Cheese lovers have expressed strong support for Prince Edward County as the ideal venue for The Great Canadian Cheese Festival.
In a January survey, 96% of attendees at the 2012 event said they would return to Picton for another Cheese Festival, while 90% of those who have never attended, said they would attend in the future.
Meanwhile, only 50% would attend a Cheese Festival in Toronto, 35% in Ottawa, and 28% in Montreal.
“Needless to say, there is no change in our commitment to produce Canada’s only annual celebration of artisan cheese in an appealing small-town, out-in-the-country setting that has been the Festival’s home since its inception,” says Georgs Kolesnikovs, event founder and director.
The third annual Great Canadian Cheese Festival will take place June 1-2 in Crystal Palace on the Prince Edward Fairgrounds in Picton, in the heart of Prince Edward County, Ontario. Cheese tours and a cooking class will be offered on Friday, May 31.
“Prince Edward County is an appealing destination for cheese and food lovers for many reasons,” says Kolesnikovs. “The awesome array of wineries is a huge draw. The range of artisan food producers is quite impressive for such a small region.
“Soon, the County will again be a significant force in artisan cheesemaking. Award-winning Fifth Town Artisan Cheese will resume production later this year under new ownership, and a newcomer, County Cheese Company, aims to start production this summer. Of course, Black River Cheese has been in business in the County since 1901.”
The Great Canadian Cheese Festival is a multi-faceted, two-day event that annually attracts thousands of consumers to meet, learn, taste and buy the best in artisan cheese and fine foods and sample fine wine, craft beer and crisp cider. Dairy Farmers of Canada is the lead sponsor, presenting seminars throughout the day in the All You Need Is Cheese® Annex.
The Artisan Cheese & Fine Food Fair features a Dairy Farm display for the enjoyment of young and old. Also on the program are Tutored Tastings where experts offer guidance on a variety of cheese topics.
Last year, close to 100 exhibitors and vendors and more than 3,000 consumers made the event the largest cheese show in Canada representing producers from coast to coast. One-third of the participating cheese producers come from Québec.
No, you don’t need a million dollars to start making artisan cheese commercially. The proof is in the photo which shows how Adam Blanchard does it at Five Brothers Artisan Cheese, Newfoundland’s only artisanal cheese company. As Kelsie Parsons discovered:
Adam doesn’t have an expensive pasteurizer, a huge vat or other impressive equipment. His production facility consists of a commercial kitchen where he makes cheese in stock pots on the stove top and he cuts the curds with a fillet knife. He ages his cheeses in reworked refrigerators. Five Brothers produces mozzarella, queso fresco, cheddar, brie and the occasional blue.
Kelsie crossed Canada last summer visiting cheesemakers to gather material for an upcoming book on the Canadian artisan cheese scene. He’s a guest blogger at Cheese and Toast maintained by Sue Riedl. Click here for Kelsie’s take on new Canadian cheesemakers to watch. His post is the source of the photo and anecdote published here with thanks.
Josef Regli of Canreg Station Farm and Pasture Dairy near Cornwall, Ontario, has gone on a hunger strike to protest attempts by South Stormount township council to apply regulations that are near-impossible for a small producer.
Regli, originally from Switzerland, says he attempted a small expansion when demand for the farmstead cheese he produces started to grow. Regli admits his mistake was not seeking a permit, but once he tried to correct it with the municipality, administrators wanted to treat him like a major cheese producer instead of the tiny farmer he says he is. It meant costs and rules he simply wouldn’t be able to afford.
Regli and his family have been legally producing sheep’s milk cheese since 2008. Canreg’s cheese has found many fans, including Vanessa Simmons, cheese sommelier at Savvy Company. Click here to read her take on Pecorino Classico.
UPDATE
“Because of the great support and the direct intervention from so many people, the situation is for now somehow under control,” Josef Regli said an email to CheeseLover.ca on December 2. “The Township officials are in the progress of working out a feasible solution together with us.”
Opening-day freebie: Aged and smoked Balderson cheddars are grilled on cracked-peppercorn sourdough and served with roasted-garlic-red-pepper ketchup.
Toronto has more than one steak house, more than one seafood place. Next week, Toronto gets its first cheese house.
Cheesewerks, which bills itself as Canada’s first and only restaurant totally dedicated to placing artisan cheese at the centre of every plate, opens Friday, December 16, at 56 Bathurst Street, at the corner of Bathurst and Wellington.
Free grilled-cheese sandwiches will be served from 12 noon to 2 p.m. on opening day.
Cheesewerks is the brainchild of Kevin Durkee and Tom Douangmixay, partners in life and business.
Kevin and Tom are clearly foodies, with a love for honest, nostalgic comfort food, especially cheese, especially Canadian cheese. Cheesewerks will be a restaurant first but also a retail shop for cheese, charcuterie and other edibles. The restaurant will be licensed, serving Ontario craft beer and wine.
