FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Jacobson
(805) 756-6097
Next Generation of Artisan Cheesemakers
Learn the Craft
at Sixth Annual Cal Poly Farmstead Cheese Course
SAN LUIS OBISPO – It’s the cheese – and more
– that brought 37
successful people from eight states to Cal Poly in early October,
looking to make a life change for the sake of a good Asagio. Or
Gouda.
The sixth annual Farmstead Cheesemaking short course at Cal Poly,
held
in early October, brought together doctors, lawyers, actors, writers,
engineers, computer scientists, chefs, and dairy producers for hands-on
instruction in artisan cheesemaking and agriculture business success.
What they all had in common, said Dairy Science professor and short
course instructor Phil Tong, is a passion for high-quality hand-crafted
products; a taste for the challenges and rewards of start-up
entrepreneurship; a desire to find a new career path; and, of course,
a
love of good cheese.
Tong and the faculty and staff of Cal Poly’s Dairy Products
Technology
Center spent four days with the group, teaching them the science
behind
and the practice of artisan cheese making.
“Interests in hand-crafting a high quality food product in
the fashion
of artisan cheesemakers of the world are attracting a more diverse
range
of people with a wide range of skills and talents into the craft,”
Tong
said. “This diversity brings new expertise and business savvy
that can
only be good for the artisan cheese sector of California’s
agricultural
economy – it’s really burgeoning.”
Cheese as a consumer good continues to be on a steady growth trend.
Nationally, per capita consumption in the U.S. has grown steadily
at the
rate of 2 to 4 percent per year over the last 10 years. Today consumers
eat approximately 31 pounds of cheese per person every year, according
to Laura Jacobson, outreach coordinator at Cal Poly’s DPTC.
“That may sound like a lot, but the per capita consumption
of cheese in
some European countries is over 50 pounds per year,” Jacobson
said. Just
10 years ago, California produced 281 million pounds of cheese;
today
California cheese makers produce 1.7 billion pounds of cheese –
a 500
percent increase in the state’s cheese production over one
decade.
A recent study commissioned by the California Milk Advisory Board
suggests that California cheese production could grow to 2.55 billion
pounds per year by 2012. “It’s a foregone conclusion
that California
will surpass Wisconsin in total cheese production and take over
as the
Number 1 cheese producing state in the United States in the very
near
future ,” Tong said.
Why all the interest in cheese? As more people select cheese as
part of
their regular diet they seek out more cheese varieties, Tong said.
“Increasingly there is significant sales growth in many specialty
cheeses – Gorgonzola, Brie, Parmesan, Fontina, Asiago,”
Tong said.
“Exposure to dining through increased American travel abroad
is also
introducing many people to the literally hundreds of cheeses made
around
the world,” Tong added.
In addition, the emergence of the “cheese course” as
part of fine dining
in many upscale U.S. metropolitan restaurants is educating people
on the
world of cheese, Tong said.
These activities are also being positively reinforced by the increased
availability and quality of American Artisan cheeses, he added.
Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture and its Dairy Products
Technology
Center are playing a vital role in educating those wanting to be
a part
of the growing artisan cheese industry nationwide, Tong said.
Over the past six years, more than 200 people have attended the
Cal Poly
farmstead cheese short course. Some of the biggest names in California’s
artisan cheese industry started learning about their craft at Cal
Poly,
including:
- Sadie Kendall, "Grandmother" of California crème
fraiche, Dairy
Science grad, Kendall Farms, Atascadero;
- Albert Straus, Dairy Science grad, Straus Family Creamery, Marin
County (www.strausmilk.com);
- Maureen Cunnie, cheese maker; Cal Poly Farmstead cheese course
grad, Cowgirl Creamery, Marin County (www.cowgirlcreamery.com);
- Lynn Giacomini Stray, Cal Poly Farmstead Cheese short course
grad,
Pt. Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Marin County (www.pointreyescheese.com);
- John Fiscalini, Cal Poly Farmstead Cheese short course grad,
Fiscalini Farms, Modesto (www.fiscalinifarms.com);
- John Fagundes, Dairy Science grad, Fagundes Old-World Cheese
Company, Hanford (http://oldworldcheese.com/);
- Rob Hilarides, cheese course grad, Three Sisters Cheese, Lindsay
(www.threesisterscheese.com).
“When we read about our alumni from this class winning awards
for their
cheeses, or we see their cheeses selling in specialty food stores
or
served in fine restaurants, it makes us all feel good,” Tong
said.
For details on this and other short courses offered by the Dairy
Products Technology Center at Cal Poly, visit: www.calpoly.edu/~dptc.
# # #
Editors please note: color photos of the recent short course,
including
lab activities, cheesemaking, cheeses, and an end-of-course cheese
tasting are available. To receive jpgs via e-mail, contact Teresa
Hendrix at (805) 756-7266 or thendrix@calpoly.edu.