Cheese: Later Developments: Conclusion

As Americans experience farm cheeses, they are reluctant to return to plastic-wrapped or spray-can cheeses and are willing to pay more for better products. A 2004 survey by the California milk advisory board found that 83 percent of one hundred Napa and Sonoma valley restaurants served cheese in their appetizer course, up from 19 percent in 2001. More cheeses are identified by producer and region on menus, a practice also becoming common in retail shops that carry these products. More shops are springing up that carry these cheeses. Young people, including young chefs, are more frequently seeking careers in the specialty cheese business; some are returning to make cheese themselves on the farm. Taken as a whole, specialty cheese in the United States may be analogous to the wine industry in the 1980s, although no one predicts it will be as large a market.