Partners Kevin Durkee (left) and Tom Douangmixay with daughter Taylor.
Here’s a brief Q & A with Kevin who has a background in marketing—which clearly shows in the eye-catching materials and hard-to-miss promotional campaign that have emerged in the run-up to the opening.
Q} What is your philosophy when it comes to food?
A} “Food is all about sharing. Getting someone to try something for the first time. Or reaching across the table to sneak something from a friends’ plate. Food is what fundamentally connects us all. The food at Cheesewerks is really about ‘comfort shared.’ Easy to understand, easy to enjoy and incredibility satisfying.”
Q} What role will Canadian cheese play in your operation?
A} “The biggest role. We support 100% Canadian cheese, using Canadian artisan products throughout our menu and retail offering. In fact, we are recognized and endorsed by the Dairy Farmers of Canada. Having the little blue cow as part of our credentials is amazing. The DFC designation is typically offered to producers and retail brands, to showcase their use of 100% Canadian Milk. I’m not familiar of another “restaurant” that has been awarded this designation. We are very proud of this designation.”
Q} What is your background?
A} “I’m a natural-born foodie. My mother ran a bakery, then a Tea Room in eastern Ontario for over 25 years while I was growing up. I was her ‘sous-chef’ helping out everywhere could. It was my after school, summer and part-time job while I was at home. Leaving for the big city, I entered into the marketing industry but quickly found myself marketing consumer packaged goods and lifestyle brands, many of them food brands. Over the last few years, the restaurant foodie bug was back and I began to build the Cheesewerks brand.”
Editor’s note: There are two eateries with a cheese-focused mission in the West: The Grilled Cheese Bar located in Janice Beaton Fine Cheese in Calgary and especially outstanding Au Petit Chavignol in Vancouver. If you know of any others, let us know via the comments form below.
Thanks to Kate Harding at Culture magazine for this wonderful archival video that documents Roquefort-making back in the 1920s. Great for mustache aficionados, or anyone looking for a glimpse into cheesemaking’s past. Following the silent show, there’s a modern piece on how Papillon makes the King of Cheese today.
Sit back and enjoy! Better yet, watch the video while nibbling on a piece of Roquefort and sipping a port wine.
Artist's rendering of the cheese display at the new Loblaws flagship store.
An 18-feet-tall display of cheese will be one of the attractions at the new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens when it opens to the public at 8 a.m. Wednesday. Here’s how Loblaws describes the display:
The Amazing Wall of Cheese. At a towering 18 feet, it’s quite a sight to see. We carry more than 400 varieties of cheese from around the globe; unique and exciting varieties that cheese lovers won’t be able to resist, including a sensational 100-pound wheel of Stilton – one of only 100 in the world – and the Canadian Grand Champion Louis d’Or. Featuring an extraordinary selection of cheeses available by the full wheel, half wheel or chunk and with a special focus on local Canadian products, our cheese specialists have created a special experience of scents, textures and tastes.
Loblaws is promoting the new flagship store under the legendary roof at 60 Carlton Street, Toronto, as the Food’s Greatest Stage. Here are more highlights as described by Loblaws:
The Artisan Oven. You won’t be able to resist ACE Bakery’s renowned artisan breads. They’re made from scratch every day using the simplest all-natural ingredients. To top it off, we’re introducing ACE’s back-to-basics rustic Italian Pugliese crusty bread and other varieties made in our stone-deck oven. As the first store to feature a complete ACE Artisan Bakery, it’s a bakery experience you won’t be able to resist.
Chocolate chiselled by the chunk. Our Patisserie is home to irresistible handcrafted chocolate lovingly made with all-natural ingredients. It features a mouth-watering selection of cakes and cupcakes made from scratch, not to mention, ice cream cakes, cheesecakes, donuts, muffins, chocolate pops and more. And, watch first hand as we chisel chocolate from a giant block, or as we dip fruit, pretzels and more into perfectly melted chocolate.
Extraordinary egg white omelettes. Nothing starts the day right like a nutritious egg white omelette made just how you like it, right before your eyes. Our anything-but-ordinary omelettes are made using five free-run egg whites and only our freshest ingredients from throughout the store. Choose from Mushroom Herb, Asparagus & Aged Chedder, Spinach Roasted Tomato & Feta, Western with Pancetta, or Three Cheese & Walnuts. Each is served with fresh tomato salsa. Come add some magic to your morning, with chef inspired daily specials.
Ivan Balenovic, Bothwell's CEO and one of the ownership partners, says about $6 million has been invested since 2002, including $1.8-million for the new aging facility,
“Cheesemaker ages well” was the headline Saturday when the Winnipeg Free Press featured a story on Manitoba’s Bothwell Cheeseer as it celebrates 75 years of making cheese in New Bothwell just south of Winnipeg. Click here for the full report.
