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Janet Fletcher

180 Stonecrest Dr
Napa, CA, 94558
(707) 265-0404
{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

Janet Fletcher

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    • About Janet
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  • Planet Cheese
    • Planet Cheese Blog
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    • Cheese Library
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    • World Cheese Tour
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New Year, New Drink

December 29, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Planet Cheese01_DSC0341.jpg

A pretty Champagne cocktail to ring in the New Year? I’m a big fan of this one, which I think I invented but, like so many recipes, it probably already existed. Let me know if you know it by another name. I call it the Ruby Yacht. It is elegant, it shimmers in a flute, and it is way too easy to drink. If it becomes your house cocktail, well, you’re welcome.

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In From: France, Milk: Cow Tags Langres, French cheese, Champagne, sparkling wine, wine with cheese, pomegranates, champagne cocktail, New Year’s Eve drinks
2 Comments

Superstar Cheeses of 2019

December 22, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
French showstopper: Tomme Brulée

French showstopper: Tomme Brulée

What cheeses topped the charts at American cheese counters this year? For answers, I polled a few independent retailers around the country about their biggest hits of the past 12 months. I wanted to hear about newcomers that took off, sleeper hits that surpassed expectations and any under-performers that, for whatever reason, finally got traction.

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In Milk: Cow, Milk: Goat, Milk: Sheep Tags American cheese, best cheeses of 2019, France 44, Antonelli’s, C’est Cheese, Truffle Cheese Shop, Fairfield Cheese Shop, Greenwich Cheese Shop
Comment

Cheddar’s Best Friend

November 19, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
After the turkey: Cranberry-pear chutney with Cheddar

After the turkey: Cranberry-pear chutney with Cheddar

I’ve been making cranberry-pear chutney for Thanksgiving for more than 20 years. I love my recipe, but it produces a lot. It calls for the whole bag of cranberries (may as well), plus pears, raisins, fresh ginger, walnuts. We eat it all weekend with leftover turkey, but it’s also terrific with cheese. Cheddar, Gouda, aged sheep cheese. If you’re a guest for Thanksgiving, bring this chutney with you and I bet you’ll be asked back.

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In From: U.S., From: Britain, Milk: Cow Tags cranberry sauce; cranberry chutney; Thanksgiving recipes; chutney recipes; pear recipes; chutney; cheese board; cheese pairing; cheese course
8 Comments

After the Recall

November 12, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Photo: Craig Jordan

Photo: Craig Jordan

his past summer, Consider Bardwell’s Goatlet catapulted to glory. For the third time in three years, it placed first in its category at the prestigious American Cheese Society judging. Four months later, the Vermont farm has ceased cheesemaking and its future is in doubt. A positive Listeria test in late September, every cheesemaker’s nightmare, led to a voluntary recall that could doom this 18-year-old enterprise. I didn’t really think co-owner Angela Miller would want to talk about this painful episode, but she surprised me. “I would very much like to help others by telling our story,” she said in an e-mail.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Goat, Milk: Cow Tags Consider Bardwell, raw milk cheese, cheese recall, Vermont cheese
9 Comments

100-Point Cheese

October 29, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
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Perfection. You can’t do better than that. For Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue, the perfect score rocketed it to the top of the World Cheese Awards in Bergamo, Italy, earlier this month. A grape leaf-wrapped cow’s milk wheel from Oregon, this luscious blue is now the 2019 World Champion Cheese, the first time a U.S. cheese has earned that honor. Created less than 20 years ago, it vanquished international cheeses with decades of history. Ironically, the winning wheel was not the one that Rogue president David Gremmels intended to enter.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Rogue Creamery, David Gremmels, Rogue River Blue, World Cheeses Awards, Oregon cheese, blue cheese
6 Comments

Peak Experience

October 22, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
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I should have known the creamy cheese at twelve o’clock would be the class favorite. Never bet against a triple-cream. This one was delightful, I agree, but I found more to love in the six aged cheeses that followed—all of them mountain cheeses from Europe, all made with raw milk and animal rennet. So much tradition and expertise represented on one plate!

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In From: Switzerland, Milk: Cow, Milk: Sheep, Milk: Goat Tags mountain cheese, raw milk cheese, alpine cheese
4 Comments

Next-Gen Urban Creamery

October 15, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
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What good is cream cheese without bagels? The folks at Tomales Farmstead Creamery had the cream cheese down but couldn’t find a worthy bagel to spread it on. At least that’s the nickel explanation for their leap into the bagel business, with an ambitious new bakery-café in San Francisco. The sprawling former factory they rented was big enough for a little cheesemaking, too. So now San Franciscans have their own urban creamery whipping up cultured butter, cream cheese, quark, ricotta and ghee. Plus warm bagels. And craft beer. Hungry yet?

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Daily Driver, bagels, cream cheese, Tomales Farmstead Creamery, Straus Family Creamery, Dogpatch
7 Comments

What Goes with Cheese?

September 24, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Cabot Clothbound Cheddar with Nectarine and Serrano Jam

Cabot Clothbound Cheddar with Nectarine and Serrano Jam

When I was first introduced to fine cheese—in France, many years ago—it came with nothing. At least that’s my recollection. Just beautiful cheeses, as many as you wanted from the restaurant trolley, with more fresh-sliced baguette in the breadbasket. Now, in the Instagram age, a cheese board with cheese alone looks naked and pitiful. Where are the nuts, the honeycomb, the preserves, the pickles, the locally made artisan crackers?

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags cheese board, cheese plate, Thalassa Skinner, cheese pairing
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Butter of the Gods

September 16, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
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If my recent lunch at Edge had concluded with the bread and butter, I would have been happy. Of course, it didn’t—several fabulous courses followed—but it was the house-made pain au levain and cultured butter I couldn’t get out of my head. I knew I couldn’t reproduce this Sonoma restaurant’s bread, which John McReynolds, Edge’s culinary director, spent many months perfecting, but I figured the butter might be within my skill set. What gave it such incredible flavor? In a word: cheese.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Stone Edge Farm, Edge restaurant, cultured butter, Sonoma restaurants
4 Comments

Teleme in Trouble

August 27, 2019 janet@janetfletcher.com
Photo: Sara Remington

Photo: Sara Remington

One of California’s iconic cheeses is in danger of extinction. Lights out. No more. Franklin’s Teleme has already been MIA since late last year, when Franklin Peluso reluctantly ceased making his supple cow’s milk classic, a former American Cheese Society Best of Show. The 74-year-old cheesemaker, whose grandfather devised the original recipe, has been trying to revive production ever since, with no luck.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags Franklin Peluso, teleme, American Cheese Society, Peluso Teleme, California cheese, Bellwether Farms
28 Comments
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Welcome to my world: a fragrant, fascinating universe devoted to great cheese. In this and future Planet Cheese posts, you’ll find profiles of the world’s best cheeses plus insights into everything cheese: shops, recipes, interviews, pairing discoveries, classes, videos, travel. If you haven’t already done so, sign up here - it’s complimentary - and join me in learning something new about cheese every week.



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