Cheesemonger turned digital marketer Rory Stamp has spent his career working throughout the cheese supply chain, from milking cows to sourcing for cheese shops to winning monger competitions. His first book, Cheese Illustrated, is a meticulously researched introduction to 50 varieties from around the world, accompanied by lush watercolor illustrations of each iconic wheel.
What’s the first cheese that really made an impression on you?
I grew up in Vermont at a time when a lot of Vermont producers were starting to really hit their stride. I remember having Constant Bliss from Jasper Hill Farm alongside Lake’s Edge from Blue Ledge Farm on a cheese board from this little small-town supermarket. Constant Bliss was one of those initial moonshot ideas from Jasper Hill that was such a perfect, impossible cheese. It was raw milk, and it was ready for consumption at just around the legal 60-day mark. It was kind of a goo bomb, this incredibly fragile, indulgent thing. It was just so cool. Dairying was this tradition that had been around for so long in Vermont, but these folks showed up and took it to the next level in terms of distilling that landscape down into something delicious. Lake’s Edge I still love. I grab some every time I’m in Vermont or in a market where you can get it.
How did you start working in cheese?
My first job after school was an agricultural apprenticeship on Martha’s Vineyard, working on an organic dairy farm that was starting to make cheese, Grey Barn and Farm in Chilmark. I was a farmhand, milking cows, and I was really interested in dairy and farming. But I’d talked to people in the industry and knew the only way you could really make it is to turn milk into cheese or other dairy products. That started this journey where I became sort of obsessed with cheese production and dipped my toe in every part of the industry.
Right after that, I got a cheesemaking gig at Consider Bardwell. I loved that work, but I wanted more cheese, more diversity. Working at Formaggio Kitchen is still the most impactful experience in my career in cheese in terms of having exposure to this tremendous diversity of styles. But it wasn’t just the range—it was the curation and the commitment to sourcing. A lot of those cheeses were exclusive to Formaggio in the United States. Ihsan [Gurdal, the founder] would chase a producer down after the farmers market, cut a deal, and bring the cheese to the States. It taught me about working with producers, understanding that these folks are like artists. They’re capable of producing this incredible product, but they’re not necessarily equipped to distribute and sell and market it. The role of the cheesemonger was to be that go-between and tell that story effectively to the consumer. A big part of my role there was teaching classes and building out their cheese and wine club offerings. That let me have a lot of direct contact with consumers and cheese enthusiasts and really learn why they were passionate about cheese and food.
Cantal Reprinted from Cheese, Illustrated_ Notes, Pairings, and Boards by Rory Stamp with permission from Chronicle Books, 2021. Illustrations © Holly Exley
Tell us about Cheese, Illustrated. How did the concept come about?
The publisher, Chronicle Books, wanted to put out an illustrated cheese book. They wanted to do 50 cheeses, which at first felt like a terrible disservice—to describe the world of cheese in just 50 cheeses was impossible. I took the reins from that point and structured the book into regions. I wanted to hone in on descriptions that were focused on factual accuracy. They’re mostly PDO and appellated cheeses, so I spent a tremendous amount of time reading source documents for the European Union. But I also wanted to make it fun and accessible for the sort of consumers that I’d worked with in the past by creating a context and an application for each. The process was distilling pages and pages of text about these cheeses that I was so passionate about into something tiny and digestible.
It was great to see some North American originals like Brick and Cotija in there among the European all-stars.
It’s obnoxiously Eurocentric, right? That’s the case with so many of these books, because that’s the entry point for a lot of consumers. My challenge was to find cheeses that are not only available at the highest-end specialty shops, but available at regional grocery store with a great cheese program. I snuck in a few cheeses that I thought were culturally important and had a lot of significance to me that can be all but impossible to find in the States because I wanted to have a few treasures in there for the nerds and the cheesemongers. But I wanted to rely on PDO cheeses and appellated cheeses so a consumer could go into a store, look for that logo, and taste the cheese with some assurance that the information they’re reading was accurate. Because when I started learning in the industry, there were so few texts out there that I could rely on. That accuracy was so important for me coming from the producer side and hearing people talk about our cheese and taking some significant liberties. I wanted to provide a resource to cheesemongers as well as consumers.
Parm Reprinted from Cheese, Illustrated_ Notes, Pairings, and Boards by Rory Stamp with permission from Chronicle Books, 2021. Illustrations © Holly Exley
Your words accompany these beautiful watercolors of each variety. What was it like to collaborate with an illustrator?
It was super fun. I submitted the list of cheeses, and they got the illustrator, Holly Exley, working on it. She started submitting images, and some of them were just home runs. Like Stilton and Parmigiano Reggiano, two of the first entries I wrote for the book. The Stilton image is just visceral, really evocative. The medium of watercolor describes the nooks and crannies of cheese so well. Cantal is another one of my favorite cheeses, and often with extra-aged Cantal, you get all these hues of yellow-brown, and that gradation is so well achieved with the watercolor.
Stilton Reprinted from Cheese, Illustrated_ Notes, Pairings, and Boards by Rory Stamp with permission from Chronicle Books, 2021. Illustrations © Holly Exley
Other times, I was nitpicky about the details, so there was a really fun back and forth. “This blue cheese would never have this color foil because that’s not one of the seven Roquefort producers,” or “Actually, the veining looks like this.” I’m sure they were kind of taken aback by how specific some of my recommendations were, but I’m so thrilled with the images, and the illustrator was great. Honestly, I think the images are much more captivating than the text.
What do you think are the most pressing issues in the world of artisan cheese right now?
On the subject of my book, something that was sad for me is that there aren’t more designated origin American and North American cheeses. When I look through this book, I see a lot of American cheeses in that we have so many producers in the States who are adapting European recipes to their constraints and unique set of inputs. That’s a natural starting point. But I would love to have written an entire book about American cheeses that are defined by their origin. Thinking about the longevity of the industry of American cheese, we have to be creating original recipes that regions can rally around. I’m actually kind of envious of those traditional Wisconsin cheeses. Growing up in Vermont, it was cheddar, cheddar, cheddar all the time. Of course, that cheddar has a unique profile, and it’s very distinctive of that place. But to have a regional sandwich with Brick cheese with liverwurst and onions on rye bread like they do in Wisconsin is so quirky and original.
You recently shifted to work in the craft beverage industry. Why the change from cheese?
I work for a company called Mommenpop. We’re based in the Napa Valley, and we make organic citrus aperitifs from peak season California citrus and organic wine that we make in Napa as well. I’ve always had this deep affection for Mediterranean culture and foodways, and the aperitif and the spritz reign supreme. I took an opportunity to have a role in building a brand from the ground up. It was a hard move to get out of the cheese industry after being here for so long. But I really look forward to the opportunity to be a consumer of cheese rather than to work in the industry. That kind of distance allows me to appreciate it with a renewed vigor and passion. I love cheese—it’s not going anywhere in my life. I still always have too much cheese on hand. I’m still at Cowgirl Creamery every couple weeks picking up cheese here and there. I’m also really excited to be a little bit closer to the wine industry, which has always been part of my trajectory, but never as salient as it is now.
This interview has been edited and condensed.