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Cheese lovers can taste and buy more than 100 Canadian artisan cheeses at the Festival and sample Canadian wine, craft beer and cider, plus taste and buy artisanal foods.
In less than three months, thousands of cheese lovers will be in heaven at the second annual Great Canadian Cheese Festival.
It’s the one and only event in Canada whose chief objective is to promote Canadian cheese and cheesemakers and the consumption of Canadian artisan, farmstead and specialty cheese.
Advance tickets are on sale online for the June 1-3 Festival in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario’s fastest-growing gastronomic destination. Space is limited so don’t delay in buying tickets.
Learn about the best in Canadian cheese at special presentations by Dairy Farmers of Canada in the All You Need Is Cheese Annex
Enjoy amazing cheese dishes at the Cooks & Curds Gala prepared by outstanding chefs such as Jamie Kennedy of Jamie Kennedy Kitchens, Toronto, and Michael Blackie of the National Arts Centre, Ottaw
See the animals that produce milk for cheese at the Festival Dairy Farm. Try milking a cow!
Let experts such as Julia Rogers, Andy Shay, Vanessa Simmons and Janice Beaton fuel your passion in tutored cheese tastings
It’s a win-win scenario for hundreds of producers and thousands of consumers. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds funds a scholarship for young Canadians pursuing a career in cheese.
Only Canadian cheesemakers who turn the pure milk of Canadian cows, goats, sheep and water buffalo into cheese, using no modified milk ingredients (MMI), are invited to participate in the Festival.
Here are the cheeseheads who work behind the scenes to make The Great Canadian Cheese Festival happen. From the left, Lin Chong, registration co-ordinator, Jackie Armet, cheese co-ordinator, Becky Lamb, volunteer co-ordinator, Terry Chong, operations manager, Karin Desveaux, executive director, Peta Shelton, Prince Edward County liaison officer, Ivy Knight, cheese gala co-ordinator, and Rebecca Crosgrey, event co-ordinator and assistant to Georgs Kolesnikovs, founder and director.
When they worked up an appetite during a recent planning session, here’s the cheese they dove into for lunch:
Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese: Hard and Semi-Hard, two impressive cheeses, the first like a Gruyere, the second like a Gouda, produced by Shep Ysselstein, a young chessemaker, in southwestern Ontario.
Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser: Tomme du Haut-Richelieu, a lovely washed-rind, goat-milk cheese from one of Quebec’s artisan-cheese pioneers.
Brillat-Savarin: A luscious triple-cream Brie with a truffle from France was devoured with much smacking of the lips.
Fromagerie Le Détour: The distinctive Grey Owl—with its dark ash rind—is sweet, tangy and creamy, a terrific example of the high standard of goat-milk-cheese production in Quebec.
Fromagerie de l’Abbaye Saint-Benoît: Bleu Bénédictin, a Canadian classic made under the supervision of Benedictine monks in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
Époisses Berthaut: An extraordinary washed-rind cow’s milk cheese with a natural red tint from Burgundy in France is too powerful for some, worshiped by others. Ours came to us courtesy of Glen Echo Fine Foods.
Fan mail, comments and ideas will reach the Festival event staff via cheeseheads @ cheeselover.ca.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris at night as viewed from the Pont Alexandre III Bridge
A 20th wedding anniversary in Paris that featured much enjoyment of cheese has been judged the winner in our search for the most memorable moments in cheese in 2011.
Julie Grec of Kitchener, Ontario, wins the first-place prize of a half-kilo of Époisses Berthaut, courtesy of Glen Echo Fine Foods, a leading distributor of fine cheeses and gourmet foods.
Two runners-up—Matt Hanselmann and Paul Dearborn—each will receive 250 grams of Époisses Berthaut, courtesy of Glen Echo Fine Foods.
The winning entries will be posted here next week.
Creamy and powerful, Époisses Berthaut is an extraordinary cheese from Burgundy in France. It’s a washed-rind cow’s milk cheese with a natural red tint and it’s own rich and penetrating aroma to which it owes its renown. The mouth waters at the mere thought . .
Click here and here to read more about Époisses Berthaut.
Époisses Berthaut is distributed by Glen Echo Fine Foods and available at the following Ontario locations while supplies last:
Bliss from Monforte Dairy, an outstanding cheese bite if there ever was one.
We bring the curtain down on 2011 with friends in fromage recalling the memorable cheeses that crossed their palates this year. It’s a tradition at CheeseLover.ca we started last year.
