2006 Food Futures Forecast-
There's Gold in American-Made Cheese
Madison, Wis., Dec., 2005-The passionate romance with cheeses made in America continues. In fact, the attraction has become a serious relationship. All of last year's trends that fueled the growth in American specialty cheeses are still ardently embraced-only more so.
The movement to artisan, farmstead, ethnic and organic type cheeses continues to gain strength, according to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB), a dairy farmer-funded organization that promotes Wisconsin Cheese nationally. The board closely monitors and analyzes culinary and cheese trends. In Wisconsin, for example, specialty cheese production rose by 9
percent in 2004 to 331 million pounds. The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade found sales of specialty cheese were up 29.1 percent in 2004 from 2002, to $905 million, excluding sales of Wal-Mart.
Why? Aside from the obvious-they taste so good-a number of food trends, fads and occurrences are promoting our love for specialty cheeses:
Farm-friendly foods are very attractive to today's premium product shoppers and diners. A further refinement on the desire to know more about who makes our food, the farm interest adds the dimension of traditional agriculture and connotes an element of family and hands-on care. Cheese fits the
definition-especially the more upscale artisan cheeses that often have a story to tell about their makers or how they're made.
Seeking local foods can be viewed as part of a preference for eating seasonal foods, a trend that continues to grow, but the term "local" has taken on expanded meaning. When it comes to cheese, "local" can imply small, uniquely crafted products. Farmstead cheeses-those that are made on the same premises that nurture the cows-are an example of cheeses that can take on a "local" aspect, even in a distant geography.
Cheese courses are becoming de rigueur for pace-setting, white tablecloth restaurants. This popularity can only be more good news for American specialty cheeses. The courses are sometimes all-American, sometimes a mix of domestic and imported cheeses and sometimes flights, a concept that offers the same type of cheese at various ages. The AAA Five Diamond American Club in Kohler, Wis., offers a Cheddar flight, with cheeses aged at
intervals from 1 to 10 years old.
Contemporary American Cuisine seems to be the "in" description for the type of food now favored by influential chefs and restaurants. Asian and Latin cuisines continue to flourish, as well, and their flavors are often featured in this Contemporary American Cuisine, which is a medley of ethnic, cultural and
trendy American inputs. Chef James Campbell Caruso at El Farol in Santa Fe has created a fitting multi-faceted dish with his Jamon Serrano-Wrapped Quail with Roasted Butternut Squash and Wisconsin Gruyere Cream for his popular tapas destination.
Think fresh, think healthy. The current "good-for-me," "better-for-you" health term is "fresh." Americans are still aware of carbs, fats and calories and declare a great interest in wellness, but they are interpreting "healthy" in a broader, nontechnical sense. Technomic, Inc., a market research firm,
reports that health conscious restaurant customers care less about fat or calories than freshness. Foods without preservatives-such as natural cheeses-benefit from this current definition.
Cheese-enhanced sandwiches are eaten everywhere and every time of day. The news is all good for sandwiches, the American trend that knows no limits. Both home cooks and chefs are seeking new ideas for sandwiches, and the variety of specialty cheeses is a boon to innovation. The latest "Eating
Patterns in America" study from the NPD Group cites the sandwich phenomenon, reporting that 51 billion sandwiches were consumed in the U.S. in 2004. From McDonald's, where the most popular item is still the double cheeseburger, to the upscale Solera in Denver, where Chef Goose Sorensen serves a panini with bacon, Wisconsin Brie and avocado mayonnaise, sandwiches and cheese are inseparable.
Finesse comes to fast foods. The popularity of premium ingredients is driving fast foods to gourmet concepts, which often include specialty cheese. Carl's Jr. offers burgers with Portobello mushrooms and Swiss cheese while Quiznos enhances a sub with a sprinkling of mesclun spring mix.
Convenience still reigns, and a vehicle of fast growth is car-eating, reports NPD. The number of meals purchased at a restaurant and eaten in a car has gone from 19 per person per year in 1985 to 32 per person today... Restaurants and some supermarkets are adding drive-up windows à la fast food. What could be easier to eat one-handed than a wedge of aged Cheddar? Well, maybe a wedge of chipotle-infused Monterey Jack? Or, a buttery, smoked Gouda?
These overriding trends affecting cheese give way to a number of predictions-less scientific perhaps, but fun to conjecture. Gazing into the cheese ball.....
--Chefs will be offering cheese ice creams -and not just for dessert. Chef Seth Daugherty at Cosmos, Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis, enhances foie gras with Wisconsin Mascarpone and Maple Gelato. Chef Guillermo Pernot at ¡Pasion! in Philadelphia has developed a house-cured fresh tuna with Brick
cheese spread ice cream.
--Supermarkets will feature ready-to-go cheese courses and wines for home entertaining, complete with cheese descriptions and "stories."
--More cheeses will take on fanciful, one-of-a-kind names, a practice becoming common with American artisanal cheeses, such as Homestead and Pleasant Ridge Reserve, two recent Wisconsin award recipients from the American Cheese Society.
--Latin food will travel beyond Mexico. Fresh, milky cheeses, popular in Central and South American cuisines, will flourish. Restaurants will start the movement.
--Upscale restaurants will offer kids' menus, and the cheese won't be processed.
--Could this be the new taste sensation? Cheese and chocolate! Hudson Valley TV chef Ric Orlando of New World Home Cooking recently served a truffle of goat cheese and bittersweet chocolate to a Culinary Institute of America gathering. Vosges Haut Chocolat, with sophisticated boutiques in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, includes a Rooster truffle in its Italian Collection-Taleggio cheese and organic walnuts enrobed in bittersweet dark chocolate. Employees at Wisconsin's Antigo Cheese Co. report that they frequently enjoy chocolate with the company's nutty, complex Parmesan.
--You soon may enjoy a fine dinner at a supermarket near you. The sales of prepared foods already double those of traditional foods, and building on the theme, upscale markets, such as Whole Foods, UKrop's Super Markets and Wegmans Markets, are offering sit-down café food and sushi and noodle bars in some locations. More mainstream supermarkets will offer "trendy" in-store dining, to differentiate themselves from Wal-Mart and other giant concepts.
--Cheese curds, those squeaky, fresh nuggets that are synonymous with Wisconsin, will (slowly) sweep the country. Long popular in the upper Midwest and northeastern U.S., curds are finding fans in other climes as their flavors and distribution expand. Improved packaging protects their freshness and preserves the squeak, absolutely necessary to curds aficionados.
--Upscale soups, the perfect vehicle for cheese, will gain popularity, with some supermarkets developing their own private labels.
--Packaging for specialty cheese will improve to reflect the quality of the contents. A new, parchment-like wrapper has been introduced.
------If oil prices impose harder times, food will be the affordable luxury, and cheese will be golden. One of the ultimate indulgences, a full-flavored, distinctive cheese can add a little luxury to any lifestyle.
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is a nonprofit organization of Wisconsin dairy producers that promotes the consumption of milk, cheese and other dairy products made in America's Dairyland.
Chef2Chef News Desk