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OCG Show Daily Sunday, June 10, 2018 2 8 Building a Blue Cathedral of Cheese By Lorrie Baumann David Gremmels' addictions are cheese, chocolate and coffee, not necessarily in that exact order at any given moment. "I can tell you what's in my fridge with cheese," he said as he drove the 31 miles between Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon, and the Rogue Creamery Dairy Farm in the countryside near Grants Pass, Oregon. Those are, in the order they came to his mind: a piece of "that lovely Tarentaise" (Farms for City Kids Foundation/Spring Brook Farm, Vermont, winner of this year's best of show award at the American Cheese Society Judging & Competition), Mt. Tam (Cowgirl Creamery, California), a piece of handmade Halloumi from Cyprus (Aphrodite), TouVelle (Rogue Creamery), Mount Mazama (Rogue Creamery), a few wedges of Rogue River Blue (Rogue Creamery) and a single wedge of Smokey Blue (Rogue Creamery) that he'd temporarily mis- placed, so that he'd had to root through the refrigerator for it when he'd had a craving the previous evening. He found it at the back of his cheese drawer. "I knew I had a wedge," he said with an air of tri- umph. "Those are the things I think about as far as my food group addictions." Though he didn't say so when I met with him in Oregon last October, he has other obvious addictions: chief among them, he's completely hooked on the people he works with at Rogue Creamery. He knows how they came to Rogue Creamery, he knows many of their families, and several of them emerged from their offices to greet him when he and I arrived together at his administra- tive office in a vintage cold-packing plant that serves as the creamery's warehouse and packaging facility. Gremmels was the one reaching out for the hugs that were being exchanged all around, but when he did, people leaned in. No one looked surprised. No one seemed to be faking it for the visiting reporter. A Parable About Business There's an old parable that business con- sultants like to toss around, and like all good parables, it is certainly apocryphal – told, not for the purpose of literal truth, but to make a point. It seems that there was once a business consultant who'd been called to inspect the work on the Notre Dame cathedral at Chartres. As he walked around, he came across a worker and asked him what he was doing. "I'm mixing mortar," the man said, in the tone of someone who has been asked the obvi- ous. The consultant walked a little further along the wall and came to a man who was troweling mortar onto a block of limestone. He asked this man about his job. "I am building a wall," the man said as he dropped the stone onto its course. He walked further along the wall and came to the man who was sweeping the floor in front of the wall, clearing away the dust and grime of construction. "Tell me about your job here," the consultant asked. "I am helping to build a cathedral to the greater glory of God," the worker told him. The story you are now reading, as it turns out, is not a story about making the world's finest handmade cheese, which is what David Gremmels says he does for a living, but about building a cathedral, which is what his employees think they're doing. An Origin Story When I met David Gremmels at his office first thing in the morning, he had a cheese tasting waiting for me. He was wearing, he said, his power shoes and his lucky pocket square because he was nervous about our meeting. I looked down at a pair of polished brown wingtips. "Power shoes?" I asked. "They were my dad's," he said. "Tomorrow I'll be more casual." He indicated the wedge of cheese in front of me and invited me to taste and score the cheese on a rubric worksheet set down next to it. Rogue Creamery cheeses are judged at the creamery by a team of people trained in organoleptic evaluation who ensure that the cheeses all taste the way they're sup- posed to, which means that although each variety of cheese has its own character- istics, they all share a balance of flavor notes that's distinc- tive of the Rogue River Valley – a balance of spice and sweetness and a strong note of umami that's almost a flavor of bacon with lighter notes of berries and under- tones of Grape Nuts cereal. "We have a 'Cheese is First' attitude, and it really does start with the flavor," he said. "We put the berries out in front of us and the cereals and compare.... Euell Gibbons would be proud." After tasting the flavor, it becomes a matter of texture; the development of the cavities within the paste that result from fermentation, the amino acid crystals that form as the cheese ages. After that, the inspector comes up with a score at the bottom of the page. A 10 is competition- worthy. A 7 is a respectable cheese. "If it's below a 5, we think about if we can age it out or send it off to Blue Heaven," Gremmels said. "Blue Heaven" means that the cheese will be powdered for sale to chefs who use it as a finishing spice. Rogue Creamery specializes in blue cheeses and has since it was founded by the Vella family, although the creamery also makes some cheddars that comprise about 20 percent of its production. Gremmels bought the creamery from Ig Vella in 2002. Before that, he'd grown up on a farm near Olympia, Washington, the child of artists committed to having a life in touch with the Earth. "They just inspired me to living a similar life – for having and living a generous life," Gremmels said. From the farm in Olympia, Gremmels went on to have a career in corporate branding, leading creative teams for major corporations, when he realized, as he approached