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R e s t a u r a n t D a i l y N e w s 4 7 S u n d a y, M a y 1 7 , 2 0 1 5 CHEESEMAKERS TURNING AWAY FROM EUROPEAN NAMES, RECIPES; CRAFTING UNIQUE AMERICAN ORIGINALS By Lucas Witman At this year's American Cheese Society Competition, judges were inundated with a surge of new products in the American Originals category. Chair of the Judging and Competition Committee Tom Kooiman praised the entrants in this cat- egory for their quality and creativity. "We have cheesemakers in the Americas who are trying to seek out and find their own unique recipe," he said. "They really want to sort of break away from some of the more classic templates and start to create their own cheese types and styles based on the types of cultures or the way that they're finished and so-on-and-so- forth." Whereas many of the most popular cheeses on grocery store shelves, includ- ing many of those crafted here in the United States, are versions of age-old European dairy staples, such as Cheddar, Gruyere and Gorgonzola, an increasing number of highly sought after specialty cheeses on U.S. retail shelves are wholly original, uniquely American products that seek to stand on their own in the absence of an immediately recognizable European moniker. From Bleating Heart Cheese's Fat Bottom Girl to Cypress Grove Chevre's Humboldt Fog to Cowgirl Creamery's Red Hawk, U.S. consumers are falling in love with American originals. According to the ACS definition, American originals are "cheeses recog- nized … as uniquely American in their original forms … or unique in their recipe or formulation and which do not strictly conform to the guidelines of other acknowledged recipes for cheese types." For many American original cheeses, the recipe is entirely new, or it represents a significant redirection from an existing recipe. There may be an interesting diversion in terms of milk type, texture or rind development. In addition, the cheese may offer a unique flavor profile that is not representative of any other cheese type. For U.S. foodies always seeking out the next big thing, the growing populari- ty of American originals reflects the con- sumer desire to experiment with fresh, new products and flavors. "What I've found is with cheese buyers, they always want something new." said author and maître fromager Max McCalman. "It's not that they don't have favorites, of course, but they also want to try some- thing new or something that's related." Still, one cannot narrow down the root of the growing success of American original cheeses in the U.S. specialty food marketplace simply to consumer fatigue with European-style staples. This ignores the fact that American cheese- makers are in fact doing something truly special with their craft. Whereas European cheesemakers are often severe- ly limited in how they formulate their products, American cheesemakers are free to experiment and reimagine how the finished cheese should look, smell, feel and taste. "We have the opportunities to do dif- ferent things. This is the advantage that American producers have against what is mostly imported from Europe," said McCalman. "For example, [in Europe,] recipes are fairly well established, espe- cially for the DOP cheeses – cheeses that do have some sort of protection. The recipe is often very strictly defined. It may be a little different one Comté from another Comté, but they don't have the grand diversity of things that customers look for. They're looking for something new." In addition to drawing in greater numbers of adventurous American eaters, U.S. cheesemakers crafting original products also benefit from being able to charge a premium for a special product that has no immediate equal on the shelf. In short, whereas an American producer of Cheddar or Parmesan is operating in an immensely competitive field, Fat Bottom Girl and Humboldt Fog have cre- ated their own categories. These types of products are therefore able to secure a more advantageous price than if they were simply placed on the shelf as yet another Gouda or Brie. "If a local cheesemaker comes to me, and it's their seventh cheese … and it's a Monterey Jack with jalapeños added, and that's the name of the cheese, my customer has instant recog- nition. My customer has a lot of differ- ent points of comparison," said John Antonelli, founder of Antonelli's Cheese Shop in Austin, Texas. "There's probably a Monterey Jack with jalapeños that's being produced at $3 a pound. And this artisanal cheesemaker, while they are making a special cheese, and they're doing it by hand, and they're getting really great milk sourced, they've kind of created a potential downward pressure on [the price of] their prod- uct by making that choice. It's some- thing that we can't fight." Of course, there are also potential pit- falls a cheesemaker can fall into when she or he makes the decision to eschew a European name or recipe for a product and opt for something original. Emmanuel Voissard, Vice President of Retail Sales for Emmi Roth USA, recounts how sales of his company's flagship Grand Cru fell after the compa- ny decided to remove the name Gruyere from the label. "We do a lot of sales in supermar- kets, and people no longer have any idea what Grand Cru is, so that has been very dramatic for us, because we're trying to call it Alpine-style or whatever, but nobody knows what Alpine-style means," he said. "In my