Our Mission
Celebrating the quality and diversity of artisan cheeses produced in California through partnerships, outreach and education.
History
We credit Clark Wolf, a renowned food consultant and former Bay Area cheese professional, with developing the original idea for a California cheesemaker’s guild. He realized there needed to be an organization that represented the plethora of cheesemakers across the state. It was 2006 when he reserved a URL (cacheeseguild.org) and gathered the forces of several local visionaries including Jennifer Bice, Jill Basch, Lynne Devereux, Juliana Uruburu and Laura Martinez. The group created bylaws, a website, and started soliciting memberships. Non-profit status came in 2008. John Mackey provided enormous support as a pro bono attorney. Maureen Cunnie provided enormous support in getting cheesemaker education off the ground in partnership with College of Marin.
As we celebrate more than a decade of service to California’s artisan cheese community, our Guild has blossomed into the foremost cheese organization in the State. Our hundreds of members represent the breadth of California from northern coastal counties to the southern border, from the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley. We form a collaborative community of makers, mongers, distributors, food writers, and food safety experts. Our cheeses are sold across the State and beyond. We host and participate in dozens of events and educational forums each year.
Anthea Stolz
Executive Director
Anthea began working with cheese at Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, MI, after graduating from college with degrees in Economics and French Literature. It became clear that she preferred Beaufort to Baudelaire, and what she thought would be a summer job behind the cheese counter turned into three years of eye-opening learning and tasting. She moved to San Francisco in 2007 and worked at The Pasta Shop in Oakland, CA, before moving on to manage the cheese program for the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses. She has worked with the California Artisan Cheese Guild since 2015.
2021 Board of Directors
Officers
Anastasia Stuyt
President
Anastasia is the Cheesemaker for Stuyt Dairy Farmstead Cheese Co. which is located in the small town of Escalon, California. Anastasia has worked there since her parents started the company in 2015. Her father taught her the art of cheese making. Not only is Anastasia the cheesemaker, but she also cares for the cheese throughout its aging process, is a certified lab technician and wrote their Food Safety Plan.
Raymond Rumiano
Vice President
Brittany Hartwell
Secretary
Born and raised on the northern Sonoma Coast, Brittany has always been surrounded by food production. Her experiences raising livestock to feed her family, picking apples in her neighbor’s orchard, and tasting the freshest of fresh chèvres from a friend’s dairy goats nurtured her passion for the artisan food industry. Brittany has traveled the globe and worked as a pastry chef, bartender, and cheesemonger. She is currently the store director at the Palace Market in Point Reyes Station.
Tim Welsh
Treasurer
Born and raised in the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah, Tim studied at Oregon State University and received his BS in Finance from the David Eccles school of business at the University of Utah. Pre-cheese, Tim spent 15 years in the accounting, finance, and custom software development world. He is a foodie, which led to the creation of Beehive Cheese Company in 2005 with his brother-in-law, Pat Ford. Tim has three boys – Britton, Hayden and Cole, who all currently work at Beehive Cheese. He enjoys music, travel, cooking and supporting his community.
Keith Adams, Wm. Cofield Cheesemakers
Keith is the Cheesemaker and Co-founder of Wm. Cofield Cheesemakers in Sebastopol. Dedicated to making British-inspired cheese from organic Sonoma County milk, Cofield has been in production for just over 3 years. Prior to that, Keith was the founder and is still managing partner of Alemar Cheese, based In Minnesota.
Jennifer Giambroni, California Milk Advisory Board
Jennifer is the Director of Communications for the California Milk Advisory Board, where she manages an integrated public relations program supporting all CMAB initiatives in the U.S. and overseas. She joined the CMAB in 2009 from the PR agency side of the business, where she conducted consumer marketing communications programs for national and international food and beverage companies. She is a former president of the San Francisco Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has been active on the board of the International Association of Business Communicators’ (SF/IABC) San Francisco Chapter.
Sarah Hendrix, Chef, Lady & Larder
Sarah Hendrix is the chef behind Los Angeles cheese shop and cheese board delivery service, Lady & Larder, which she founded together with her twin sister, Boo Simms in 2016. Sarah was raised with the notion that the dinner table was a sacred place and today, maintains that the only thing bigger than her love of food is her love of sharing it with others. Over the past 15+ years she has developed a profound respect for American-made, seasonal ingredients and a deep appreciation for the role beautiful food plays in creating moments for people to connect and enjoy time together. Lady & Larder has become the go-to for Southern Californians looking to celebrate and entertain with their artistry and memorable cheese, cured meat and crudité displays. Their brick and mortar shop is located in West Los Angeles.
Lindsey Mendes, Central Coast Creamery
Growing up in Hilmar, CA, Lindsey has always had a special place in her heart for the dairy industry, especially for cheese. She attended Cal Poly where she studied Dairy Science. Lindsey started working at Central Coast Creamery in Paso Robles, CA, while still attending Cal Poly. Upon graduating, she became their first full-time employee. Seven years later she is now the production manager/cheesemaker at Central Coast Creamery.
Liz Rubin, Bi-Rite Market
My name is Liz Rubin and I have worked in the Bay Area cheese community for over 9 years. I have worked as a monger for Mission Cheese from 2011 to 2013 and Bi-Rite Market from 2013 to 2015 and then again from 2016 to the present. I was a cheese buyer for Bom Dia Market for their year of existence, 2015-2016. I am currently the Category Sales Manager for Alcohol for the Birite Family of Businesses. Alongside my primary jobs, I participated as the Cheese Committee Chair for the Good Food Awards 3 separate times, the most recent being in 2019 and have done consulting for The Cheese School of San Francisco and Fishers Cheese and Wine.
Rory Stamp, Cowgirl Creamery
Rory Stamp, the Marketing Manager at Cowgirl Creamery, has worked in the artisan cheese industry for almost a decade. A native Vermonter, Rory began his career milking on an organic dairy, later training at the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, making cheese Consider Bardwell Farm, and working as a cheesemonger and educator at Formaggio Kitchen. As the Director of Sales and Marketing for Shelburne Farms, Rory joined the Vermont Cheese Council and served on the Board and chaired the Marketing Committee, while spearheaded education for the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival in 2018 and 2019. An ACS CCP and former chair of Slow Food Vermont, Rory won the 2018 Winter Cheesemonger Invitational and was named the World’s 4th Best Cheesemonger at the 2019 Concours Mondial du Fromage.
Luciana Villanueva, Gus’s Community Market
Born in Italy, Luciana’s roots began deeply entrenched in the culture of food. She currently serves as the cheese coordinator for Gus’s Community Market. After a robust career in sales/marketing, Luciana wanted to do something FUN and that is when the world of cheese was discovered. An ACS Certified Cheese Professional, Luciana loves exploring new cheeses/pairings and is continually inspired by our local cheesemaking community. Living la vita queso !!
CALIFORNIA ARTISAN CHEESE GUILD
Our Mission is Celebrating the quality and diversity of artisan cheese produced in California through partnerships, outreach and education.
