Search results for "california"


Andante Raw Goat Round

Andante Raw Goat Round

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I was shown this handsome round of a raw goat's milk cheese with the most beautiful paste and rind. Even though my cheese supply was already rather high, I had to take some of this one. It's taste is of fresh, clean spring - a true treat in the middle of a cold winter. Andante Dairy's owner is Soyoung Scanlan, a biochemist-turned -dairy scientist - turned cheesemaker in Petaluma, CA. Her cheeses are generally named along a musical theme, and I plan to find out what's the reason this one has yet to be given such a worthy name. It clearly sings to you when you eat it - trust me on that one. More info on Adante and Soyoung at: cheesenotes.com

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Petaluna, goat, raw

Price: sold

Aries

Aries

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This "Best of Show" 3rd place champion of 2019's American Cheese Society competition, ranked 3rd among over 1700 other cheeses at the American Cheese Society's annual conference and competition. Central Coast Creamery owner Reggie Jones asked his daughter, Avery Jones, if she wanted to try her hand at artisan cheese making. Soon, they set up a separate creamery that was based on Central Coast Creamery to allow Avery to take risks with the cheese as well as to have something to base her recipes on. They called this company Shooting Star Creamery to reflect on their belief of shooting for the stars. This was Avery's first year submitting to the ACS competition and Aries won Best Of Show! I'm a fan of Central Coast Creamery's wonderful cheeses and not at all surprised their daughter would make one this good. I was so lucky to get a whole wheel of this delicious beauty to paint for the ACS Collection. It's SO good. This year all three best of show winners were double portraits and it allowed me to show off some of the translucent glow of this beautiful model. This is a rare aged alpine sheep milk cheese. Aged 8 months with a creamy mouth feel and dotted with tyrosine crystals.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: best of show, ACSbos, acs, ACS2019 , best of show, acs bob, sheep, Aries

Price: sold

Bay Blue

Bay Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Point Reyes is a beautiful blue from Northern california that earned "Best of Show, 2nd" at the American Cheese Society's 2014 conference and competition with 1,685 entrances after winning 1st place it its category. It's among the most sought after in the country now and I was commissioned to paint it for the ACS. I love blue cheese, that's no secret, but this is absolutely an incredible treat.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: blue, cow, best of show, ACS, 2014, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Bay Blue in foil

Bay Blue in foil

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I absolutely love this blue cheese. Point Reyes Cheese sent me a good amount of it to paint for an American Cheese Society commission. It's easy to see why this won best in it's category and no surprise it was Best in Show, 2nd, 2014. I wanted to revisit this beautiful blue since they sent me so much of it. I decided to paint it within it's recognizable foil wrapper, which I believe is very much identifiable for this blue. I loved the reveled in painting the crazy reflective foil and decided to go BIG for this one, since it's a monumental flavor.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Blue, cow, best in show, ACS, 2014, Point Reyes, Foil Wrapper

Price: sold

Buff Blue

Buff Blue

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I am so glad to have finally received a wheel of this rare raw milk treat from Tomales, california! Bleating Heart Cheese, a micro creamery, made this champ, the "Best of Show" tied 2nd place winner from 2016's annual American Cheese Society's Conference Competition where it beat out almost 2000 cheeses. It's the only buffalo milk blue cheese made in the United States. Buffalo milk is much more difficult to produce and rare to get, though it has a luxuriously high fat percentage which certainly makes an indulgent blue cheese to cherish. Cheesemaker, Seana Doughty, sent me one of their very last wheels of the year which made the long journey across the country to my studio, and she seemed a bit anxious about it. This Buff Blue wheel "is well past its usual selling age", she said. Most wheels sell at 6 months old, maybe as late as 9 months, and this one is almost a year old. Seana expressed concern it wouldn't be as bright and perfect as it should be due to its age. While I trust the maker's judgment, as I would on my own work, I have to say that this cheese is incredibly beautiful to look at and even better to eat. There's definitely some california Sun left in this mature wheel. Though the rind might be a bit funkier than intended, it certainly had no bad affect on the cheese, and while the paste tended to crumble it certainly wasn't dry. I found myself amazed at how this light, creamy blue cheese is beautiful on the tongue, addictive as any good chocolate and indulgent as a cheese can be (I should confess, I am particularly in love with blue cheese to begin with). It's quite obvious why it's won so many awards since its creation in 2014, and each award better than the last. Go get some if you can!

