We get excited when people get excited about cheese.
- 6 hours ago
- 16 min read
Jessica Woods
Cheesemonger | Wild Rind, Las Vegas, NV
I think a pivotal point was moving to Las Vegas. I spent a long time in dentistry and I still have my hand in dentistry; my formal training is as a dental hygienist. I had a job that I really liked when I lived in California and my husband got the opportunity to relocate out here, so I had a bit of an identity crisis. I felt like I had finally moved up and I was in a role I was really well-suited for. I remember on one of the drives to Las Vegas telling my husband, “You know, I’m kind of starting over — no one knows me as dental Jessica, so I could really do whatever I want.” and he’s like, “Well, what do you think you would do?” I was like, “I think I’d open up a cheese shop.” He’s like, “Really?” and I was like, “Yeah!” So he was like, “All right, well, do it.” If only it were that easy!
I think the inspiration came from a small cheese shop where we lived; we’d go there on Friday nights and pick up some cheese and veg out and have some wine and it was a little ritual of ours. At the time, it didn’t seem like there was anything like that here in Las Vegas, surprisingly, with how big the food scene is. I gave it some thought and I ended up getting a job in the dental industry when I got here, but it just stuck with me. I started making cheese platters for friends and neighbors. I started learning about cheese and grew my hobby and then I saw all these cute little old vintage trailers where people were doing bars, and I thought that would be cute to serve wine and cheese out of, keep your overhead lower, because I wasn’t ready to jump right in.
I started looking on craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, and ended up finding a trailer out by the speedway in north Las Vegas and bought it for $500. I think the hard part was finding one that was beat-up enough where you felt ok ripping it apart but not so beat-up that we didn’t know what we were doing. So we bought the trailer, and I think that’s what set everything in motion a little more formally. That was in 2019. I’ll share a little bit about my personal life, too — I had just had a miscarriage and it sent me through a loop. I think it’s really common to find a hobby or put yourself into something when you’re going through something like that. That’s what we did, me and my husband, and I’ll give him credit because it was more my husband restoring the trailer and during that time; I started trying to build a brand. I worked in corporate America and I knew a lot about marketing and branding, so I was like, I’m going to spend this time to slowly start building a brand. I came up with the name Wild Rind. In the cheese world, they call them either “natural rinds” or “wild rinds,” and it’s really when the elements can impart themselves on the cheese. It’s not so structured and rigid, the flavors come from the environment and so it’s a free-spirited cheese. I really liked that name and went with it, I think it embodies what we do. We’ve had some evolutions and we’ve done some different things, we aways try to do fun stuff with cheese and do different pairings and so I think it really embodies our brand pretty well.
That was back in middle of 2019 when we got the trailer and started restoring it. It took a little longer than expected because rolling into COVID and then I got pregnant and I had a pretty tough pregnancy, but all the while still making cheese platters. We started working with some other local businesses doing cheese pairing classes and getting our name out there.
It started as a passion project that got a little out of control, in a good way. Up until the end of last year, I still had a corporate job and still leading the business and building the team, but delegating more, which has been an experience. I think we’ve built a really great team that shares the vision and the passion for the business. They’ve been very instrumental in the growth. I got laid off at the end of the year and so now I’m in another transitionary period of trying to figure out, is it time to go all-in with the business, or what. I think when I started it was more of a creative outlet and as it’s got going, now we’re delivering a product that people are into. As time goes on, you start to say, “This might actually be a feasible pathway to go down.” It can be a little scary to take the leap, so we’ll see where things take us in the future. We’ve continued to evolve and build our business and we have some exciting things on the horizon for our next phase. I’ve been working on some things behind the scenes… probably a little too early to share!
A lot of these charcuterie businesses popped in during COVID and a lot of them have faded away — there’s still some of them that have stuck around. I started out making the cheese platters for family and friends in my kitchen but as you evolve the business, it starts to become a little less of a hobby and… a business. You’re dealing with business licenses and bookkeeping and health permits and fire permits and all of these things, and there’s definitely a learning curve. I think that’s where that line between hobby and business is, and where that fallout comes from. That can be a challenge with the business: people see the pretty outside and then when they come to work, it’s like, no, there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes that’s not as glamorous as this beautifully plated cheese. Thankfully, I’m a little bit of a nerd and I don’t mind that stuff too much. So it’s worked for us where I stay in the administrative realm of it and my team does more of the hands-on customer-facing. But for me as a mother, that works because it allows me to have some flexibility because events can be on evenings and weekends. But we share the load, too; today I’m going to be the face doing the event.
