C H E E S E R E P O R T E R 15March 30, 2012

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With Gold Medal From World Cheese ContestUnder Its Belt, Gold Creek Farms Vows ToStay ‘Small And Special’Kamas, UT—Despite the acclaimand increased demand that accom-panies winning one of the cheeseindustry’s top honors, a small Utahfarmstead cheese company plans tomaintain its status quo.

Gold Creek Farms, based here,won Best of Class in the SmokedHard Cheese class with its CheddarSmoked with Cherry Wood entry inthe 2012 World ChampionshipCheese Contest. The cheese was alsoone of 16 cheeses that made the finalround of judging in the contest.

Its Parmesan Smoked with CherryWood secured second place in thesame class with a score of 99.10.

The cheese operation at GoldCreek Farms has been around for justthree years.

The 300-acre ranch was originallypurchased by owners Alan and Deb-bie Gold in 2007, with little morethan a milking barn on site.

After setting up a small-scalecheese manufacturing facility, theGolds went through three cheesemakers before the company’s currentmanager and head cheese maker Fer-nando Chavez-Sandoval came onboard.

As a former chef, Chavez-San-doval spent several years leading pri-vate catering events in and aroundPark City, UT, which is where hefirst met the Golds.

“I live five miles from the ranch,they knew I was reliable, and theysaw the passion I had for food,”Chavez-Sandoval said.

I come from a family of cheesemakers in Mexico, he said. It all justconnected from there.

The Golds helped pay for cheese-making courses at Utah State Uni-versity, and Chavez-Sandoval madehis first batch of cheese for GoldCreek Farm in March 2009.

“I always wanted a dream job, andnow I feel I have one,” he said.

The on-site cheese plant is small –just 150 square feet – and milk is sup-plied from 12 cows on the ranch.

“We’re a small operation, and this isdefinitely something that we’re tryingto keep,” Chavez-Sandoval said.

When cheese companies winawards like a few in Utah haverecently, it’s an opportunity to growand expand, he said. For us, we’renot planning on that. We plan tokeep it small and special.

We’re a very sustainable farm,Chavez-Sandoval said. We grow ourown feed, and help recycle beergrains from local breweries and dis-tilleries.

Gold Creek Farm makes between400 and 550 pounds of cheese perweek. Luckily, the company spent itsfirst year making cheese for aging –selling just Mozzarella and freshcurds – and now Gold Creek hasroughly 25,000 pounds of cheese incold storage, ready to sell.

The company sells its cheese pri-marily in Utah through food distrib-utor Nicholas & Company, Inc., ahandful of local retail stores, farmers’markets and online.

Secret To Great Smoked Cheese?At first, the Golds were hesitant toadd smoked cheese to the company’sproduct lineup, but as a chef,Chavez-Sandoval was prone toexperimentation.

He secretly smoked a block ofcheese, placed it amongst othersmoked varieties and invited the staffand friends to a blind tasting.

“After I made mine, I knew therewas something special about it,” hesaid. “I had five different smokedcheeses from different companies,and they all chose mine as the best.”

There’s no elusive secret formulato great smoked cheese, according toChavez-Sandoval

“We basically have a regularsmoker like anyone else,” he said.“I just look for a color on thecheese. When it gets to the colorI’m looking for, that’s when I knowit’s done.”

Other than that, we use cherrywood sourced from the mountains,he continued.

Smoked and other varieties areCryovaced for retail sales and cheeseclub members, and five-pound bagsare available for foodservice clients.

Utah’s Artisan Cheese CommunityGrows; Lends Support & SuppliesArtisan cheesemaking in Utah isgrowing by leaps and bounds, saidChavez-Sandoval, and we all helpeach other out. When BeehiveCheese in Unitah needed bacteria,Gold Creek came through. Andwhen Chavez-Sandoval ran out ofbags, Beehive offered up some of itssupply.

“It’s hard to compete with placesthat produce three, four or five timesas much cheese as I do, but we’redoing something that’s unique,” hesaid.

Gold Creek Farm recently added afull-time assistant to help Chavez-Sandoval, who just added Asiagoand Romano to the company’scheese line.

Products also include Feta, Parme-san, Pasta Filata, Mozzarella, freshcheese curds and flavored Cheddarin varieties like Cumin, Cherry-Sageand Maple-Basil.

“You can imagine with only 12cows and having all of these cheeses,it’s a little hard to keep up,” he said.

Chavez-Sandoval also continueshosting private culinary events fea-turing, of course, cheese from GoldCreek Farm.

Famous Park City Resident DigsFried Cheese CurdsGold Creek Farms is convenientlylocated about 16 miles from Park

City, home to the famous SundanceFilm Festival and its founder, actorRobert Redford.

Gold Creek has been supplyingcheese to Redford’s Park City restau-rant Zoom since 2011, where friedcheese curds are a hot item.

“There’s essentially no one inUtah making fried cheese curds,”Chavez-Sandoval said.

The Zoom chef was skeptical atfirst, but changed his mind after thefirst taste, he continued.

The awards and celebrity fans havebrought the small cheese company anew level of recognition and status,but Gold Creek Farms plans to keepproduction right where it is now.

Previously, the company had triedto partner with Whole Foods Marketto sell its cheese, but didn’t receivean answer.

“We tried when we were nobody –we had no recognition,” Chavez-Sandoval said. “Now if we get thatphone call saying Whole Foodswants to carry our cheese nation-wide, we might have to say ‘no.’ It allcomes down to numbers at thispoint. We would love to be part ofWhole Foods, but we’re not plan-ning on expanding.”

For more information, contactGold Creek Farms at (800) 517-7670 or visit www.goldcreek-farm.com. rr

Fernando Chavez-Sandoval, manager and head cheese maker at Gold Creek Farms, was inspiredto add smoked cheese to the company’s product line after working many years as a private chef,smoking everything from prime rib to fish.