Interestingly, two friends selected the same stand-out:
Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy:
Lindsay Clothbound was the best new Ontario cheese I tasted this year. Beautifully balanced flavour, everything you would expect in a great clothbound cheddar in texture and flavour—with a terrific goat bonus at the end. —Andy Shay, Cheese Buyer, Sobeys Ontario
Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar, Mariposa Dairy:
New to Ontario’s cheese scene and winning awards already, Mariposa’s twist on bandaged cheddar is an aged hard goat’s milk cheese, slightly dry and crumbly, with significant earthy, but distinct “meaty” flavor. —Vanessa Simmons, Cheese Sommelier, Savvy Company
Vanessa named three other memorable cheeses of 2011:
Jersey du Fjord, Les Bergeries du Fjord:
My memorable cheese this year is definitely the Jersey du Fjord, aged 10 months, a 20-kg English Cheshire-inspired cheese that was one of the 16 Champions at the Canadian Cheese Grand Prix, a first prize and silver medal overall at the Quebec Caseus Awards. —Alain Besré, Fromagerie Atwater and Aux Terroirs
Old World
2011 was my year to celebrate Old World classics. Iconic Spanish cheeses, such as sultry smoky Idiazábal and cool minerally Valdeón were big hits, as were rare treasures from tiny shops in Toronto, including Danish Esrom (Stinky! Umami!) and Portugal’s Serra da Estrela—a tangy, wobbly, grassy wonder. —Julia Rogers, Cheese Educator, Cheese Culture
Hail to the blues!
At what point do we stop developing our taste buds? For years, I have fought with the blues, only to find it actually works to try something 25 times! I have now come to the other side and crave the blues. No cheese board is complete without them. So what blue converted me? Saint Agur. How can you resist that double creamy, lovely balanced blue served with a beautiful glass of Karlo Estates Van Alstine Port. Hail to the blues! Bring them on in 2012! —Jackie Armet, Cheese Co-ordinator , The Great Canadian Cheese Festival
Lady Jane, Farm House Natural Cheeses:
I first fell in love with this cheese at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival in Picton when I tried it during one of the pairing sessions. It looks like the best, most beautiful buttermilk-y cheesecake, with a texture that is such heaven in your mouth. Lady Jane is one of my favourite new finds of 2011. —Wendy Furtenbacher, Blogger, CurdyGirl
At CheeseLover.ca, the most memorable moment in cheese of 2011 came when we first tasted Laliberté, the triple-cream cheese made with whole organic cow’s milk at Fromagerie du Presbytère. Such rich dairy delight!
Other taste hits of the year just ending:
Bliss, Monforte Dairy:
Cheesemaker Ruth Klahsen never ceases to amaze with her creations. This Brie-style pasteurized sheep’s milk is pure bliss.
Goat Cheese Curds, Monforte Dairy:
Be prepared for bursts of farm flavours when you pop these squeaks into your mouth.
14 Arpents, Fromagerie Médard:
Every time we taste this soft-ripened cheese we get religion and want to make a pilgrimage to the Lac Saint Jean in Quebec where Rose-Alice Boivin Côté and her family work wonders.
—Georgs Kolesnikovs, Cheese-head-in-chief at CheeseLover.ca, wonders what outstanding cheeses he’ll encounter in the New Year.
What was your most memorable moment in cheese in 2011?
What cheese blew away your taste buds? What was your cheesiest experience in the past year? What cheese did you come to love? Which cheesemonger did you come to cherish? When you think of cheese, what was the highlight of 2011?
It’s a new contest for cheese lovers that starts today!
Click here to submit your memorable moment. Contest closes December 31. Entries will be judged by members of the organizing committee for the 2012 Great Canadian Cheese Festival. Winners will be announced here on January 5 and published soon thereafter.
The first-place prize will be a half-kilo of Époisses Berthaut, courtesy of Glen Echo Fine Foods. Two runners-up each will receive 250 grams of Époisses Berthaut, courtesy of Glen Echo Fine Foods.
Creamy and powerful, Époisses Berthaut is an extraordinary cheese from Burgundy in France. It’s a washed-rind cow’s milk cheese with a natural red tint and it’s own rich and penetrating aroma to which it owes its renown. The mouth waters at the mere thought . .
Click here and here to read more about Époisses Berthaut.
Époisses Berthaut is distributed by Glen Echo Fine Foods and available at the following Ontario locations while supplies last:
People's Choice at Cooks & Curds. Photo by If Music Be Food of Love, Play On.
