Category Archives: Learning

ACS Providence 2015 Day 3

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Downtown Providence was very quiet as I walked north to the convention center this morning. All of the award winners must have been sleeping in…

AS THE CHEESE TURNS

It’s true what they say: #WrinklesAreSexy. (Watch it here.)

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This was a vertical tasting of two cheeses: Vermont Creamery’s Bonne Bouche, and Jasper Hill Farm’s Harbison (which also has a video of its own). General Manager and Cheesemaker Adeline Druart talked about the process for making and aging Bonne Bouche into the cheese she wants it to be every time for the customer who buys it. Vince Razionale did the same for Harbison. They are similar semi-soft aged cheeses using predominently Geo and P.c. as aging agents. However Bonne Bouche is Goat, Lactic Set, and pimarily Geo. Harbison is Cow, Rennet Set, wrapped in a boiled spruce sapwood band, and primarily P.c. in nature. Bonne Bouche is a week or two younger than Harbison at its peak, and tastes like a great Champagne when it is just drained — the first version of it was only 3 days after make, and had just been sprinkled with vegetable ash.
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ACS Providence 2015 Day 2

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Friday began with an early morning meeting among the different Cheese Guilds to talk about the work that the Guilds do and where the Guilds and ACS can help each other. I was very disappointed with the discussion last year and had heard that this year the ACS Board had identified that defining and strengthening the connection between the regional Guilds and the national organization was a priority. One of the newest members on the Board (Vern Caldwell from the Oregon Cheese Guild) had tasked himself the job of coordinating this effort.

After introductions (in which there were quite a few announcements of brand new or fairly new Guilds being formed in Washington State, the Rocky Mountains, and Pennsylvania) ACS Executive Director Nora Weiser explained that ACS wanted to be careful not to overreach in their relationship with the Guilds to make sure the Guilds did not feel manipulated by ACS. Unfortunately she could stay for only 30 minutes of the long-scheduled one hour meeting in which many of the Guilds asked for MORE collaboration with ACS, especially in a way that would help justify the $199 annual individual membership cost for cheese makers in the Guilds.
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ACS Providence 2015 Day 1

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And we’re off!

Following a warm walk up to the convention center we sat down to a Vermont Pancake Breakfast (sponsored by the VT Cheese Council) with made to order pancakes and VT maple syrup “shots” on the table. We sat with a pair of guys from The Loan Grazer Creamery in Minneapolis, MF (yes! right in the City) and talked string cheese.

The keynote speaker for the conference was Mark Canlis is a Seattle restaurateur who is NOT a cheese maker (one of the first points he made) but who wanted us to step back from the “rules” of food and cheese making and take a look at the concept and history of “hospitality.” Canlis believes passionately that he is in the business of relationships and trust and that it’s important for all of us to ask us AND our employees “Who are you becoming?” and “Who do you want to become?” And it’s only through this kind of awareness of our true goals that we can succeed in business and in life. In the midst of his talk he staged a Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament that illustrated the power of support and positive belief in Others (which ties into the history of Hospitality) for both you that other person.
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