News From The Cheese Caves

It was during the “Meet the Cheese Authors 2008″ while working as a server that I was first approached to join the company.

Being the Events Coordinator was the furthest thing from my mind. I interned as a server for the cheese and wine classes in the spring of 2008 in exchange for paying the attendance fee. Since I worked at the Bistro and at Picholine, the internship offered a complement to my education and introduced me to the world of wine and cheesemakers. It was a refreshing diversion from manning two front desks.

Today, besides spearheading the classes, I order wines, cheese, waiters, linens, etc. There is constant communication with instructors and co-sponsors. With the downturn and the long haul of summer, I’ve learned to keep an ever increasing eye on enrollments. The role is teaching me basic marketing skills such as reaching out to work with co-sponsors, creating gift certificates, advertisements, contests and trades. Every class has a different demographic and keeping in front of that demographic is key. I keep an eye on beer, spirit and wine happenings around town to consider possible cross promotions. The role takes networking, imagination and social finesse. One day, I’m pitching to tour groups and leasing agents, another day I’m pitching to suppliers of hams and cured meats. Presently, I’m designing questionnaires to test the cheese knowledge of our attendees and to give them incentives to come back. It delighted me to know that someone knew all the answers to my quiz “Are You an Artisanal Regular? It was, after all, in the classes that I first became passionate about cheese and I’m reminded of how I got here in the first place.

-Verna Valencia
Events Coordinator

Are you in the organic camp or genetically modified? It seems simple to say, of course, I am in the Organic camp.

Are you sure? Do you know where your Atlantic salmon comes from? At the price they sell it in most restaurants it certainly cannot be from the wild. Most salmon come from “farming” with a little genetic modification to help them to gain weight.

Our tomatoes are square in order to keep longer and transport easily. The price has never been so low and the taste too! Our beef is able to gain 30% of their weight in the last 30 days of their life. Did you know this is possible?

The dairy industry is no different.
The average “California farm” has 600 cows in production. Can we call this a farm with such industrial production numbers?

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Here we are in the dog days of summer, just on the cusp of the “great cheese harvest” that begins in September and extends through to the end of the year. We call it that because it is a time of year (the Fall) when more cheese types are available in good form than in any other part of the year. Yet there are plenty of great cheeses around right now that are “screamin’ to be eaten.” Now is also a time when our appetites may not be so hearty, when we would prefer to stick with a little fresh fruit and little else, certainly not any cheese. Alors!

We’ve noticed this phenomenon year in, year out: cheese appetites tend to fall in the summer. Perhaps some people are thinking that they should cut back on cheese if they want to look good in their swimsuits.

What a shame! Too few have discovered that the cheese diet will actually help them to lose weight (if they care to) or to gain lean body mass (if they’re the body-building types that are hoping to impress in other ways).

Practically all of the goat cheeses are lovely right now, the sheep of all kinds are spectacular, and the cows, well, they’re always around. Speaking of which, I’ll even have some fondue or a raclette type like the fabulous Val Bagner. I may have different wine preferences now from those I have in February, and I will drink more water; I’ll have different fruits available, but I certainly won’t cut back on my cheese. What a depressing thought.

And on that note: lest we forget; cheese does make us happy. No, really!

Max McCalman
-Dean of Curriculum and Maître Fromager