In Wisconsin, cheesemaker roots run deep. Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of Sid Cook of Carr Valley Cheese.  The state's most decorated cheesemaker, with more than 200 awards earned during the past five years, Cook grew up – literally – in a cheese plant.

 

"You opened the door on the side of the kitchen and there was the vat," Cook says matter-of-factly.  As a fourth-generation cheesemaker, one might assume because Cook started working in the family business before age 12, earned his cheesemaker's license at 16, and now owns and operates three cheese plants and seven retail stores with 80 employees, that his profession was a foregone conclusion.

 

Not so.  After high school, Cook went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and earned a bachelor's degree in political science.  But the call of the family business soon beckoned.  Thirty years later, Cook is the mastermind behind more than 50 original cheeses and is a certified Master Cheesemaker for Cheddar, Fontina, Mobay and Gran Canaria.  

 

To remain profitable in a rapidly-consolidating industry, Cook looks to innovation to stay on top.  It was at his first plant in LaValle, Wis., where he first began devoting significant time to experiment with new styles of cheeses.  He soon began targeting production toward artisan and Wisconsin Original cheeses – specialties that attract higher prices from chefs and consumers.  He also insisted on crafting cheeses through time-tested methods -- in other words -- doing it by hand.

 

"We still do it the old-fashioned way," Cook says.  "Our goal has never been to become bigger, but to produce high quality cheeses with a lot of flavor."

 

Cook admits that he eats, sleeps and dreams about cheese.  Of the 80 varieties he currently crafts, more than half are his own creations.  Take Cocoa Cardona, for example.  Aged with a rind that's been rubbed with velvety cocoa powder, the smooth and snowy cheese takes a customer by surprise with its subtle chocolate flavor.  And then there's nutty Gran Canaria, made from the mixed milk of grass fed cows, goats and sheep and aged for at least two years in olive oil.  Its deeply complex flavor and crumbly texture earned the Best of Show title at the 2004 American Cheese Society competition. 

 

Cook has also been known to name his original creations after natural landmarks, such as his Baraboo Blue, named for a nearby city in Wisconsin.  He's also named cheeses after his family, including daughter, Marisa, 20 and son, Sam, 25.  In fact, Cook describes his Cave Aged Marisa, a seasonal cheese made with milk from pastured Wisconsin sheep, much as he describes his daughter - sweet and slightly rambunctious.  But both are true originals.  Cave Aged Marisa has taken home a number of awards, including Best of Show at the 2006 Wisconsin State Fair, and most recently, Second Runner-Up Best in Show at the 2008 American Cheese Society.

 

With more than 50 types of original cheeses already to his name, one might wonder if the creative well has dried up.  No worries, says Cook.  "I'm always working on new cheeses. To make and age cheeses for as long as my family has, it just comes naturally."

 

For more information about Carr Valley Cheese, visit http://www.carrvalleycheese.com/

 

Profile by Jeanne Carpenter. Photo courtesy of Carr Valley Cheese.