I really like events and coordinating events. I was always the friend planning the dinner parties and the bridal showers and things, so it was a way to fill a niche that wasn’t here. Now, I’ve been here almost 10 years and there’s a little more happening around cheese, but still not as much as you would think with a population this size and the industry that’s here. I think my husband is used to me being a little off the wall anyway, and so it didn’t come as a surprise. He’s been very supportive. He’s the one in the background doing the stuff that nobody wants to do: moving the trailer, moving our car, cleaning, repairing things. That’s probably how he prefers it, he’s more of a background kind of guy. And he gets to taste-test.
I feel like cheese is almost like wine… there’s small producers and large producers. I think you could spend your whole life studying it and still maybe not even scratch the surface. Probably to the average person I’m more knowledgeable, but in my own mind I still feel pretty novice. The one cool thing, I love to travel and so I’ve been able to blend my business with travel. I’ve been to Italy, I’ve been to France, even Japan does some cheese things and competes in cheese competitions and has a wine region. Whenever I travel, I try to incorporate that and get off the beaten path a little and try to meet producers and try different cheeses. There’s still a lot to learn; I’m technically not a certified cheese professional… yet! It takes a lot of study. It’s the same type of deal as becoming a sommelier. Naturally, with cheese, beverage goes along with that so it’s also sparked more of an interest, I’ve done a lot of wine studies, I’m certified in sake, I’m studying French wine for a French wine scholar program right now. I think they really go hand in hand. My husband likes beer, so I told him he can get the beer certifications.
I’ve also taken milk chemistry classes, having a science background. All the proteins play a role in the taste and the texture of the cheeses and what people don’t realize — but it makes a lot of sense when you say it — in a lactating mother, the milk changes to adapt to the young. You’re going to have more fat in your milk when it’s colder outside, less fat when it’s warmer outside. The milk’s going to have a different flavor profile depending on what they’re eating — are they eating fresh grass or dry hay? It’s going to impart on the milk and in turn on the cheese. Understanding that producers want cheeses to taste the same year-round, there are techniques they use to do that. Sometimes they’ll use milk from the spring and they’ll call it one cheese, and they’ll use milk from the fall or winter — it’s the same cows and the same milk, but it’s going to taste different and so maybe call it something else. It maybe sounds boring and it’s not for everybody but with my background in healthcare I’ve taken a lot of science classes so for me it felt natural. I had a good foundation to understand the microbiology that’s going on there.
There are different colleges around the country that have wine production or cheese classes. A lot in central California and norther California. I try to learn from around me, I just bootstrapped and did it all myself — no formal training, just learned everything as I’ve gone. I think I have some translatable skills from working in the corporate environment that have helped me but it’s a lot of facing your fears and figuring it out. I do think that’s a point of differentiation from our business and some of the other charcuterie businesses: we’re not buying and using the same cheese, we’re doing a lot of training behind the scenes with the team to know about the cheeses to make recommendations, to make pairings, to understand what the customer likes. Sure, when we do events we keep it to crowd-pleasing cheeses that typically everybody likes. When we do our classes, we get more funky and fun and try to get people to try things they wouldn’t have tried; because it’s a smaller format, there isn’t as big of a commitment.
I say favorite cheeses are like having favorite children — it can depend on the day. It’s the same when people ask, “What’s your favorite wine?” Is it hot or cold outside, did I have an easy going day or did I have a hard day, what do I need? I really like blooming rind cheeses, soft cheeses like brie-style triple creams. I pretty much will never say no to those. They go good with savory, they go good with sweet. I’m a big sparkling wine/champagne fan, and they go really nice with that, too. They can feel cozy in the winter and light in the spring, you can do them up a bunch of different ways. But I know they’re not for everybody. I like all cheeses, I think they all have their place. Some of the more funky, stinky blue cheeses — what’s interesting is I do like them, I like the taste, but I don’t really like it on food. I don’t want blue cheese on my salad or on my pizza. I’d rather have it by itself, paired perfectly with a wine. I love to have some blue cheese with a sweet dessert wine or Sauternes. I’m not the type that wants it sprinkled all over my food.
