Pike Place gets cheesy for festival

The smell enveloping Seattle's Pike Place Market was a bit more pungent this past weekend as the scents of fish, fresh flowers and warm bread were replaced with those of Gouda, Limburger and cheddar.

The Seattle Cheese Festival has become a staple for the city after DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine-a shop serving the Pike Place Market for roughly 60 years-began the festival in 2005.

"I thought it would be a good idea to bring some cheese makers out and expose them to the world," said Pat McCarthy, DeLaurenti owner and the festival's director.

According to McCarthy the festival's purpose is to celebrate cheese and its producers, as well as to provide an outlet for makers to discuss and attend seminars about their craft. The festival focuses most specifically on artisan cheeses from around the Pacific Northwest but also features international cheeses. The Seattle Cheese Festival was one of the first on the West Coast and continues to be one of the largest, drawing thousands of visitors a year.

"It's grown quickly; it's a big event now," McCarthy said. "It has grown a lot larger than we thought it would."

This year the festival hosted roughly 65 vendors from various parts of the world. According to McCarthy, approximately 30 of those cheese makers were local and/or from the Pacific Northwest. The remaining vendors came from around the country and world.

Vendors included French cheese maker Lincet, Italian cheese producer Academia Barilla and the widely popular Tillamook Cheese out of Oregon among the 65.

While the festival and "Cheese Concourse"-a sampling of cheeses from various vendors-were free, there was a suggested donation fee of $1 that went toward the Seattle Cheese Festival scholarship fund. The scholarship is presented yearly to an individual who wishes to continue their education in cheese-making.

"The festival is a non-profit. We fund a foundation that promotes cheese education," said McCarthy.

Aside from the popular "Cheese Concourse," the festival also hosted seminars for cheese makers with titles such as "How to evaluate your cheese like a pro," and "The Cheesmonger-who are we exactly and what is our craft?" All sessions were sold out and in high attendance.

In addition to the seminars, the festival hosted a wine garden, a fresh mozzarella-making demo, cooking demonstrations and a grilled cheese recipe contest. The 2009 award for best-grilled cheese recipe went to Cristal Ortiz, a Washington resident. Her recipe included Walla Walla sweet onions, sliced Grand Como cheese and German beer-a peculiar and different take on the traditional grilled cheese sandwich.

"Cheese has become a very hot food item, in essence, and a lot more people are making cheese," said McCarthy.

The festival takes a year to plan and McCarthy indicates that the 2010 festival is already in the works.

As far as a favorite cheese of the festival, McCarthy indicated that people's tastes tend to run the gamut.

"I love them all," he said. "[Though] I do like smoked cheeses or goat cheeses a lot."