I got an e-mail last week from Cal Poly, which was completely unexpected, yet delightful. There had been a cancellation in their artisan/farmstead cheese making class and would I be interested-in such short notice-in beginning a four day intensive study on cheese making?
My office partner, Jeff, immediately discouraged me, citing my age and reminding me that for every fact I might learn, would perhaps be a grandchild's name forgotten. Nevertheless, I immediately called back, like a prospective prom date and squealed "yes"! Brittney blessed the idea and I scrambled to fill my next weeks work schedule.
I have been conducting wine and cheese pairings for almost two years now and have relied entirely upon books I have read. But as you know, book knowledge is one thing and practical experience another.
The class composition was very interesting. Cal Poly, evidently, has a nationwide reputation!
I knew that! Students ranged from their thirties to my age(plus forty) and out of 30+ students, only two came from the county. The balance were from Wisconsin, New Mexico and of course those two magnet cities, in the north and south.
I would say, only three of us had no intention on manufacturing cheese. Knowing that, the four days began with:
-Chemistry. A chapter of my life I would rather forget. Particularly humiliating to me since my father was a chemist with an education from Case-Western Reserve.
-Micro Biology-even further away from my background of thirty five years of either buying or selling junk.
Nevertheless, we began to spend hours devoted to the scientific composition of cheese. What happened from the moment the pasteurized milk had the starter, then the coagulant? And what about those ph and ta measurements? Where in the hell were they going through the cooking, cooling, cutting and hooping?
Lots of parallels to the wine industry. A food product, fermentation, balance and viola-product!
One day alone dedicated to equipment, government standards on cleanliness, and just how scary it can be when food is handled improperly.
The third day, we finally made cheese. Suited up, with hairnets, lab jackets etc., we divided into teams and spent a day following the product from milk to curd, to cheese and in the interim the constant monitoring of acid ta and ph. Washing floors, scrubbing bins were included at no extra charge to us.
The reward was the experience. I was taught by three Phd's for four days, all less than the price of a nice suit. We should all be grateful for our local treasure, Cal Poly and the people who make this possible. I am very proud now, once again, to be a part of this county and have the resources we do and yet, unfortunately, too often take for granted.
In closing, we had Danika Reed from
Vivant Cheesegive a lecture on the marketing and sales of artisan cheese. I was truly proud of this woman who was born the same year as my daughter. A Cal Poly dairy science grad, who spent ten years in the industry from Los Angeles to Wisconsin before returning to her home, right here in our county, to become the proprietor of Vivant cheese in Paso Robles. Danika supplies the finest imported cheese(she deals only with one source back east) and local, which she handles directly. The leading chefs and restaurant owners as well as wineries such as myself, find her the most valuable link in what would otherwise be a boring "cheeseless" world. All this, and a five month old baby as well! Just one example of our county's finest!
So, that was my left brain. The science part. Next month I go to the San Francisco Cheese School for the right brain. There, in three days, I will learn the art part and the sensory part. A course designed for the cheese mongers vs. the the cheese producers.
As I once remarked to Larry Brooks our wine maker: "You are the meteorologist, I am the weather announcer- - - the one with the coifed hair and smile! Thank God we have the former. You'd be in poor hands with just the later!
John Shakley, Concierge
