{"id":3931,"date":"2024-08-01T03:02:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T03:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/6-highlights-from-acs-conference-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-08-01T03:02:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T03:02:59","slug":"6-highlights-from-acs-conference-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/6-highlights-from-acs-conference-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Highlights from ACS Conference 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rainbow mongers James Presley, Cin Duran, Gordon Edgar<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with over 1000 other cheese professionals, I gather every year for one of the best places for advanced cheese education anywhere in the United States. When I tell people \u2013 at the dog park, at punk shows, at work \u2013 that I am heading to a cheese conference they get all sorts of ideas.\u00a0 They think I will be eating cheese all day, pairing it with local drinks, schmoozing with cheesemakers, that kind of thing.\u00a0 I really hate to tell them that they are actually right.\u00a0 That is what I did last week at the 41st American Cheese Society (ACS) Conference in Buffalo, New York.<\/p>\n

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Here are my top takeaways: <\/p>\n

OMG Canadians!<\/h2>\n
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Raclette de Compton au Poivre photo credit ACS & Valerie Tobias Photography<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I judged the ACS competition<\/a> this year and even though I have been a judge double-digits amount of times, I don\u2019t know that I ever had a harder decision.\u00a0 There were about fifteen cheeses I considered for best of show.\u00a0 \u00a0 But there was just a certain buzz around the winner, Raclette de Compton au Poivre, a raclette\u2013style cheese from Fromagerie la Station<\/a> of Compton, Qu\u00e9bec, even among a field of judges who are among the 32 least likely people in the Americas to decide a flavor-added cheese was the Best of Show. But this was a perfect raclette and the pink peppercorns just amplfy the length of flavors: buttery, earthy, grassy, dank, rich and spicy \u2013 along with bonus texture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Le Cousin<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The runner-up Best of Show, Le Cousin, from Fromagerie M\u00e9dard of Saint-G\u00e9d\u00e9on<\/a>, Qu\u00e9bec, was just pretty much the most perfect soft-ripened, washed rind cheese I have had in a long time.\u00a0 Now, don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 In my life and over the counter sometimes the right thing is NOT a perfect washed rind.\u00a0 Sometimes you want one so stinky that the neighbors complain.\u00a0 Sometimes life is so hard that you need to prove you are tough enough to inflict A TEST OF STRENGTH upon yourself, maybe with mustard and rye.\u00a0 This is not that kind of washed rind.\u00a0 This is an incredibly balanced washed rind: strong but the bite is delicate, buttery but not insipid, soft but not limp, and all those good things at once, threatening to maybe be too much\u2014aren\u2019t we all sometimes? — but never reaching that point.\u00a0 Just perfection. Read more <\/em>about the 20+ Canadian winners<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Best Unofficial Event<\/h2>\n
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Cheese Culture Coalition chopped Alisha Norris Jones Kain Marzalado Izzie Ocampo<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Cheese Culture Coalition<\/a>, a nonprofit that \u201cpromotes equity and inclusion within the cheese industry through education of the BIPOC community\u201d held a fundraiser at an amazing local restaurant Meat and Eat Charcuterie. The focus of the fun was a Chopped-like, cheese-based,\u00a0 cheese plate competition.\u00a0 There was shouting, singing, friendly mocking and amazing food.\u00a0 The competition was so close that the judges had to barricade themselves in the back room to come to a conclusion. Alisha Norris Jones just edged out Kain Marzalado by pan-frying<\/em> a wedge of Blakesville St. Germain<\/a> as an ingredient in her final bite. Izzie Campos took third. Read more <\/em>about Blakesville and head cheesemaker Veronica Pedraza<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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SO MUCH INFORMATION<\/h2>\n
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Here are just a few of the panel discussions at the conference: \u201cReducing GHG Emissions on the Dairy Farm. Project Reviews, Costs and Funding Opportunities,\u201d \u201cMongering for Makers and Making for Mongers,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cTASTING SESSION – Canadian Cheese: Coast to Coast,\u201d \u201cPrevention of Cheese Defects with Nisin-Producing Cultures,\u201d \u201cCultivating Community: Inclusive Employment Practices for a Multilingual Workplace,\u201d \u201cCo-operation: The Socio Economics and Resiliency of the Cooperative Business Models,\u201d \u201cTASTING SESSION – Hidden Gems of the Northeast – Cheese and Stories from Small Makers,\u201d \u201cCheese & Climate Change: Reimagining American Dairy to Mitigate Impacts, Build Resilience, and Pursue Real Solutions,\u201d \u201cCheese Defects, Causes and Preventive Measures.\u201d\u00a0 If at least half of those don\u2019t interest you, why are you even reading Cheese Professor?<\/p>\n

