Great American Cheese Collection

Distributor promotes handmade cheese

from The Country Today
Eau Claire, Wisconsin

April 25, 2001

by Ann Hanson
Section Editor

CHICAGO — The market for hand-made specialty cheeses is exploding, says Giles Schnierle, owner of a food distributor specializing in cheeses for high-end markets.

"I think what's happening right now with cheeses is similar to what happened with wine in this country," Mr. Schnierle said.

When American consumers buy wine, they almost always buy American wines, in sharp contrast to a decade ago when imports were favored, Mr. Schnierle said.

"We know the wine is going to be good," he said. "It's not always great, but it's never, ever bad. I think that's where we're headed now with American cheeses."

Mr. Schnierle and five employees sell cheese from 38 artisan cheesemakers to more than 400 restaurants in the Chicago area, and to a growing number of retail outlets. In the summer extra help is hired to sell at local farmer's markets also.

Mr. Schnierle met Bill and Janet Butler, who make sheep milk cheeses at their on-farm processing plant near Whitehall, at a Chicago farmer's market years ago, he said. Last year Mr. Schnierle asked the Butlers if his company could represent their cheeses.

"The chefs rejected it," Mr. Schnierle said, so he asked the Butlers to try making a surface molded, boosted cream cheese that would better fit the market.

"About six weeks later she (Mrs. Butler) came down with this cheese, and it was extraordinary," Mr. Schnierle said. "So we said, let's do another experiment, a full milk ricotta. And let's take a look at your feta and see if we can do something with your feta also."

This summer Mrs. Butler, a certified Wisconsin cheesemaker, will co-teach with Mr. Schnierle for a day at a culinary college, and be featured at a cheesemaker dinner at a Chicago restaurant. The menu that evening will be built round Butler Farms cheeses, and guests will have the opportunity to visit with Mrs. Butler about her cheesemaking.

"There's more and more interest in who made this cheese," Mr. Schnierle said. "People want to meet the makers."

The booming cheese market means there is room for large, mid size, and small cheesemakers," Mr. Schnierle said. Small plants like the Butlers' have an advantage when it comes to being able to try something new or change a process to quickly meet market demand.

Mr. Schnierle said that 67 percent of their cheeses come from Wisconsin, though "people perceive Wisconsin as being an inexpensive commodity cheese that shows up in the dairy section instead of the cheese section."

Mr. Schnierle is interested in talking to makers of artisan cheeses.

"That's part of what we do, it's part of how we've accomplished this," he said. "There're some disappointments, some real clunkers, but you've got to have faith in these people. You've got to be willing to work with them. I really believe these people can produce remarkably good cheeses, and they can do it consistently. This industry is still growing."

Mr. Schnierle may be reached by calling (773) 779-5055.