A unique feta and elk dish created by Chef Michael Blackie expressly for The Great Canadian Cheese Festival was voted the most popular dish by close to 400 guests at Cooks & Curds Cheese Gala, the social and gastronomic highlight of the Festival.
Plainly put, Chef Blackie, using two kinds of rice flour, made a crusted ball with goat feta from Clarmell Farms and served it on a bed of pulled elk.
In reality, a fusion of flavours—rice, pistachio, olives, chipotle, brown sugar, honey, carrots, celery, onion and garlic—powered the dish to People’s Choice honours, with a scattering of Saskatoon berries providing a lovely Canadian finish.
Paired with a fruity, silky St. Laurent 2007 from Prince Edward County’s Harwood Estate Vineyards, Chef Blackie’s creation was a standout among standouts at the Gala in historic Crystal Palace. See the menu below.
Michael Blackie’s name is widely known because of his prestigious position at the National Arts Centre, but what is Clarmell Feta?
Clarmell Farms is a fifth-generation dairy farm on the Rideau River in Manotick, within Ottawa’s city limits, that moved from cow’s milk into goat’s milk two years ago. The Clarmell Farms feta and chevre are made with single-herd milk by Margaret Morris-Peters at nearby Glengarry Cheesemaking and Dairy Supply.
Quantities are limited, so buy it when you can at the farm’s store, open Mondays to Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 3401 River Road (within Ottawa’s city limits) or at Nicastro’s Food Emporium, 1558 Merivale Road, and Manotick Village Butcher, 2-5556 Manotick Main Street.
Chef Michael Blackie of National Arts Centre, Ottawa.
Chef Blackie was born in Leicestershire, England, and raised in Montreal. Following his apprenticeship, he worked as chef with Jamie Kennedy at the Founders Club, a private food establishment at Toronto’s SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre).
Chef Blackie also held positions as sous-chef at Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle; Executive Chef at the Pierre Marques in Mexico; executive sous-chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong, which was voted “Best Hotel in Hong Kong” by Asiamoney Magazine and won both the “Gold List Award” and “Best Hotel in Asia” awards by Condé Nast; and executive chef at the Oberoi in Bali, Indonesia-a five-star hotel that was given the highest overall score in the “Leading Hotels of the World” Quality Awards.
Chef Blackie visited Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau in 2008 as guest chef on the “Canadian Asian Cuisine Tour,” and was a host chef on the “Exposing Canadian Cuisine” tour to Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Zurich, sponsored by Ontario Tourism and Air Canada. In 2007, he won the Silver Medal in the Canadian Culinary Championship in Whistler, B.C., and prior to taking the helm at National Arts Centre two years ago, Chef Blackie was the culinary mastermind behind Perspectives Restaurant at the Brookstreet resort in Kanata, one of Canada’s top restaurants.
Click to view larger image of the Cooks & Curds menu.
The Cooks & Curds Cheese Gala at The Great Canadian Cheese Festival was co-ordinated by the singular Ivy Knight.
Georgs Kolesnikovs, founder of The Great Canadian Cheese Festival, welcomed more than 2,000 cheese lovers to the inaugural event.
More than 2,000 cheese lovers enjoyed the first-ever Great Canadian Cheese Festival last weekend, assuring the event will become an annual fixture on the Canadian cheese calendar.
Total attendance was an amazing 2,246, with the Artisan Cheese & Fine Food Fair drawing 1,607 cheese fans from as far as New Zealand. (OK, the Kiwis were visiting family in Ottawa.) The Cooks & Curds Cheese Gala, with close to 400 guests, was a sell-out. The Cheese-Tasting Seminars were at capacity. The Cheese Tours sold out two weeks earlier.
Many exhibitors reported selling more cheese during the five-hour Fair than in any other five hours in their experience. One Quebec prominent cheesemaker reserved booth space for the next 10 years. All eight chefs asked to be invited back for the Cooks & Curds Cheese Gala.
June 1-3 are the dates for 2012, again at historic Crystal Palace in Picton, in the heart of Prince Edward County, Ontario’s fastest-growing culinary destination and Canada’s newest VQA wine region.