his 40th birth- day, that although he was very engaged in moving brands forward, he wasn't tak- ing time to engage with the neighbors around him. He wanted to change that, so he bought a building in Ashland, Oregon, with the intention of using the wood- working skills his father had taught him to restore it to its original glory as an example of early 20th century Western architecture and eventually turning it into a wine bar that would draw the commu- nity in to interact with him. "I think the wrecking ball was in its future. I wanted to change that," he said. "I used my skills as an artist and designer to redesign its future.... I had the tools and the experi- ence." As he was finishing the restoration of the building, bringing it back to its original 1905 appearance, he started looking for the wines and cheeses he planned to put on the menu. That led him to Rogue Creamery and Ig Vella. "I told Mr. Vella I'd love to incorporate his cheeses and his family's story on the menu," he said. "He looked at me and said, 'If you want my cheese, you'll have to make it yourself.'" Rogue Creamery was for sale, as his family had decided to coalesce back to its roots in northern California, Vella explained. They were looking for a buyer who'd keep the creamery operating and its staff employed, so they'd need a buyer who already knew how to make cheese or was willing to learn. For the right buyer, Vella would stay on for a while to train the new owner. "On July 1 of 2002, we shook hands after making a vat of cheese together," Gremmels said. Gremmels thought at first that he'd be making cheese part-time and spending the rest of his time at the wine bar, but it didn't take him long to realize that he actually had two full-time jobs, and he was going to have to make a choice. He already knew he was hooked on cheese — and the whole idea of making a food that provides beneficial sustenance to nourish individuals rather than leading a corporation forward — so he found a chef who was looking for the right space to serve high-end food using local ingre- dients, and she took over the newly restored building while Gremmels dedi- cated himself to Rogue Creamery. He changed Rogue's orange ched- dars to white cheddar and began working with business partner Cary Bryant to implement quality standards. "We con- tinue to lead in that area of quality assur- ance in every step we take," he said. Vella stayed around for about three years to help the new owners get their feet under them, and Rogue Creamery now creates 30 different cheese brands, including 11 different blues, American Original TouVelle, traditional cheddar and a number of flavored cheeses. For the future, Gremmels is thinking about moving into cheeses in French and Italian styles. "I'm a designer, and I'm an innovator, and I just can't stop thinking about new cheeses," he said. A Culture of Quality Gremmels also rarely stops thinking about the company culture that pervades Rogue Creamery. Ever since he bought the creamery, he's pursued a vision of a safe, healthy and positive place that has an impact on food culture, its community and consumers as well as the 48 people employed here. "It permeates every part of Rogue Creamery," he said. "Everyone is aligned to our vision." Rogue Creamery's mission state- ment, composed by a team of employees, dedicates the company to sustainability, service to each other, the company, the cheese, the environment, the community and the cows. "The art and tradition of creating the world's finest handmade cheese – that's something we aspire to do every day that we're here," he said. All of the Rogue Creamery cheeses are handmade, and most are organic. The exceptions are the mixed milk cheeses, Echo Mountain Blue and Mount Mazama. "Finding an organic goat dairy has been a challenge," Gremmels said. "We're so close." Rogue Creamery's company culture includes a dedication to its Nellie Green Pedal Power Program, which encourages employees to commute to work by bicy- cle, or with a vehicle that gets more than 50 miles to the gallon, or by carpooling. More than half the company employees participate, and 100 percent of them have participated for at least some period of time, dropping in and out of the program sometimes as spouses change jobs, chil- dren change schools or a family moves from one residence to another. If a team member wants to ride a bike but doesn't have a bike, they sign a pledge that obligates them to commute 45 days out of the next year, to maintain the bike and to learn proactive safety rules. Once they've done that, Rogue Creamery buys the commuter bike and sets it up with safety equipment and sad- dle bags, and when they've completed their commitment, they own it. "It's transformative in knowing what you need and what you need for the next day so you're ready to go in the morning and the saddle bags are packed," Gremmels said. Rogue Creamery has a bike mechan- ic station and showers in the facility to make it easier. "It makes people proac- tive and determined to make a change, not only in the environment, but in one's well being," Gremmels said. "There's a camaraderie that develops," not just with other Rogue Creamery employees who are taking part in the program, but also with other bicycle commuters that they meet along the trail between home and work. Gremmels knows about all of that from personal experience – he himself commutes to work by bicycle. "I made a commitment to have a zero impact lifestyle," he said. One result of that camaraderie is a rich sense of accomplishment and pride. "They are making a difference. They're conserving valuable resources," Continued on Page 29