Cheese whizzes

By Christine Steele
The Daily Reporter-Herald

April 3, 2005

What does is take for a small Fort Collins cheese maker to take home 10 medals in the World Cheese Awards in London, the most prestigious cheese competition in the world? It’s all about the cheese, Tom Johnson says.

Tom and his wife, Kristi, started Bingham Hill Cheese in 1999 with no background in cheese making, no startup funds from the state and no idea what they were getting into.

Tom is an English major with a master’s degree in watershed science, and Kristi is a microbiologist with a law degree who worked on Prozac patents for Eli Lilly. Both had started businesses before, but they had never made a batch of cheese.

The couple said they saw an opportunity to combine their natural love of cheese with something that was happening in the country.

“Americans were discovering cheese, and we wanted to be a part of it,” Tom said.

Kristi said she had heard about artisanal cheese making on both coasts, but there was little going on in between. Haystack Mountain Dairy in Niwot had been producing cheese for several years, but no one in the region was making cheese using cow or sheep’s milk. Taking their cue from those in the beer industry, Kristi said, “We knew that people in Colorado would embrace artisan cheeses because they had already embraced microbreweries.”

After visiting cheese plants in Wisconsin, Iowa and Haystack Mountain in Niwot, taking cheese-making classes, Tom at Cal Poly-Tech, and Kristi at the University of Wisconsin, and a lot of sweat equity and funding from family and friends, the Johnsons produced their first batch of cheese.

When a CSU student the couple hired to do renovations at their plant showed up for work with a broken thumb from a snowboarding accident, the Johnsons sat him down at a computer and told him to choose some names from the American Cheese Society’s Web site to send samples of their first batch of cheese.

He couldn’t have had better luck.

Bingham Hill’s Rustic Blue — described by Kristi as a cheddar with a blue veiny streak — found its way to a buyer for Dean & DeLuca, the upscale New York-based specialty food retailer. The company has been buying the Johnsons’ cheese ever since.

While that first batch of cheese was a success, the next 20, Tom said, “were nothing to write home about.”

The Johnsons’ method for testing the cheese is rather unscientific. They taste it. If they like it, they send it out. If not, they don’t. During their first year, Kristi said the company threw out 10 percent to 15 percent of the cheese they produced. These days, Tom said, quality has become more consistent, and very little is thrown out at their site at 216 Commerce Drive. But even today, every batch — and sometimes every wheel — is tested, Kristi said.

Florian Wehrli, executive chef and co-owner of Chimney Park restaurant in Windsor, began buying Bingham Hill’s cheese three years ago when he was head chef at top-rated restaurants in Las Vegas and New York City.

Wehrli is from Switzerland — “the land of cheese,” he says — and Bingham Hill cheese is well-known in fine dining circles, winning many awards.

Wehrli said he likes Bingham Hill because the cheese is fresh and local — his restaurant uses locally produced ingredients whenever possible — but he said he also likes the Johnsons’ cheese because it is different.

“They are not trying to copy other cheeses,” he said. “They make their own creations.”

The Johnsons’ model for developing new cheeses is also rather unscientific.

“We come up with ideas we think people might like,” Kristi said. “And what we might like, because we don’t make cheese we don’t like.”

While several local restaurants and retailers carry Bingham Hill’s cheese, including Whole Foods Market in Fort Collins and The Fourth Street Chop House in Loveland, the Johnsons’ cheese is more famous in places such as New York and San Francisco.

Brad La Rocco, Bingham Hill’s production manager and head cheesemaker, said the company is finally being appreciated as an artisan cheesemaker and cheese is finally being recognized as an artisianal product.

“It is kind of like the wine industry was maybe 25 years ago,” he said. Most importantly, he said, “Cheese is not only from Wisconsin anymore.”

While the success of the business has been steadily growing, the Johnsons said their favorite part is eating cheese and developing new creations.

Tom said it is also rewarding when local residents come across Bingham Hill cheese outside the area.

“They come back so excited to see that a piece of Fort Collins has made it to another part of the country,” he said.

“People always think of quitting their day job and doing something romantic like this, but it is still a day job,” Kristi said. “It’s still 70 hours a week. But it is so rewarding to hold something in your hand at the end of the day.”