More than 100 artisan cheeses were available for tasting and purchase, including the cheddars of Black River Cheese.Fromagerie du Presbytère was one of 14 cheese producers from Québec represented.Fifth Town Artisan Cheese was one of the 10 Ontario cheesemakers at the Festival.County wineries, such as The Grange of Prince Edward, and Ontario craft breweries offered tastings.The ambiance of historic Cystal Palace and the surrounding grounds was perfect for a Cheese Fair.Cheese, wine, beer and artisanal food: recipe for a great day in the country.Good eats and good companions, who could ask for more?Dairy Farmers of Canada presented winners of the 2011 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix in a guided tasting led by Debbie Levy.The tasting plate of Grand Prix winners.Henderson Farms was among the artisanal food producers at the Sunday Fair.Slow Food the County dispensed recipes and information.Andrew Laliberté offers a taste of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese.Anything this golden must be Jersey du Fjord!Huff Estates Winery pours a sample for tasting.What or who has the rapt attention of these children and one parent?Petra Kassun-Mutch and Stephanie Diamant (at left) demonstrating how cheese is made and offering children (and adults) tips on how to taste cheese.Another treat for children as well as adults was the visit by Big Momma from Ontario Water Buffalo Company.Big Momma brought along a four-week-old baby but all he wanted to do was nap.Waupoos Estates Winery was the first winery established in Prince Edward County.Volunteers such as this tasting-ticket seller were key to the smooth running of the Festival.A full day of Cheese-Tasting Seminars on Saturday preceded the Cheese Fair on Sunday.Stephanie Skinner represented Culture, Official Magazine of The Great Canadian Cheese Festival.A cooler bag for hauling home purchased cheese was included in the price of advance tickets.Everyone wanted a souvenir snapshot with our Cheese-Head-in-Chief. Here he is with the staff of Culinarium in Toronto.
All photos courtesy of CountyLive.ca, the home page for residents of Prince Edward County.
Tickets are still available for All-Day Cheese-Tasting Seminars on Saturday and the Artisan Cheese & Fine Food Fair on Sunday.
Here’s what’s still available in seminars. Because the full range of topics no longer is available, the All-Day Seminar admission price has been reduced to $100.
SATURDAY, JUNE 4: ALL CHEESE, ALL DAY
Keynote Presentation: 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
An introduction to what arguably are the best cheeses made in Canada today—from cow’s milk, goat’s milk and sheep’s milk. Taste the three cheeses, meet the makers, start the day on a high.
Tasting Seminars, First Session, 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.
Canadian Cheddar: A Vertical Tasting A great way to entertain, vertical tasting means tasting the same cheese at various ages, from as young as possible to well-aged. Tasting different cheddars in this manner will introduce your taste buds to the amazing range of flavours to be found in Canada’s favourite cheese. Presenter: Deborah Levy of Dairy Farmers of Canada, cheese educator
Lunch: 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
A healthy buffet lunch for All-Day Seminar Pass holders by Waring House in Picton.
Tasting Seminars, Second Session: 1:00 to 2:15 p.m.
Battle of the Blues Marvel at the different taste sensations delivered by a cross-section of blue cheeses made in Canada, from Tiger Blue in British Columbia to Dragon’s Breath in Nova Scotia with several stops in Ontario and Quebec. Presenter: Andy Shay of AndyShay.com, cheese consultant and cheese buyer at Sobeys Ontario
Wine or Beer with Cheese: How Does One Decide?
Presenter: Andrew Laliberté of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, chef and sommelier
Tasting Seminars, Third Session: 2:45 to 4:00 p.m.
Europe’s Cheese Classics Roquefort, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Gruyere and others, why are they still the yardsticks by which all cheese is measured? How close are North American cheesemakers to catching up? Taste a selection of classics. Presenter: Gurth Pretty, cheese guru and author of The Definitive Guide to Canadian Artisanal & Fine Cheese
Artisanal Cheese Defined and Defended Why integrity of ingredients matter. Why turning milk into cheese is a craft. Why the bond between and farmer is important, and worth preserving. What’s with MMIs? A selection of artisan cheeses for tasting. Presenter: Ruth Klahsen of Monforte Dairy, cheesemaker
Invest in Cheese/Getting started in cheesemaking
For cheese lovers interested in getting into the business of cheese.
Presenter: Andy Shay of AndyShay.com, cheese consultant and cheese buyer at Sobeys Ontario
All-Day Tasting Program includes one adult admission to full day of cheese talk and cheese tasting, Saturday, June 4, including a Festival tote bag, a buffet lunch, the keynote presentation and one seminar in each of three sessions. In most seminars, the cheese will be paired with wine, beer or cider. FREE parking