Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://specialtyfoodmagazine.epubxp.com/i/79798
FROM THE PUBLISHER Raw Milk Rockstar S omewhere between a brief conversation with David Gremmels of Rogue Creamery about the export of Rogue River Blue and Caveman Blue to France and experiencing the 3rd Annual Chee- semonger Invitational, it occurred to me how pervasive cheese cul- ture—pun intended—has become in America. In May and June alone I bounced from one cheese-centric event to another: Parmi- giano-Reggiano's launch of parmesan.com in New York, an open house at the Boston offices of World's Best Cheese, south to New Orleans for IDDBA, north to the Summer Fancy Food Show in D.C. and then, finally, to the Cheesemonger Invitational at Larkin's warehouse in Queens, N.Y. My 11-year-old daughter is even wearing a t-shirt emblazoned across the front with "Raw Milk Rockstar," which I got at the Cheesemonger Invitational. Maybe she wears it because I think it's cool—with adolescence near it's surely one of the last times that'll happen for a while—but there's something about a kid in Falmouth, Maine, flying the cheese flag that strikes me as a great symbol of cheese's ascent in this country. It's easy to forget that 10 or 15 years ago saw a completely different landscape. Cheese counters were domi- nated by imported product, with a few standout domestic cheeses sprinkled in for color. There have always been great American cheeses and people like Dan Carter, a champion of small- to medium-scale cheesemakers in the United States, to extol their virtues. But the perception was that the imports occupied their own tier. As recently as 2003, Oregon's Rogue Creamery shocked the cheese establishment when it won best blue cheese at the World Cheese Awards for Rogue River Blue. Today our homegrown products stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best cheeses in the world. But awards at international competitions don't necessarily translate to immediate success in foreign markets. Retail support can take a while to come along. That's why it is rewarding to hear that Rogue Creamery has, in recent years, made significant inroads with select European cheesemongers. "We've been selling consistently for the past three years at the finest cheese shop in Paris, Laurent Dubois," says Gremmels. "Now we're in Barcelona, Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Turin and others." When asked how an American upstart found space in perhaps the most entrenched cheese counter in the world, Gremmels responds, "It's flavor-driven. American cheesemakers are truly committed to innovation." I asked the same question of Adam Moskowitz, third-generation president of Larkin and emcee of the Chee- semonger Invitational, and he echoed Gremmels' comments. "Geography does not determine a great cheesemaker; taste does. In America we have authentic, earnest cheesemakers making cheese not because this is what their family has done for centuries but because they want to make cheese." There isn't a more direct explanation than that. Cheese HAVE A COMMENT? Go to specialtyfood.com/mthomas/rockstar. counters of the world, continue making room for the new stars. Your customers will thank you. |SFM| By Matt Tomas Publisher, Specialty Food Magazine mthomas@nasft.org facebook.com/specialtyfoodmedia SEPTEMBER 2012 5