Click here for a brief history of Bothwell Cheese published in Savour Winnipeg. To reach the Bothwell Cheese website, click here.
Cheese makes news every day. That’s why we’ve started collecting links to the most interesting news reports on a special page under the News tab at the top of the blog. Check it whenever you visit CheeseLover.ca. The newest links are shown below.
A feature story in The New York Times on affinage has kicked off debate on the meaning of the word and the value of the practice. What is your take on affinage?
Petra Kassun-Mutch founded Fifth Town Artisan Cheese seven years ago.
Petra Kassun-Mutch, a dynamic force in Ontario artisan cheese, is stepping down today as president of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, the award-winning company she founded seven years ago. She remains a 50% shareholder of the Prince Edward County-based business.
Two years ago, in an editorial feature in Best Health, a Reader Digest online magazine, Kassun-Mutch was quoted as saying about Shawn Cooper, her husband at the time and owner of the other 50% stake in the business, “I bounce ideas off him, but he doesn’t play an operational role. We’d kill each other if he did.”
Last Friday, in a statement to friends of Fifth Town, Kassun-Mutch wrote, “As many of you know, my husband and I separated over 20 months ago. And sadly our personal lives and dynamic were beginning to affect Fifth Town in a negative way. We are both directors and shareholders. Equal decision makers. And as a consequence of irreconcilable differences resulting in a deadlock regarding the best way to move forward with Fifth Town, I have decided that Fifth Town will be best served by transitioning the company into new hands entirely.”
Cooper remains the sole director of Fifth Town. Christine Legein has been hired as interim president, effective today.
Legein was vice-president of CCC Investment Banking, a mid-market Canadian investment bank with a specialization in the food processing industry. Legein has almost 30 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. Prior to her career in financial advisory and investment banking, Christine served in different executive roles in corporate development and operations at such market leaders as Ault Foods and John Labatt.
Cooper has retained CCC Investment Banking to evaluate the company’s strategic options to leverage Fifth Town’s cheesemaking expertise and brand in order to drive the next phase of its growth.
In her statement, Kassun-Mutch said, “As you can imagine, the idea of moving (Fifth Town) into new hands is very difficult for me as this company is my life’s best professional work thus far. While I realize that new ownership and investment will be good for FT, our staff and farmers in the long run, I am too close and to vested in its original vision and the direction I had set for this enterprise to continue on as the president during this review and change process.”
But Kassun-Mutch, 49, has no plans to slow down:
“Fifth Town, for me, was not just about cheese. It was also a wonderful opportunity to apply what I had learned so far in life and business to the design and launch of a brand new, forward looking, social purpose enterprise with an emphasis on sustainability. So, while Fifth Town has been the centre of my professional life over the past seven years, I plan to continue to develop my strong interest in social purpose enterprise design and management because I believe that achieving social goals while generating a reasonable return for investors are entirely possible—and perhaps even necessary.”
Kassun-Mutch was a key player in the founding of the Ontario Cheese Society and currently serves as interim chair of the recently formed Canadian Cheese Society. She told the society’s board that she now plans to be fully involved in its development as a voice for cheesemakers coast to coast.
Cape Vessey is one of the many award-winning cheeses brought to market during the inspired leadership of Petra Kassun-Mutch.
Fifth Town Artisan Cheese describes itself as an environmentally and socially responsible enterprise positioned as a niche producer of fine handmade cheeses using fresh, locally produced goat and sheep milk. The product development processes reflect the spirit of the Fifth Town brand which aims to integrate traditional methods and craftsmanship ethics with local terroir. Situated on 20 acres of agricultural land on the eastern ridge of Prince Edward County, the 4,200-square-foot Fifth Town dairy processing, retail and educational facility enhances the practice of artisan cheese making with advanced sustainable design. The project aims to be Platinum accredited under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
Fifth Town was founded by Petra Kassun-Mutch in 2004. After several years in design and development, construction began 2007 and the dairy opened June 2008 with then only five employees and three farms as suppliers. Since then, Fifth Town has grown to more than 16 employees with seven farm suppliers, and generates $1.5M in revenues annually.
Fifth Town Artisan Cheese in Prince Edward County is the only Platinum LEED dairy in the world.
The company was designed by Kassun-Mutch from the outset as a social purpose enterprise with governing values focused on leadership in sustainable enterprise management, local community contributions, and the triple bottom line. About 93% of the money spent to make, market and distribute its products stayed in the community.
Fifth Town has won more than 35 prestigious national and international awards including Grand Champion on several occasions for its unique cave-aged goat, sheep and cow milk cheeses. It took five of the 21 awards given to Ontario dairies at the recent American Cheese Society competition in Montreal.
In 2009, Fifth Town received the Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation. It is Canada’s only Platinum LEED manufacturing facility and the only Platinum LEED dairy in the world. It has also received many awards for a variety of other initiatives including sustainable enterprise management, marketing, innovation, and architecture.
