Why You Should Buy Your Cheese From an Expert

Anyone can sell you cheese.

But that doesn’t mean you should buy cheese from just anyone. There are reasons you should buy your cheese and specialty foods from someone who has the experience to bring you the best and bring it to you with knowlege and guarantees.

What is a cheesemonger?**  A “Cheesemonger” is someone who has knowledge and experience selling and caring for cheese.

What is an ACS CCP? An American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional is a person recognized by the American Cheese Society as a cheese professional who has achieved a high level of cheese education to “know” cheese: Its history; its ingredients; how it is made; how it is aged – when it is ready to be sold and when it has reached (or passed) its peak. The basic requirements to become a Certified Cheese Professional, of which there are less than 1000 worldwide include:

• A minimum of 4000 hours of paid, documented work experience in the cheese profession over the previous six years before sitting for the exam. After obtaining the certification, you must renew the certification every three years and continue to work in the industry.
• Sitting for and passing the exam which consists of 150 questions that range from how cheese is made to how cheese is served.

After passing the exam, I assisted aspiring cheese experts in expanding their knowledge by mapping out the information needed to become a CCP. You can review this information here.

See how “Knowledge” keeps popping up…

I began my cheese career in 2008 and now in 2021, I have more than 13 years of continuing work in the industry. I sat for and passed the exam in 2013 and have been approved for renewal every three years since. Every day of the week, I study and learn about cheese and specialty cheese and the foods and drinks that go with it.

I have spent days in the “make room” assisting in the delicate art of making cheese at Roth Cheese in Wisconsin, Beechers Handmade Cheese in Washington State, Rogue Creamery in Oregon and Sartori Cheese in Wisconsin.

In 2017, I was inducted into the prestigious, invitation-only, Internationale Guilde des Fromagers. As a non-profit organization, La Guilde Internationale des Fromagers aims to gather the dairy network  worldwide. Responsible for promoting women and men working dairy products worldwide, the Guild also helps to maintain the know-how, symbol of respect for traditions in a modern world.

My career has included opening and training the staff of seventy-five Murray’s Cheese outposts inside Kroger Stores nationwide.

Early in my career, I had the opportunity to attend the Bra Cheese Festival in Bra, Italy and tour the Parma Region of NE Italy where Parma Prosciutto and the “King of Cheeses”, Parmigiano Reggiano are made. I worked the American Pavillion at the Festival along side Mary Keehn (Cypress Grove Chevre), Allison Hooper (founder of Vermont Creamery), David Gremmels (Rogue Creamery – home of the 2019 World Cheese Awards Grand Champion, Rogue River Blue), Andy Hatch (Uplands Cheese) and Mateo Kahler (Jasper Hill Farm). What a week!!!

In 2019, I was invited to spend one week in the Comte-Franche region of France as the guests of Comte AOP Cheese Association. On this trip of a lifetime, we visited the farms where the cows live, the Fruitieres where the cheese is made and the 100,000-wheel aging facility owned by Affineur Marcel Petite. You can read more about this trip here.

COVID has affected my travels but I was honored to recently be a part of the “Food and Drink” Judging panel for The 12 th Annual 2021 Taste Awards. (My fourth year judging.)

I am also a ServSafe Certified Food Protection Manager, Instructor and Proctor. Basically this means I can run a restaurant from a food safety standpoint; I can instruct anyone in need of a ServSafe certificate and I can proctor the exam. In practical terms, it means I know legally how to keep your food safe.

So, yes you can buy cheese from anyone, but wouldn’t you rather buy your cheese from someone like me?

My complete resume is available here.

**I addressed this in an article in 2009 while I was still a young cheesemonger. You can check out that article here. I stand by the information I outlined in that article. However, in my particular situation (especially with COVID) random sampling is not available. Now, I prep samples in one-serving cups and offer them on most Fridays or Saturdays at Sweet Combs of Honey in Downtown Lavonia. Check out this article I wrote last week about SCOH and how it is quickly becoming a “Lavonia Destination”.

Hope to see you soon at Sweet Combs. I stocked my Grab n Go fridges this past week with several new cheeses to join my “standards”: Rogue Creamery Organic Oregon Blue, Tennessee Whiskey BellaVitano, Rembrandt Extra Aged Dutch Gouda, McCall’s Irish Cheddar laced with Porter Ale, Belle Chevre’s Sweet Home Alabama Chevre Logs, French Feta. Standards include Purple Haze, Mimolette, Merlot BellaVitano, Sarvecchio Parmesan, Le Gruyere AOP and Tillamook Cape Meares.

In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and 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. 

This post may contain affiliate links from which I receive a small commission from any purchases you make through those links. I thank you for patronizing my amazon infuencer store front. 

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