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Latin American Cheese<\/h2>\n
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Buffalo mozz in hot chocolate<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last event of any conference is often half full, people having left back for home, stealing a little unapproved vacation, or just too hungover to make it to the last day of events.\u00a0 The last day of ACS, by contrast, has become a not-to-be-missed event and the organizers outdid themselves this year with a trio of folks representing cheeses from Mexico, Brazil, and Columbia.\u00a0 After 41 American Cheese Society conferences, we are finally seeing how big and diverse our cheese community really is.<\/p>\n

All the speakers \u2013 Georgina Yescas Angeles, John Braga, Alejandro Gomez \u2013and their bites were amazing, but pouring hot chocolate on top of Buf water buffalo mozzarella?\u00a0 I have worked in cheese thirty years, never thought about it and certainly never knew how good it would be. Tell you what, you\u2019ll never go back to Swiss Miss. Read more <\/em>about Buf<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>about Lactography<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Meet the Maker<\/h2>\n
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Seigfried’s Pride<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Outside of the educational panels, Meet the Maker is the most important professional event of the weekend.\u00a0 Over 100 producers are there sampling out their newest and favorite cheeses.\u00a0 Most producers had at least four cheeses on their table so if you do a little math, you can see how overwhelming it can be.\u00a0 A professional must actually plan ahead for this! For example, I have a rule to never taste cheese I already know.\u00a0 There are just too many!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

My favorite new (to me) cheeses:\u00a0 Queso Navarro\u2019s Panela<\/a> (silky and milky), High Lawn Dairy\u2019s Siegfried\u2019s Pride<\/a> (big and unafraid), and Redhead Creamery\u2019s The Barbarian<\/a> (an American Tete de Moine!) Read more <\/em>about Redhead Creamery and owner and cheesemaker Alise Sjostrom<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Endangered Cheeses<\/h2>\n
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Dodo bird<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was on a panel and I am so proud to be able to introduce two cheeses to professionals who had mostly never tried them before.\u00a0 This panel, which Rachel Fritz Schaal of Parish Hill Creamery designed to highlight how fragile the existence of many of our best American cheeses can be.\u00a0 Brian Civitello from Mystic Cheese<\/a> in Connecticut talked about his attempt to recreate Pineapple cheese, a very popular high-end cheese of its day. \u201cIt\u2019s day\u201d of course was in the late 1800s. Once it was celebrated, now it\u2019s forgotten outside a dozen or so extremely geeky cheese people. (Note:\u00a0 I am one of those people.)<\/p>\n

I got to present two California classics:\u00a0 Matos St. Jorge<\/a>, a Portuguese-style cheese made in Santa Rosa by a 7th generation cheesemaker, Joe Matos.\u00a0 Started in California in 1979 this was made for Portuguese immigrants and now \u2013 because Portugal had modernized \u2013 may be more traditional that the Sao Jorge still made in the Azores.\u00a0 They only make, at most, 3500 lbs. of this firm, fruity, bite-y cheese a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Franklin\u2019s Teleme, photo credit Gordon Edgar<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then there\u2019s the best cheese in the world: Franklin\u2019s Teleme<\/a>.\u00a0 Now, I write that as a Northern Californian, so I don\u2019t claim to be unbiased. In fact, a few days before the conference I had some self-doubt.\u00a0 Since Teleme came back after a three-and-a-half-year absence, I have rallied people to support this cheese. Maybe I had oversold it due to my personal preferences and NorCal pride?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I watched the room after the talk was done and the audience stood up to leave. Judging by my view from the stage, I had not exaggerated the merits of this stracchino-like, rice-flour-rinded local favorite. Experienced cheese professionals were acting like dumpster-diving crust punks searching for uneaten pieces of Teleme on other people\u2019s plates!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Really, that sums up the best part of the American Cheese Society conferences.\u00a0 We get to hang out with our professional peers and get exposed to an education not available anywhere else.\u00a0 But we also get to just wallow in our love for cheese as eaters too.\u00a0 And that was what brought us to the profession in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rainbow mongers James Presley, Cin Duran, Gordon Edgar Along with over 1000 other cheese professionals, I gather every year for one of the best places for advanced cheese education anywhere in the United States. When I tell people \u2013 at the dog park, at punk shows, at work \u2013 that I am heading to a … Okumaya devam et “6 Highlights from ACS Conference 2024”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}