Local Author Expounds on Cheese

Bay View residents peering into the cheese cases at Outpost Natural Foods or G. Groppi Food Market may be standing next to an authority on cheese and other food. Travel and culinary author Jeanette Hurt frequents those stores and recently penned two books on cheese: The Cheeses of Wisconsin: A Culinary Travel Guide and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cheeses of the World with Steve Ehlers.

Hurt’s interest in food began early. Her parents created a reading challenge for their daughter: If she read 100 books, she could choose a restaurant to go out to eat. Her sisters opted for McDonald’s but Hurt picked Magic Pan, an upscale restaurant in Oak Brook, Ill. where she enjoyed the crepes. “At age 5, I was already into food more than most people,” said Hurt. Her parents allowed her to experiment in the kitchen on cuisine for the family dog—she enhanced canned dog food by putting spices in it and heating it up on the stovetop.

Eventually she took formal cooking classes, including those taught by French cuisine instructor Jill Prescott. Hurt learned to discriminate among ingredients, for example choosing a whipping cream free of additives so it does not melt on a warm pie.

Her interest in writing developed in high school, when she enrolled in a journalism class to spend time with her best friend. Hurt enjoyed writing and the thrill of seeing her name in print. She attended Marquette University and worked as a print journalist in Chicago and Milwaukee. In August 2002, she plunged into the less secure role of a freelance writer, which she calls “one of the scariest things I ever did.”

Her first year was minimally profitable, but within six years Hurt built a steady income from articles and books. In addition to the two books already published, Hurt has contracts for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tapas, The Cheese of California: A Culinary Travel Guide, and The Complete Guide to the Cheeses of the World. (Tapas [TAH-paz] is a dining style based on small portions.)

A Cheese Connoisseur
Cheeses of the World is an overview spanning the globe, while Cheeses of Wisconsin focuses on the state’s artisanal cheeses and other dairy products with background on the industry and its people.

Artisanal cheeses, though not strictly defined, are the opposite of mass-produced, low-quality cheese.
“The way I would define it is small production or the type of care that goes into it,” said Hurt.

Some cheese artisans follow organic practices and others are farmstead cheese makers producing cheese from their own animals’ milk. Hurt delves into the personal stories behind the Wisconsin dairy industry, making both the people and their products seem approachable and likable. She is not a food snob in her writing or in person; instead, she imparts explanations that make others able to appreciate fine food.

Though a Chicago native, Hurt claims ancestors in the Wisconsin dairy industry and she has toured nearly every cheese producer in Wisconsin. She is well aware of the importance of the state’s modern dairy industry, perhaps more aware of it than many native Wisconsinites. “Dairy is more important to Wisconsin than potatoes are to Idaho and citrus is to Florida,” she said.

She can spout statistics such as Wisconsin’s stature as the top producer of goat’s milk and knows that California has not topped Wisconsin in cheese production as it has in milk production. The facts keep pouring: Colby and Brick are two American originals created in Wisconsin; cheese curds are not a byproduct but a step in the process; and real Colby cheese has pinprick holes.

“People don’t realize how much world-class cheese we have,” she said.

She is so confident in the quality of Wisconsin cheese that she shipped a box to New Yorkers who were considering her book proposal on Wisconsin cheese. They were impressed—and also granted the book contract.

“Our cheeses are probably more decorated than any other cheeses in the world. Probably the most decorated cheese maker is Sid Cook of Carr Valley,” Hurt said. Cook, just one of the artisans Hurt has met in her research, is a certified Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, which involves seven courses plus an apprenticeship. He’s also the fourth-generation owner of Carr Valley Cheese Company, Inc., headquartered in La Valle, Wis., roughly 20 miles west of Wisconsin Dells.

Steve Ehlers, co-author of Cheeses of the World and owner of Larry’s Market, a specialty grocery in Brown Deer, noted that Hurt is becoming a national authority because of her research. “She is a diligent researcher. She has talked to a lot of producers and importers, and tasted a lot of cheese,” he said, adding that she’s “a really genuine person.”

A Diligent Writer
After years of seeking a book contract and sustaining many rejections, Hurt obtained two book contracts in short order. “It’s really intimidating when you’re just starting. I was on could nine when I got my first book, and I guess I was on cloud 10 when I got my second book,” she said.

Then reality set in and the author began a grueling period of research, interviewing, recipe testing, and writing. Hurt checked out every available book on cheese in Milwaukee’s public libraries, selected from her own collection of 100 recipe books, and then created stacks in the living room and basement office. She tested recipes while dealing with her husband’s year-long kitchen remodeling project. She periodically switched focus between her contracted books and emerged from an intense period from April to mid-August 2007 with two completed books and others on the way.

Looming deadlines once caused her to bring work on the plane during an international vacation, and she maintained her freelance writing business while writing her first two books.

Hurt, who lives in Bay View, belongs to a Bay View writers group and appreciates the neighborhood’s vibe. “I think Bay View is a wonderful community to live in if you are a writer, an artist, or somebody creative,” she said.

She takes advantage of her proximity to the lake, along which she walks her dog, Olivia, every afternoon.

The terrier-hound mix regularly noshes on cheese rind, and Hurt finds herself still enhancing dog food, only now she’s getting paid to do it—her recipe for from-scratch dog biscuits is one of her books. The treats contain cheese, of course.