Experts enjoy variety of local artisan cheeses

• By TOMMY C. SIMMONS
• Advocate food editor
• Published: Jun 11, 2009

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“My passion is culinary theater,” said Daniel Dowe, president of a gourmet cheese brokerage and cheese tasting center in New York.

“I embrace the whole movement of farmers’ markets and eating locally, learning about what we eat and changing how we eat,” Dowe said during a break between courses of a special dinner featuring American cheeses at chef John Folse’s White Oak Plantation.

The April 16 event, a gathering of the Order of the Good Times dinner club, also served as an invitation to Louisiana food and history enthusiasts to travel to Vermont this summer to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain.

There is a connection to Champlain of which the diners may not have been aware, Folse said in his introduction to the evening. The Order of the Good Times group that gathers monthly at White Oak Plantation was started at Bittersweet Plantation, Folse’s restaurant and corporate bed-and-breakfast center in Donaldsonville, about six years ago. The order’s name, Folse said, is taken from a historic moment in Samuel de Champlain’s exploration of the Bay of Fundy when the explorer proclaimed that the expedition would break for a week and do a special dinner in recognition and celebration of their successes to that point. The proclamation was referred to as the “order of the good time” by Champlain’s followers.

While doing research on the connections between French Canada and Louisiana, Folse said he read about Champlain’s order and knew that Louisiana people who work hard should also be able to celebrate their successes. So, he started an “Order of the Good Times” dinner club for the Lafitte’s Landing at Bittersweet Plantation customers. (For information on joining the group and attending the monthly dinners, call White Oak Plantation at (225) 751-1882.)

Also attending the special dinner featuring gourmet American cheeses was Jeffrey P. Roberts, author of “The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese” and co-founder of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese.

Both cheese experts, Dowe and Roberts, talked between courses about the “artisan” cheeses that are being made throughout the United States. Roberts traced the history of goat cheeses made in America, pointing out that prior to the 1970s, goat cheeses were unknown in this country. There was some goat milk available for infants and small children who could not drink cow’s milk, and that was usually sold through pharmacies, Roberts said.

In 1971, a California woman introduced the first marketed goat cheese, and the tangy cheese sold well. Interestingly, Roberts noted, most of the early goat cheese makers were women and women still lead goat cheese production. Today, there are 150 goat dairies and goat cheese makers in the U.S., and “only four states where you don’t find artisan cheese,” Roberts said.

Goat cheese has a great future, Roberts said. “Goats can take the heat and still produce. The south and southwest are able to support goat cheese production,” he added.

Chef Folse’s culinary team presented a Louisiana goat cheese, Chèvre Pelote from Belle Ècorce Farms in St. Martinville, in a salad that included seasonal greens with tiny beets and pear tomatoes drizzled with a tangy vinaigrette.

Other Louisiana-produced cheeses served during dinner were from Chef John Folse’s Bittersweet Plantation Dairy. The culinary team used Bittersweet Plantation’s Triple Cream Cheese in a seafood bisque and Bittersweet Plantation’s Creole Cream Cheese as a filling for a doberge layer cake.

Dowe talked about his cheese brokerage, Artisanal Premium Cheese headquartered in New York City. The brokerage buys only “artisan cheeses,” which Dowe defines as hand-crafted cheeses made in time-honored traditions. Artisanal buys the small production artisan cheeses and ships the cheeses to its headquarters in New York, which includes five cheese caves for aging the cheeses.

“We finish the artisan cheeses,” Dowe explained, “perfecting the taste and consistency of each cheese before we sell it to our customers. Artisanal Premium Cheese’s customers are chefs and discerning cheese connoisseurs.

“Every Artisanal Premium Cheese has a carefully documented history and a story to tell,” Dowe said.

A lawyer by training, Dowe feels he has found his passion in “helping bring great cheeses to the market.” He also is enthusiastic about promoting a more thoughtful approach to eating and living.

“I think preparing and serving food should be about making memories — being in the moment and enjoying the occasion of enjoying food and wine with friends and family,” Dowe said.

For information on Artisanal Premium Cheese, see http://www.artisanalcheese.com, and on the Lake Champlain 400th anniversary, go to http://www.CelebrateChamplain.org.