Cheshire Chat

Loomis Cheese Company

Zingerman’s Delicatessen

422 Detroit St.

Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104

(313) 663-3354

Visa, MasterCard “We kind of got into this as a family business and it grew from there,” explains Bill Loomis, who grew up on a dairy farm in Ann Arbor, Mich. “What we wanted was to make a cheese that represented the Midwest. Cheddar was well covered, and there were already a million goat-cheese makers.” So the family decided on Cheshire, a white, semi-hard cheese that has been made in Britain since the Roman occupation.

A little more than a year ago, Bill’s brother, John, left for England to learn how to make the raw-milk cheese. John is the cheese-maker and Bill is the cheese schlepper. Today Loomis Cheese Co. produces America’s only Cheshire-style cheese, using a 150-year-old cast-iron cheese press the family purchased from a Welsh farmer. “Our knives, hoops, all our cultures are British,” says Bill. He insists that if you want real Cheshire flavor, “you have to have the real stuff.”

One thing is different. “Midwest people want more bang for their buck,” Bill says, “so we kicked up the flavor-notch a couple of marks.” The cheese goes through a 90-day aging process, and when it’s done the Loomis Cheshire is a little stronger and more flavorful than the British varieties.

The Loomis family’s dedication to cheese-making has paid off. Their Cheshire can be found in many top food emporiums, including Dean & Deluca in New York. But despite brisk sales on the East Coast and in Northern California, Loomis Cheshire is still unavailable in Los Angeles. While the company does not sell its cheese by mail, you can order it from Zingerman’s Delicatessen, an upscale Ann Arbor deli that specializes in gourmet food products. Zingerman’s sells the Loomis Cheshire for $7.99 per pound, plus shipping.