Chic cheese gains bigger slice

ROCKPORT, Maine — Franklin Peluso uses his hands to squeeze and press heaping mounds of curds and whey to get the moisture content and texture just right as he makes up a batch of his brie-like cheese.

Peluso is making a soft tangy specialty cheese called teleme, which is sold at cheese shops and restaurants in California and the Northeast.

Artisanal cheese makers are popping up nationwide, making hand-crafted cheese for consumers who are demanding more than Velveeta and cheese squirted from a can.

Not long ago, it was difficult to find even a simple goat cheese in most stores, said Peluso, who is 60 and a third-generation cheese maker. He started the Mid-Coast Cheese company last October after moving to Maine from California.

“There’s been a tremendous change in the past 15 to 20 years. It’s a crowded field with specialty cheeses now,” he said. “Some of these stores remind me of Paris with huge piles of cheeses.”

U.S. cheese consumption grew from 11 to 31 pounds per person between 1970 and 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Besides eating more cheese, Americans are eating more types of cheese. And they’re willing to pay a premium for it: Specialty cheeses can cost $10 to $20 a pound or more, a far cry from the $3 or $4 consumers pay for a package of American cheese slices at a supermarket.

With Americans well-traveled and better-educated about food, the national palate has become more refined, said Caitlin Hunter, owner of the Appleton Creamery in Rockport, Maine, and president of the Maine Cheese Guild.

“People are getting more sophisticated about the foods they eat,” Hunter said. “It’s reflected in artisan breads and artisan beers and artisan wines. Twenty years ago there weren’t artisan breweries or vineyards or lovely local bakeries like there are now.”

In Maine, at least five cheese makers have opened for business in the past year, and a large plant under construction at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester plans to begin production this spring with a capacity of roughly 300,000 pounds a year.

But Maine represents only a small slice of the market.

The biggest surge of specialty cheese makers is happening in places like Wisconsin, California and Vermont, said Allison Hooper, owner of Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. in Websterville, Vt., and the president of The American Cheese Society.

The American Cheese Society has about 1,000 members, or nearly double what it had a couple of years ago, Hooper said.

“Now there’s such an interest in high-quality foods, the source of the ingredients, the integrity of the ingredients and eating well that specialty artisanal cheese fits in with that trend,” she said.

The biggest retailer of specialty cheeses nationally is probably Whole Foods Markets, the Texas-based natural foods chain with 181 stores. Each Whole Foods store sells anywhere from 250 to more than 700 types of cheese, said national cheese buyer Cathy Strange.

“The only cheese growth happening domestically is in the specialty cheese sections,” Strange said. “We’re not seeing growth in big cheese production.”