2009 Feline Foodie Awards®
Portland, Oregon
For Immediate Release
Spaulding Gray, Portland’s Favorite Feline Foodie and CF(eline)O of the Feline Foodie Awards®, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Feline Foodie Awards®.
When interviewed, Mr. Gray admitted it had been a grueling and tough job, “But someone had to do it, choosing the “Best of the Best” in cheeses from the Pacific Northwest, Wisconsin, the United States and beyond.”
Mr. Gray personally sampled and reviewed each winner and added how impressed he was with the high quality of entries.
Best of Show (tie)
Beecher’s Handmade Cheese – No Woman
“Beecher’s No Woman is the cheese that started it all,” stated Mr. Gray, “the first cheese The Lady brought home that I fell in love with. I found that it was a perfect pairing with 34° Sesame Crispbread Crackers and peromyscus leucopus pate.”
Per Spaulding Gray, “The first time I tasted this divine little pocket of yummy cream and mozzarella, I thought I had died and gone to cheese heaven. When The Lady visited the BelGioioso Bellevue Plant where Burrata is made, I was so overcome I lost one of my lives…”
Best Northwest Farmstead Cheese
Willamette Valley Cheese Company Brindisi
“The Willamette Valley Cheese Company, in addition to making a superior Fontina-style cheese (Brindisi), this local cheesemaker is to be commended as a sustainable Jersey Cow dairy farm that is 100% certified organic.” Spaulding added when naming this cheese his favorite farmstead cheese.
Best Bait Cheese
According to Portland’s Favorite Feline Foodie, “Roth Kase Petite Swiss is preferred 10 to 1 by mus musculus living in the Salmon Creek area of SW Washington State.” Now that’s quite a ringing endorsement.
Best Pub Cheese
“I must admit I gravitate to flavored cheeses and Cotswold with its onion and chive taste is right up there as one of the best,” states Mr. Gray.
Best Flavored Cheese Curds
Golden Age Cheese Company Jalapeno Cheese Curds
“These little squeekers make a terrific snack!!” Spaulding Gray
Best Everyday Cheeses
“ ‘Everyday’ means the cheese is high quality and yet still affordable for everyday use. Tillamook delivers on so many wonderful cheeses but this is their best.”
Cheddar
Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar
Swiss
Blue/Gorgonzola
Parmesan
Gouda
Best Licensed Cheesemaker and Favorite,
Former All-around Party Guy
Roth Kase’s Bob, Wisconsin Licensed Cheesemaker
“Although I was prohibited from accompanying The Lady the day she made cheese with Bob at the Roth Kase Cheese facility, I chose Bob based on how much The Lady liked him…and the fact that he was very patient with her and her other Cheese Stewards who were making cheese that day”. Spaulding Gray added that he trusts The Lady’s instincts as though they were his own.
Cheese Banned From French Public Transportation
At room temperature, this cheese is pungent enough to set off the neighbors and have them calling the EPA to report the possibility of a toxic leak. “But, without compare, this is the tastiest Camembert that this Feline Foodie has tasted. I would give at least one of my lives to always have Epoisses at the manse. Ooh, la, la…I love this cheese,” Spaulding Gray exclaimed enthusiastically.
Special Award:
Sustainable Farming: Turning Sh*t Literally into Shinola
When The Lady went to Wisconsin to make cheese, one of the cheesemakers her group visited was the Crave Brothers of Waterloo. This farmstead cheesemaker makes the best Mascarpone I have ever tasted.
But above and beyond their superior cheeses, the four brothers literally turn sh*t into shinola, using their Holstein herd’s processed manure to power their entire plant and up to 120 houses in the surrounding neighborhood.
“These guys are amazing and deserve this special award and it is bestowed on The Crave Brothers with pride,” Mr. Gray enthusiastically exclaims.
Spaulding Gray was a stray, gray striped tomcat who adopted The Lady and The Man when they lived in Southern California before migrating to the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Gray reviews the cheeses The Lady sells, observes humankinds and generally acts obnoxious whenever he wishes.
Kudos to Mr. Gray. His wisdom and opinionated knowledge of cheese is nothing short of astonishing. Keep up the good work, Mr. Gray.
Peter