In every business, there are the major trade shows/conferences/events that really distill the best of what that business or industry is about.

For me, my business and passion is artisan cheese, and my iconic event is the Slow Food Cheese Festival in Bra, Italy. This gathering represents all that’s good and wonderful in the world of cheese. I’ve lusted in my heart after this festival since 2001, when I first found this calling while working as a part-time, minimum wage cheesemonger. But first, about Slow Food Cheese: This is an event held in the fall on odd numbered years in the town of Bra, about 50 km south of Turin, in the beautiful Piemonte region of Italy. This year the dates are September 18-21. What’s not to love—It’s a town full of cheese! Booths and cheesemakers and workshops and markets and lots and lots of farmstead, artisan and traditional cheese from around the world.

And what’s so special about this year? Well, I’m going for one, so, it’s special to me! But more than that, this year, the first all-American booth at Slow Food Cheese will be sponsored by the company I’m lucky enough to work for, Atlanta Foods International. Is this the right time to say that I love my job? Yes, not only am I attending, I’m working it, I’m part of all the fabulous cheesiness of it. Atlanta Foods has prepared a booth in which to showcase five of the many great cheeses that the US has to offer, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this. I’ll be blogging here for the next few weeks about the event, the cheeses, the trials of setting up a food show in Italy from Atlanta, all of that. I’ll be starting this week with an introduction to the cheeses and cheesemakers that we will be exhibiting in Italy, and whatever else happens along the way. The cheeses that will be exhibiting in our booth are:

• Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk
• Vermont Butter and Cheese Coupole
• Vella Cheese Company Vella Dry Jack
• Uplands Cheese Company Pleasant Ridge Reserve
• Rogue Creamery Rogue River Blue 

Thanks for reading, and if you have questions, ask away! And if you’ve been to this fest before, and have tips and advice, send them on!

-Saxon

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