opinion, if you try to sell large volumes of a product, you need to identify that product to some- thing people know. If you try to do origi- nal recipe, and you intend on keeping a fairly low volume, then you can educate the stores that sell your product. But if it has to go on the shelf on its own, it's very difficult. People don't relate to the prod- uct somehow." Andy Hatch, owner, General Manager and Lead Cheesemaker at Uplands Cheese Company, dealt with this same issue when he made the deci- sion to market his company's award-win- ning cheese as Pleasant Ridge Reserve, avoiding explicitly comparing it to the Alpine-style cheeses like Gruyere and Beaufort that loosely inspired it. However, he acknowledges that this could have been a disaster. "You can make an Alpine-style cheese, as I do, that is intentionally taking its own route and is not trying to copy anything. At the same time, you could market that as a Gruyere-style cheese. I might argue that may be necessary. It would offer you cer- tain advantages when you're sitting on a shelf, and a customer just needs to look at that label and make a decision based on the label. You may need those queues," he said. For cheesemakers and cheese retail- ers looking to sell American originals to a consumer base that is much more famil- iar with mozzarella, Muenster and mas- carpone, the key is to hand-sell the prod- uct. One cannot simply place a new prod- uct with an unfamiliar name on a shelf and hope that consumers will pick it up and try it. The customer needs to be edu- cated about the product. "When something is hand-sold, the monitor has an opportunity to say, well this is Pleasant Ridge Reserve. They make it on their farm only in the summer. It's Alpine style. That's very differ- ent from a cus- tomer walking by a wrap sitting on a shelf that says Pleasant Ridge Reserve. They have no idea what that means," said Hatch. "Striking out on your own and making an original cheese that's not obviously tied to a recognizable prece- dent – Gruyere, Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack – is a risky proposition when you get to bigger volume and your cheese isn't being hand-sold." For Rachel Cohen, San Francisco City Lead at specialty food retailer Good Eggs, it is much easier to sell American original specialty cheeses in her store, when she knows the cheesemaker's story and she has something fun and engaging to share with her customers. "When I first told the story of Fat Bottom Girl, I had such joy, because it has such a love- ly story," she said. "That's something to consider too is that most mongers want to say more than just the name of the cheese, the producer and the place. If you can give them something else that goes with that, they will do that much better for you." With the EU seeking in recent trade negotiations with the United States a ban on the use of traditional European prod- uct names for a variety of U.S.-produced foods and beverages, including cheeses, American cheesemakers are now being forced to consider, whether they like it or not, if they are to abandon imported monikers and recipes in favor of crafting an American original. Fortunately, American consumers are now requesting Point Reyes Bay Blue and Coach Farm Rawstruck just as they once requested Gorgonzola and chevre. This is a trend that is bound to continue as much out of consumer preference as out of political- economic necessity. "If you're starting now, in six months, we might be finding ourselves in a challenging spot, where we can't use [these names]," said Antonelli. "A great example [is] Gruyere. Emmi Roth has already decided to take it out of their name, and there's some significant branding that was lost. The momentum stopped for them. So take that into con- sideration as you're going out to decide. Even if you do mimic a cheese exactly, you don't have to name it Gruyere. You can name it something else. You can choose that and allow cheesemongers around the country to do the work for you marketing it. Just keep that in mind … The naming might become a big chal- lenge in the future." ANHEUSER-BUSCH TOUR CENTER OPENS AT HOUSTON BREWERY The Tour Center at the Anheuser-Busch Houston Brewery opened its doors to the public on Friday, April 10, to give guests a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into brewing some of America's favorite beers. "Anheuser-Busch has been part of the Houston brewing community for nearly 50 years. And, with the Bayou City's burgeoning beer scene, it's the per- fect time to invite visitors to the brewery to learn more about the care and passion we put into every beer we brew," said Damola Oshin, Senior General Manager, Anheuser-Busch Houston brewery. "With three unique beer experiences to offer, we look forward to sharing all things beer with the people of Houston." Tour Center visitors can participate in a variety of tours and beer-apprecia- tion experiences at varying price levels. The Anheuser-Busch Houston Tour Center is located at 775 Gellhorn Drive. Tours will be held daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Adults 21 and older who visit the Tour Center can enjoy complimentary samples in signature glassware at no cost. In addition to the tours and tastings, the Tour Center will also be available to host special events for private groups. For hours, more information or to sched- ule a visit to the Houston Tour Center, visit facebook.com/HomeofBud.