Between 2011 and 2015 Spaulding Gray and I interviewed and conducted Q&As with many Cheese Professionals. I thought it might be fun to catch-up with a few of them and see where they are now a few years later. I gave them free rein with a few ideas as guidance.
My first re-visit is with Carlos Yescas, a member of The Internationale Guilde des Fromagers. with Carlos, I suggested three areas that I thought you, my readers, might like to visit with him. Here is what he had to say:
1. Raw Cheese Coalition – as a member, I follow your postings and mailings but a lot of my readers probably don’t know about the association; its missions, its opportunities; its upcoming events.
The Oldways Cheese Coalition is evolving, in 2018 we updated our mission to “The Oldways Cheese Coalition inspires people to embrace the joys of the old ways of eating traditional cheeses in healthy amounts.” This is in response to two current issues: 1) We feel people are really afraid of eating cheese because it has been demonized as only fat. We think we can introduce more people to cheese by talking about how to incorporate in their daily meals. 2) For very long, we have concentrated mainly on raw milk cheese, but now we will also advocate for other traditional cheese (there is wonderful pasteurized cheeses out there, that deserve recognition). At the moment we are also updating our Advisory and Academic Advisory Committees to bring in new voices to support us. We look forward to sharing news about this soon. In 2019, we will be celebrating the 5th annual International Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day. This is a huge success, not only because we expect over 700 stores around the world to participate, but also because we believe we have created something that is impacting the conversations in 22 countries. We are today the only cheese organization with American, European, and Latin American members in the world. We have producers, distributors, importers, retailers, and cheese-enthusiasts. We are a big-tent coalition of people that love traditional cheese. We are hoping everyone joins us for #rawcheeseday on April 20th, 2019. For the second part of the year we have a couple of ideas in the works. We will announce those after our main celebration for raw milk cheeses. Tell your members to follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletters. You can subscribe to newsletter here.
2. Are you still in Mexico City and are you still helming Lactography? Please share more about the cheese industry in Mexico.
I live in the US, at the moment in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Lactography is still going, now with an office in Mexico City and another in the Mayan Riviera, but now is my sister who is in charge of the day-to-day operations. We struggled in the past two years with the shrinking of the Mexican economy due to the US elections, but we think we are doing well. We have more clients than ever, we are working with a larger number of producers and we are always advocating for better conditions for cheesemakers there. Artisanal cheese has changed a lot in the past 10 years. Not only from the work we have done with Lactography – introducing new consumers to traditional Mexican cheese and winning 10 international medals. It is also changing because there is more imported cheese coming into the country and people are starting to appreciate the differences. We are excited for the next 5 years were more European cheeses will be coming into the country and if the US/Canada and Mexico solve the issues over the new trade agreement, we may also start seeing more good quality American and Canadian cheeses. The market is ready, but normally politics are always behind and trying to catch up.
3. Please discuss the Manchego issues between Mexico and the EU.
The Manchego issue is not very complicated, but seems like most people already have made up their mind about a topic before really understanding everything that it is involved. I’m gonna try to explain it the easiest way. Let’s start understanding that Spanish Manchego is one of the cheeses with the easiest rules to use a Denomination of Origin. The only real rule is that it has to be made with Manchega sheeps’ milk from La Mancha region. Everything else like treatment of milk, maturation, and flavoring varies. This means that you can find a month-old pasteurized milk Manchego along with a two-month raw milk cheese using the same name, as well as one using rosemary on the rind. In Spain, there are many complains because stores sale Manchego cheeses made outside of the region of origin and there is little supervision. Manchego was given denomination of origin only in 1984. In Mexico, there has been sheep’s milk cheeses since Colonial times. The first records of cheesemaking show that sheep’s milk cheeses were made around 1585 and they were called Manchego. However, the name was not widely utilized, until 1970 when a big cheese conglomerate utilized it to describe a cheese made with pasteurized cow’s milk with cultures developed by a well-know Danish company based on the research made in Spain on Manchego cheese.
The use of the name was not argued over until about 10 years ago, when Spanish importers started brining Manchego to Mexico and they found that consumers who had been eating the cow’s milk version didn’t appreciate the Spanish style or wanted to pay a premium for it. Mexico has always argued that the term Manchego in Mexico is generic because it has been in used for longer than the Denomination of Origin. However, it seems like in the last version of the trade agreement between the EU and Mexico, some producers in Mexico will be able to continue using the name Manchego, but not new producers. Also, companies have been asked to label their cheeses “tipo Manchecho” (Manchego-style) to make clear to consumers that this is not the Spanish cheese.
You can read the 2015 Q&A with Carlos here.
You can find Carlos at @CarlosYescason twitter and instagram or fb.com/Yescas– to find out more about Lactography follow on TW, IG, and FB.
In addition to being an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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