California Artisan Cheese Festival Best Bite Competition

Believe it or not, my cheese Friday is not over yet after attending a blind tasting seminar, touring two cheesemakers, a cheese lunch, and a distillery as covered in my previous posts in part 1 and part 2 recap of my trip to enjoy the California Artisan Cheese Festival. After a couple hours break after this tour, my sister and I then went to an event called The Best Bite – A Tribute to First Responders. Then, on Sunday we went to the Artisan Cheese Tasting and Marketplace.

At the California Artisan Cheese Festival 2018 Best Bite Chefs category of the competition, Valette presented cheesesteak with Stuyt Dairy bacon cheese crisp, Stuyt Dairy cheese Whizz, pepper crusted beef tenderloin, pickled sweet peppers, and Stuyt Dairy cheese powder.
For the Cheesemonger Bite category, shown here is Oliver’s Market, Cellar Door Platters and Displays Julie Cassotta and Mike Rafter who used Northern Gold from Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Company to make a beer cheese

The Best Bite

This evening event brought together Cheesemakers, Chefs and Cheesemongers in a Best Bite Competition while paying tribute to first responders who risked their lives during California’s destructive fire storms in October last year. Several of the local heroes got to be judges, and there is also people’s choice award so attendees would get to vote for their winner in each category as well. I took photos of almost everything, both to share with you but also to remember what I ate and who made it for voting later! Photos are my notes!

Costeaux French Bakery offered a savory cheese twist with an all butter croissant rolled with three cheeses and lavender herbs, as well as another bread stuffed with blue cheese

So now on to my cheese adventures, continued!

This year’s competition, showcasing over two dozen cheesemakers, two dozen chefs and two dozen mongers, are really 2 different competitions. Each cheesemaker is paired with both a cheesemonger and chef.

Each chef, and then each cheesemonger, each created a separate bite featuring their cheesemaker’s cheeses.
 
La Marcha Tapas Bar made Piquillos Rellenos de Cypress Grove con Midnight Moon Crisp
Bistro 29 offered Pedrozo Northern Gold Cheese and spring leek croquette with spiced citrus and rhubarb compote

The various cheesemongers – think those who help slice and sell cheese for retail at your local grocery store or cheese shop – competed against each other, usually with bites that were made with cheese on some sort of vehicle (often a cracker) with some accouterments to compliment or contrast the cheese.

Jenny Martin and William Mantey represented Whole Foods Market using Teleeka from Tomales Farmstead Creamery
Also for the Cheesemonger Bite, Oliver’s Market, Cotati represented by Devorah Harris and Wade Johnson used Lunetta from Moonside Creamery

Meanwhile, the chefs were all competing against each other with more composed small dishes that often involved cooking and where cheese may be a component of the bite, but not necessarily the main portion, unlike with the cheesemongers’ bites.
 
Bay Laurel Catering served up Schoch Family Monterey Farmstead Jack Cheese in a Potato and Cheese Empanada with charred scallions and tomato confit with fermented chile and tomatillo salsa. Meanwhile Chef Stephen Simmons offered a savory Housemade Tater Tot Salad with Chevoo Medley, micro amaranth, and balsalmic drizzle

It really ran a wide spectrum of complexity and both bites that were sweet and others that were savory from both the cheesemongers and the chefs.

For the California Artisan Cheese Festival Best Cheesemonger Bite, Market Hall Foods Oakland Anna Hennigh used Foggy Morning from Nicasio Valley Cheese Company on a potato cake with smoked salmon
Chef Jodie Rubin created a bite with Moonside Creamery Startlight Blue on Crostini with Miatake Mushrooms, Crispy Kale and Pomegranate Molasses

Some bites were pretty brave and out there too!

Blue Sage offered savory grape truffles with Willapa Hills Big Boy Blue and Willapa Hills Artisan Cream Cheese served on a mini ice cream cone and drizzled with balsalmic glaze.
Nick’s Cove served up Strawberry Rhubarb Achadinha Fromage Blanc Eggroll dusted with dehydrated strawberry sugar

And some really made me wish there was a category for best overall presentation.

For the California Artisan Cheese Festival 2018 Best Bite Cheesemongers Bite competition, Michele Wynne and Paige Icardi from Bi-Rite Market, San Francisco used Pluvius from Willapa Hills Cheese with a homemade super seed cracker, rind dust, ginger infused balsamic reduction, candied bacon, and scallions

Some even paired their bite with suggestions for some of the beer, ciders, or wines that also had tables at this event.

Korbel Delicatessen and Market served up Point Reyes Bay Blue and Walnut Shortbread topped with Bay Blue Mousse and Pinot Noir Poached Pear Compote to be paired with Korbel 2015 Rouge champagne

The Greedy Ant Gourmet Andrea Campton and Mark Paladini used Humbolt Fog Dill Remix from Cypress Grove to make The Fireman’s Picnic, a bite with the Cypress Grove Dill Remix over house baked lemon shortbread with a watermelon and mint gelee. I think my sister voted for this one for the Cheesemonger Bite.

