{"id":17164,"date":"2014-12-27T07:59:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T12:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=17164"},"modified":"2023-02-07T15:04:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T20:04:42","slug":"chefs-dish-kurt-beecher-dammeier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/chefs-dish-kurt-beecher-dammeier\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef’s Dish: Kurt Beecher Dammeier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Beecher\u2019s Handmade Cheese<\/a> founder and chef Kurt Beecher Dammeier developed his love for cheese at a young age. He recalls eagerly gobbling up hunks of cheddar, Stilton, and provolone at his grandparents\u2019 house when he was a child, and he experienced a \u201ccheese awakening\u201d during a trip to Europe as a high school student. But it wasn\u2019t until later in life that he got into the business of making and selling cheese. He\u2019d been working at his grandfather\u2019s printing company for 18 years when the family decided to sell the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt age 38 I got to start a new career with a couple of coins in my pocket,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I decided the second chapter would be all about passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dammeier that translated to food, and more specifically cheese. He opened Beecher\u2019s Handmade Cheese in Seattle\u2019s Pike Place Market in 2003, after taking a cheesemaking course at Washington State University and ultimately hiring an experienced Oregon cheesemaker. \u201cBefore we opened we bought samples of every cheese we could find in the entire city. We tasted each one and talked about the pluses and minuses of making cheeses like that.\u201d They chose to model their signature cheese directly on Cougar Gold<\/a>, a rich white cheddar made by Dammeier\u2019s alma mater, Washington State University. The result was Beecher\u2019s Flagship<\/a>, a nutty, semi-hard cow\u2019s milk cheese that\u2019s a cross between cheddar and Gruy\u00e8re. It remains the most popular cheese sold at Beecher\u2019s today, although the peppery, open-air-aged Marco Polo Reserve is one of Dammeier\u2019s personal favorites and a regular first-place winner at the annual American Cheese Society Judging & Competition. These are just two of 17 varieties of cheese produced by Beecher\u2019s at Pike Place Market<\/a> and a second store and restaurant in New York City, opened in 2011. Both locations have glass-enclosed cheesemaking facilities so customers and passersby can watch the process firsthand.<\/p>\n

\"Kurt<\/a>

Kurt Beecher Dammeier<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFor many people it\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve seen – or even thought about – how cheese is made. Everybody knows the nursery rhyme words \u2018curds\u2019 and \u2018whey,\u2019 but most have no idea that\u2019s from cheesemaking,\u201d says Dammeier. \u201cWe want to educate people and get them thinking about how all their food is made.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, in 2004 he founded the Beecher\u2019s Pure Food Kids Foundation (originally called the Beecher\u2019s Flagship Foundation) with the aim of teaching kids about food additives and empowering them to make informed, healthy food choices for life. The foundation has since developed a program of nutrition education and cooking workshops for fourth- and fifth-grade students in Seattle and New York City, and has reached over 56,000 kids since 2006. \u201cOur goal is to change the way America eats, and our base strategy is to try to spark interest in fourth and fifth graders and use them as the Trojan horse into the home and pocket- book, ultimately changing the demand for unhealthy food, which will, of course, change the supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dammeier\u2019s commitment to pure food is also evident at Beecher\u2019s. The stores carry only foods that are free of artificial preservatives, flavor enhancers, and colors, and their own cheeses are handmade with milk from Holstein and Jersey cows that have not been treated with growth hormones. In addition to proprietary cheeses, the stores sell a rotating array of exclusively American cheeses. \u201cIn 2003 it wasn\u2019t easy to find 75 to 85 great American cheeses to sell,\u201d Dammeier says. But now the opposite problem occurs: \u201cIn 2014 it\u2019s painful to make the selection amongst the 500 cheeses you\u2019d like to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to incorporating cheese into cooking, Dammeier likes to use it in varying degrees depending on the dish. \u201cI like it to be a seasoning, or an ingredient even at levels that are not perceptible as cheese, just to build that umami background,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a bass note in a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also believes cooking with cheese shouldn\u2019t be fussy. \u201cGood food is all about balance. I\u2019m pretty particular about what I eat, and I don\u2019t like to waste a single bite of food on nastiness. I\u2019ll stay hungry while I search for something good to eat. But that doesn\u2019t always mean fancy; it just means real.\u201d He adds, \u201cFor me cheese is not like wine – sniff it and talk a ton about it. It\u2019s just eat it and go, \u2018Yeah, this is good.\u2019 It\u2019s more about the story behind the cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beecher’s Breakfast Strata<\/h3>\n
\"Beecher's<\/a>

This breakfast strata<\/a> has everything a strata should: a crusty brown top, a creamy center, and savory, full flavors.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Champion of American Cheese Kurt Beecher Dammeier shares his take on comfort food classics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3386,31],"tags":[13964,21753,13967,7745],"coauthors":[579,328],"class_list":["post-17164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chefs","category-recipes","tag-beechers-handmade-cheese","tag-cheese-recipes","tag-kurt-beecher-dammeier","tag-strata"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChef's Dish: Kurt Beecher Dammeier - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Champion of American Cheese Kurt Beecher Dammeier shares his take on comfort food classics\" \/>\n<meta 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