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Buffalo, Raw, best of show, acs 2016 best of show, ACSBOS

Price: sold

Dark Moon

Dark Moon

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Made with fresh cow's milk and cream from neighboring Marin County dairies, this is a new triple-cream petite brie with hand-coated vegetable-ash rind. The cream makes the inside super rich and delicious and the ash adds to a very elegant rind for this little 4 ounce wheel. It's made by Marin French Cheese, in Petaluma, california. It seemed appropriate to me, this being from the Bay Area, that I indulge in some Wanye Theibaud mode, aesthetically. I've always been a fan of his work, and often my food art gets described within a context that includes this master, which is always flattering.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Marin French Cheese, Cow

Price: sold

Death & Taxes

Death & Taxes

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Seana, the generous cheesemaker and co-owner of Bleating Heart Cheese, in Tomales, california sent me a wonderful care package! A wheel of this beer washed organic pasteurized jersey cow milk cheese stood out to me. This pink-orange rind and fudge creamy paste was so alluring to me. Cutting it, straight from the fridge mind you, was actually like putting my knife into fudge on a hot day. The buttery, flavor is pure bliss. They quote Benjamin Franklin on their site: "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" but they add "some things are certain to make you happy: beer and cheese!" and I can't agree more.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: raw milk, cow, bleating heart cheese

Price: sold

Devil's Gulch

Devil's Gulch

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Dressed up in a winter coat of mildly warm pepper-flakes over its snowflake white bloomy rind that wraps around a sweet paste , Devil's Gulch makes for a fine treat on a cold night. With just a little spark of sass this purdy cheese is made in the San francisco area at Cowgirl Creamery. Devil's Gulch is their winter seasonal offering and I couldn't resist painting it after a self-professed cheese-a-holic and beloved patron sent me a gift of a Cowgirl Creamery assortment. What a gift for an east-coast guy with an eye for cheese with some spark of color! (thanks James!)

Origin: USA, california

Tags: cow, CA, Cowgirl Creamery

Price: sold

Humboldt Fog

Humboldt Fog

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: The Humboldt Fog cheese portrait was a commissioned painting of a great california cheese. Cypress Grove makes this delicious cheese that is cousin to their Truffle Tremor (also part of this series). From their website: "an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance."

Origin: USA, california

Tags: goat cheese, truffle tremor, cypress grove

Price: sold

Largo

Largo

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Largo is an absolutely incredible triple-cream cheese from Andante Dairy. Souyoung is an artist that can make cheese harmony that is truly beautiful. This one is named "Largo", which means "broad" or "generous" in Italian and a musical term as a tempo mark meaning "to be performed slowly". Well, I cannot say I could eat this cheese slowly. I wanted to inhale it! It's a soft and silky smooth nutty mushroom-y rich, luxurious and indulgent experience you only want to share with those you REALLY like, or no one.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Souyong Scanlan, cow, La Bouille, music

Price: sold

Little Giant

Little Giant

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: I was just introduced to the newest addition to the Cypress Grove portfolio. They're one of the earliest Cheesemakers to lead the American artisanal cheese renaissance as they're nearly 40 years old. This new addition is a perfect 4 ounce serving size little bloomy rinded round that offers a guilt-free luxury of not needing to share it! It is incredibly gratifying, especially after modeling in my studio for a day. At room temperature this cool bite turns gooey and buttery as the flavor is lactic and mushroomy good.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Cypress Grove, Goat, Little Giant

Price: sold

Marin French Camembert

Marin French Camembert

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Northern california's Marin French Cheese Co. has been making classic French-style cheese for over 150 years. This Petaluma company still produces cheese with the freshest milk of their neighboring family dairies in the same location, making it the longest continually operating cheese company in America. This Camembert was a commissioned gift that reflects a mother and daughter decade-long tradition of visiting the Marin French Cheese Co. and enjoying a cheese picnic on their grounds. It was requested to indicate a connection with the company and so I placed the wheel on the label. I felt the light green and the label colors not only compliment each other, but also they remind me of a picnic out on a fresh cut lawn.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: cow, Petaluma

Price: sold

Mt. Tam

Mt. Tam

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Named after the 4,000 ft Mount Tamalpais that lies at the southern end of Marin County rising over the San Francisco Bay, Mt. Tam is a bloomy rind, triple cream cheese made of organic milk with the addition of cream. This American Original from Cowgirl Creamery, is so easy to eat, it's like butter, wonderful, creamy delicious butter. It's no surprise this is their best selling cheese.

