Domestic Cheese of the Week: Laura Chenel Chèvre

With so many new artisanal cheeses on the market, sometimes its easy to forget the cheeses that started it all. One of them is Laura Chenel Chèvre.

Baked Goat Cheese and Greens

© photo by Getty Images/Annabelle Breakey licensed to About.com, Inc.

When Laura Chenel started selling goat cheese in Sonoma, CA in the late 70s, few Americans even knew what chèvre was. Ms. Chenel was a native of California and a woman with a big herd of goats putting out more milk than she could drink. A trip to France and some quality time with French cheesemakers improved Ms. Chenel's cheesemaking skills, and soon she was making what many in the food industry came to call the best goat cheese in America.

It didn't hurt that at the time it was pretty much the only goat cheese in America. But there is no denying her fresh goat logs are fluffy and rich, with a pleasant and not overpowering tangy flavor. Laura Chenel's was the goat cheese that began showing up on simply dressed salads in the early days of California cuisine - warm, coated in bread crumbs and like nothing American palates had tasted before.

In 2006, with demand grown to a size Ms. Chenel probably never could have imagined back in the 1980s, she sold Laura Chenel’s Chèvre to a French company. The cheese sold in the U.S. under the name Laura Chenel is still made from the milk of the 500 or so goats Ms. Chenel still tends, and she is still involved in the operation. While some people grumbled about the idea of a small, artisan company "selling out," I say, good for her. After more than twenty-five years of hard work, I'd say Ms. Chenel deserves the chance to have a little bit of a life outside of cheesemaking.