My sister L also appreciated having something that didn’t involve putting cheese on carbs – Jimtown Store offered up one of the healthiest dishes with a Muffuletta Salad with local greens tossed in Jimtown chopped olive vinaigrette with Sierra Nevada traditional Bella Capra goat cheese, Molinari salami and housemade foccacia croutons.

So who were the winners? Well, the official judges, selected local first responders, awarded for the cheesemongers
first place to Chris Stone of Nugget Market for his Best Bite using Lionza from Fiscalini Cheese Co.. I admit this was also my vote. In retrospect I hope I wasn’t slightly influenced by the fact that this bite used two Oregon products – Chris Stone complimented the Liona Fiscalini Cheese Co with some Kelly’s marionberry and habanero jelly over an Olympia chorizo sausage. I also liked that this bite didn’t need bread because we were definitely eating a lot of crackers and bread as we tasted bites all around.

Second place was awarded to Sara Payne of Whole Foods Market, Napa using Big McKinley Clothbound from Wm Cofield Cheesemakers, and third place went to Evan Atherton of Gus’s Community Market, using Capra Stanislaus from Nicolau Farms (which I forgot to take a photo of apparently).

Meanwhile, for chefs, the judges elected John Ash & Co. for the Best Restaurant Bite using Calabrian Chile Casiago from Nicolau Farms with their Niman Ranch pulled lamb belly slider with Capra Stanislaus cheese bun, Sparrow Lane raspberry pear vinaigrette dressed Red Dragon arugula

For the winners decided by the audience, People’s Choice Cheesemonger went to Christine Steel Dillard of Whole Foods Market in Fresno, using 6-month aged goat cheese from Two Rock Goat Cheese.

The People’s Choice Chef was Moustache Baked Goods of Healdsburg for their Earl Grey Financier Bite with Fig & Date Butter and Beehive Teahive Cheese. Apparently we missed this bite ;(

So although they didn’t win People Choice Chef, my vote had gone to The Girl and the Fig who offered Fiscalini Rye Brioche with Pork Belly Pastrami, Aioli and Pickled Cabbage

If I could have voted for a second place winner for cheesemonger, it would have gone to Stephanie Foss of Whole Foods Market Sebastopol who served Toma stuffed Arepas with Toma Cheese sauce, avocado crema, and homemade barbacoa sauce. Honestly this bite was good enough to beat many of the entrants in the Chef Bite too!

Overall, there were 18 cheesemongers competing with their cheesemonger bites, and 21 chefs competing with their chef bite category. There were also multiple beverage providers in the form of beer, cider, and wine with multiple sample pours of their product – 25 of them! We didn’t get around to trying each one just because we got very full – and we were so glad it was just a quick Lyft back to our hotel to lie down and rest!

No, the cheese is NOT over yet!

Artisan Cheese Tasting and Marketplace

On Sunday my sister and I went to another event called the Artisan Cheese Tasting and Marketplace .This event brings together more than 100 artisan cheese and food producers, winemakers, brewers and chefs who offered tastings of their cheeses, or products that complement cheese, varying from jellys or seasonings or sauces to wines, beers, or ciders.

Most vendors also brought products so if you liked what you tasted, you could purchase it right at the stand too. Our admission ticket included a cooler and ice pack so that we could taste and shop the whole few hours of this event.

Although we had fun with this event, we did notice a lot of these cheeses were ones we have seen in stores or farmers market. This meant that we didn’t feel compelled to buy a lot of the cheese here, mostly taste. Granted, it was really great to try all these cheeses and compare and contrast them to see what we really liked.

North Coast Brewing and Cypress Grove particularly did a great job of pairing their cheeses and beers together for a fuller experience.

At the California Artisan Cheese Festival 2018 Artisan Cheese Tasting and Marketplace, Humboldt Fog cheese from Cypress Grove paired with North Coast Brewing La Merle saison Belgian Style farmhouse ale

But, now that we’ve also tasted a lot of the cheese offerings of these cheesemakers, it probably wouldn’t be a good value to come back to this event next year since we were now familiar with a lot of these cheesemakers’ products.

So that summarizes my experience with the California Artisan Cheese Festival for 2018 – the tour I went to visit cheesemakers and that included a seminar (as covered in part1 and part2 posts), the tasting event of The Best Bite, and then the sampling and shopping event of the Artisan Cheese Tasting and Marketplace.

If you are interested, the next year’s dates of the California Artisan Cheese Festival have been announced – they will be the weekend of March 22-25, 2019. The Friday tours ($135) are the first to sell out, but the Market Place event ($50) and the Best Bite ($80) did not – they are larger events vs the smaller tours., which is something to keep in mind when the tickets go on sale in Janaury 2019.

There are also more events that I did not mention – a lot of classes and seminars on Saturday, another tasting event Saturday evening that paired cheese and cocktails, or a Sunday Bubbles and Brunch with cheese.

Of all the cheese events I went to or that are available for the California Artisan Cheese Festival, what would have been your pick of what you would want to attend, or do you wish that there was an equivalent here with Oregon or Pacific Northwest cheese??