Origin: USA, california

Price: sold

Oakdale Aged Gouda

Oakdale Aged Gouda

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: From Oakdale, california, this won 1st place in the Dutch-style category and tied 3rd place "Best of show" out of 1,685 entries at the American Cheese Society's annual conference in 2014. It's an incredibly creamy gouda with fruity/nutty flavors that really come to life when tasted at room temperature. It was the perfect artist's model for that very reason!

Origin: USA, california

Tags: cow, Best of Show, ACS, ACSBOS ACS Best of show 2014

Price: sold

Red Hawk

Red Hawk

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This lil stinker is such a great cheese! Cowgirl Creamery's origin story for this champion cheese goes back to an accident in 2001 when some young Mt Tam wheels were stored near some wheels of English Stilton. Oh, things happened in that cave and there was a suggested remedy to just wash the little wheels with some saltwater brine. The unexpected result was this meaty, savory and mild funky pinkish-orange round that became the creamery's most popular cheese. A couple years later, Red Hawk became the first ever washed rind cheese to win Best of Show at the American Cheese Society's competition. Red Hawk is organic and made with vegetarian rennet, conveying the character of coastal Northern california and the original creamery and is named for the majestic local red-tailed Hawk that soars over the Marin Headlands. Beyond its rough and rowdy aroma, this cheese has a rich and meaty flavor with balanced notes of cured meats, wild sage, and a kiss of ocean air. And to be honest, after a long day posing for me in my July temperature studio, this cheese model was ready to be inhaled. Once I finished this painting, I picked up that cut wedge and it softly slumped to my will, tasting like a wonderful taleggio custard.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: red hawk

Price: sold

Tipsy Cow

Tipsy Cow

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: This double portrait is of a great new (to me) california cheese that's from Pedrozo Dairy. They use their own raw Jersey milk to make this and It's aged in Petite Sirah, from the Sierra Foothills. The wine leaves the rind a dramatic rich, deep color of black cherry. The cheese then has a lively fruity and spicy flavor that compliments it's inherent nutty sharpness. That dark rind is what I found attractive when I saw it at Di Bruno's shop in Philly after I had already checked out. I was then forced into a 2nd purchase after a clever cheesemonger saw my interest and offered a taste. I was helpless; I was hooked. It's really great to taste the wine country in every bite. I love it!

Origin: USA, california

Tags: Raw, Cow, CA, Sirah, wine,pedrozo

Price: $900

Toma

Toma

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Point Reyes Dairy in Marin County, just one hour north of San Francisco, california, sent me this modest gouda-like cheese. Toma is an Italian name for farmstead cheese, one thats made on the farm where the cheese is produced. It was only the creamery's second cheese created, after having mastered their Bay Blue, blue cheese that is among the best produced in the country. This one was meant to be a solid, non-finicky, non-precious cheese. It's certainly tasty straight-forward cheese that I thoroughly enjoyed. I cut myself a slice to taste before I started the portrait. I decided to include the bitten slice to further demonstrate this cheese is not precocious, though it's unmistakably delicious.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: cow, Giocamini , CA

Price: sold

Truffle Tremor

Truffle Tremor

Series: Cheese Portraits

Description: Cypress Grove's Truffle Tremor from california, is wonderful! From their website: "The classic flavor of truffle meets the velvety perfection of ripened goat milk cheese. Earthy, elegant, and sophisticated, it's sure to make even the most distinguished taste buds shake!"This cheese is gooey and rich. I had to paint quickly, because it started to droop and drip as I painted it. The dripping slide of this cheese seemed very consistent with its decadent flavor. This is not an innocent cheese.

Origin: USA, california

Tags: california, goat milk

Price: sold