The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese

Reviews

A Guide to America's Cheese Trail

The New York Times

Marian Burros, June 6, 2007

"Mr. Roberts, himself a walking encyclopedia of American cheeses, may have set out to provide restaurateurs, shops and cheese lovers with an indispensable reference, but in the process he created an exciting new kind of travel guide.

Each profile is filled with all the useful information a cheese fiend would want to have. There are lots of photos: the cheeses look delicious and the farmers kindly while the lambs, cows and goats never look posed but always look winsome.

Even if you can't take a tour, the atlas provides a useful introductory course on artisanal cheeses and tells how to order many of the cheeses online."

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Say 'Cheese'!

Slowfood.com

08 Jun 07 - Sloweb

The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese that's the title of a book by friend of Slow Food Jeff Roberts published in the US this week by Chelsea Green Publishing.

Another friend of Slow Food, Rob Kaufelt, proprietor of Murray's Cheese in New York, presents author and Atlas as follows: Jeff Roberts has been a driving force in the movement to develop world class artisan cheeses here in the United States. In his new book, he shows us farm by farm and cheese by cheese why we have cause to celebrate. Roberts proves this movement has finally come of age. The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese, a comprehensive state-by-state guide to over 350 producers, cheese styles, milk types, availability and methods, constitutes a monumental contribution to the artisan food movement that has been steadily growing in the States in recent years. It can be truly said to be the first reference book ever of its kind.

This enormous undertaking by cheese aficionado Jeffrey Roberts makes us feel proud of what can come from American soil, passion, and culture—both kinds of culture, writes Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors, Cooking and Eating From America's Farmers Markets. What wonderful stories! Bravo to Jeffrey and all the American artisanal cheesemakers!

Jeff Roberts, who lives in Montpelier Vermont, is a director and treasurer of the Slow Food USA national board and a Northeast Regional Governor. At the forefront of the US presence at Cheese 2001 and 2003 and Salone del Gusto 2002 and 2004, he is one of organizers of Slow Food USA's American Raw Milk Cheese Presidium.

The forwards to the Atlas was written by Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food International and Allison Hooper, the current president of The American Cheese Society.

In his contribution Petrini comments that the growing number of American raw milk cheeses is a perfect metaphor for the history of agrifood systems and gives us an inkling of what future scenarios might look like. This Renaissance of cultural, productive and food diversity shows that our traditions need not be lost, and that an alternative does exist to the mass production and standardization that for the moment at least seem to dominate the world of food.

He ends by quoting Italo Calvino: Behind every cheese there is a pasture of a different green under a different sky: meadows caked with salt that the tides of Normandy deposit every evening; meadows scented with aromas in the windy sunlight of Provence; there are different flocks, with their stablings and their transhumances; there are secret processes handed down over the centuries.

And concludes that, from now on we can ideally add to these images the vast expanses of America with their different greens and different skies.

To read the original posting please visit www.slowfood.com.

Say 'artisan cheese,' please

The Stew: A Chicago Tribune blog by The Food and Dining Staff
Originally posted: June 1, 2007
Posted by Robin Mather Jenkins at 12:35 p.m.

Jeffrey P. Roberts, who co-founded the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese at the University of Vermont, has profiled each of the 345 artisan cheesemakers in the United States in The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese, just published by Chelsea Green. The book provides a snapshot of a memorable moment in America's cheesemaking history: the rise of the artisanal cheese movement.

Roberts notes that 190 artisan cheesemakers have begun production since 2000, and cheesemakers are located in 43 states. California is home to the most, with 36; Vermont has the most per capita, with 34. Cheesemakers definitely favor the east and west coasts, except for the 22 Wisconsin producers and the dozen in Texas.

Three artisan cheesemakers produce in Illinois: Prairie Fruits in Urbana, which makes goat's cheese; Prairie Pure Cheese, a cow's milk multi-family enterprise in Belvidere and the resurrected Nauvoo blue cheese producers, whose Web site doesn't have much information yet.

Cow's milk cheeses come from 202 producers; 145 make goat's milk cheeses; 36 make sheep's milk cheeses and two make cheese from water buffalo.

To read the original post please visit Leisure Blogs, Chicago Tribune.