Gritti of Azienda Agricola Gritti and moderator Michele Buster of Forever Cheese. As a long-time fan of the buffalo-milk cheeses of Quattro Portoni, this tasting session was a real treat, and with Bruno Gritti giving us the history of their farm and finer points on the cheese as we went, it was fascinating as well. 

The Science of Artisan Cheese, with Catherine Donnelly, PhD, of UVM, Marie-Christine Montel, of the INRA Research Centre in France, and Bronwen Percival of Neal’s Yard Dairy. A fascinating discussion of the science of cheese, and the intersections and conflicts between government, industry, cheesemakers and nations as they each bring their own approaches and understanding to the science and regulation of cheese. I was especially excited to see Bronwen Percival speak, as I’ve long followed her work and am looking forward to reading her soon-to-come translation of the Microflore du Lait Cru. 

European Tradition vs American Innovation, with Zoe Brickley of the Cellars at Jasper Hill, Jeanne Carpenter of the blog Cheese Underground, and Jonathan Richardson of Columbia Cheese. This class looked at two European alpine cheeses and two American alpine-style, comparing them side-by-side and consider the traits and profiles of the new against the old, the cheeses borne of centuries of tradition and their American upstart cousins. 

In addition to the sessions, the competition — and the Festival of Cheese the day afterwards — were high points of this long cheese weekend. The Festival offers an opportunity to explore, in the space of a couple hours, a huge swath of the North American cheese landscape at one fell swoop. Walking the endless banquet tables stacked high and wide with dizzying arrays of cheeses, it’s hard not to feel a real excitement for the state of contemporary domestic cheesemaking and the enormous growth it has experienced in the last decades, and the last ten years in particular. I heard more than one ACS board member comment on just how many new cheesemakers there were at this festival, and whereas in the past they’d have a pretty good sense of who 90% of the entrants were, this year they had a hard time keeping track with all the new faces and cheeses.  

As always, I left the conference feeling reinvigorated and excited about this community and the amazing work its members doing at the vat, the counter, the lab bench, the pasture and beyond. We probably have some battles coming in the year ahead, but as in the past, we’ll join together and face them head on. See y’all in Des Moines! (and we can now officially start making the “Tetes Des Moines” jokes). 

[heycheeselady]

east coastin’

Greetings, cheese people!

The ACS conference is almost over, and I have had a whirlwind week tooling around Vermont and then getting very serious about the cheese down in Providence since Wednesday. 

Many posts are coming! There will be pics (not enough, though) and text and I will probably mention a few cheeses I am super jazzed on along the way. 

This has been one of the best experiences of my young cheese life, and I honestly can’t wait to share it with the internet and my real life cheese co-workers. Now to find the nearest after party that’s got a little free drink ticket action...

[cheesenotes]

American Cheese Society 2015: BEST OF SHOW

We have a winner! Last night, the American Cheese Society competition results were announced in Providence, RI at the annual conference (known this year as #ACSCheeseCamp). The big winner for 2015 Best of Show went to Glengarry Fine Cheese, of Ontario, Canada, with their Celtic Blue Reserve, a luscious, sweet blue with added buttercream. The cheesemakers are Wilma Klein-Swormink and Margaret Peters-Morris. This is the first time that the Best of Show ribbon has gone to a Canadian entrant in the 20 years of this event’s history. 

For many artisan cheesemakers, this was also a touching victory, as Margaret Peters-Morris is only fairly recently the owner of an active creamery, and has spent most of her career running the Glengarry Cheesemaking company, a supply and consulting company that is well-regarded and has assisted many a first-time creamery in getting off the ground (on more than one occasion, while visiting cheesemakers in the past, I’ve just happened to be there when Margaret was dropping in to help them out with one issue or another). 

Even past Best Of Show winner (and this year’s 3rd Place) Cellars at Jasper Hill made note of the fact that back when they were first starting out, Margaret was one of the consultants they went to for guidance. Now she’s making cheeses in her own right, and judging from these results, she knows what she’s doing! 

2nd Place was a tie, between Emmi Roth USA of Wisconsin for their Roth Private Reserve, an Alpine-style, raw cow's milk cheese, made in copper vats and aged for a minimum of six months, and LaClare Farms Specialties, LLC of Wisconsin, for their Standard Market Cave Aged Chandoka, a mixed-milk goat and cow, “New Zealand Style” cheddar. For the latter, Standard Market of Chicago was actually the affineur of the cheese. This year, ACS has shifted the way they recognize the entries, in light of the fact that there are increasingly ones produced by a cheesemaker but then affinaged at another facility, as was the case with the LaClare. 

3rd Place went to the Cellars at Jasper Hill for their bloomy rind, bark-wrapped Harbison. As Matteo Kehler of Jasper Hill describes it, the Harbison was an experimental marriage of two of their cheeses, the Moses Sleeper and the spruce bark-wrapped Winnemere (winner of Best of Show in Madison, WI in 2013), which then grew into a unique cheese in it’s own right. 

Congratulations to the top winners, and to everyone else who ribboned at ACS this year! 355 Ribbons were given out, chosen from 1799 entries submitted by 267 producers from the US, Canada and Central America. 20 Teams of judges worked tirelessly for two days, often judging 50-60 cheeses a day. 

You can see the full results list here.

If you’re in Providence Saturday, August 1st, come to the Festival of Cheese, where you’ll be able to sample these Best of Show winners, and most of the other 1799 entries, in a massive, all-you-can-eat cheese, food and beverages event. This event is open to the public and begins at 6pm.