I always love a cheese that has a good story, and many of them do — about the producers or the animals or what have you. Those are good for when we’re doing classes and pairings; it’s always good to have a story for the cheese, how they came up with the idea or how they produce it.
Point Reyes in central coast California, I’ve gotten to go there and see their operation. Speaking of blue cheese, they were one of the original blue cheese producers outside of Europe in the United States and they did a really nice job. A lot of times when people say “I don’t like blue cheese, it’s too funky,” I go, “Go with something domestic,” because oftentimes you’re going to get something a little fresher than if you’re importing it, and so it’s not going to be quite as funky because it doesn’t have as much age on it. Being that it’s from California, I’ve gotten some really fresh pieces that are really light and nice. But they do some really cool stuff with their farming there. They have tons of cows and one really cool thing is that they have these necklaces that they put on the cows and it’s an automated feeding system, I think it’s every eight hours or something. So when the cows walk up to the gate, the necklace knows if they’ve been milked within the last eight hours and it won’t let them come in. But if they haven’t, then they walk in and the udders are scanned and they attach — it’s pretty cool to see where automation has come in.
In Japan, I met with some renowned cheesemongers that have competed nationally and their teams have won. I spent the day with them learning how to cut and plate cheese and got to taste some of their local Japanese cheeses, which was really fun because Japan has its own style; how I cut and plate cheeses is much different. Theirs looks like origami, it’s very ornate, so that was really fun to spend time with them and learn some of those techniques. They don’t do a lot of exporting, it’s pretty small production and it really only services their country. They might submit to some of the judging contests. They do a blooming rind style and during the cherry blossom season they take the cherry blossom leaves and put them inside the cheese to infuse it.
I went to Taiwan and met with a few cheesemakers there, one in particular was from France but he had relocated there so he had a more French style. They use different types of cows and it’s very small production, just serving the restaurant industry there for their dishes.
Italy… you can’t say enough amazing things. I got to make fresh mozzarella with a fifth generation cheese maker on the Amalfi coast and then you take that fresh mozzarella and go out on the patio with some prosecco and you have the ocean breeze… definitely one of the good days of my life.
I think you can crown yourself a cheesemonger. Knowing how to handle cheese and care for cheese and plate cheese, I’ve done different cheese bootcamps and things, so I feel confident calling myself that now. The one that does have a more formal pathway is the Certified Cheese Professional® that’s through the American Cheese Society. That’s a pretty intense study and testing and you get some letters after your name. It’s probably something that eventually I’ll do, I just haven’t set aside the time. It’s one of those things like running the business: you have to learn a lot of the not-so-fun stuff, like cheese laws. Just like wine, in France, certain cheeses can only be made in certain regions. But eventually I’ll do it. For some reason I’ve gravitated to getting the beverage certifications; living here in Las Vegas it’s a little more applicable. I have a lot of dental credentials so I don’t need any more alphabet soup after my name. It’s more about my personal knowledge and being able to do my job the best that I can.
I probably have a little upper hand in the sense that I’ve been to a lot of these places and seen these things firsthand, because one thing I’m always surprised about is, even with sommeliers, they know so much about wine but a lot of times they haven’t been to those regions. They’ve tried the wine but they haven’t seen where it’s grown. A lot of places, I’ve gotten firsthand to try it, so I think that counts for something. Production is pretty simple, they all follow the same steps, maybe they have a slight technique, but it’s more about getting the timing right, working with the weather, the terroir… the same with cheese. That’s what really sets it apart. You know wine, it’s grapes. With cheese, it’s milk. It’s more the individual style or knowing how to navigate the terrain is the difficult part. I remember reading books about certain techniques and it’s like, “Oh my gosh, this is so complicated,” and then when you go and see it, it’s not as complicated. It’s more about knowing how much or being able to taste it a little bit and know that something is off — it’s that refinement.
Fresh cheeses are pretty easy to make: goat cheese, mozzarella. I’ve made mozzarella with a cheese maker but also at home. Those aren’t too hard. If you want aged cheeses, they age them in caves, they have certain environments they put them in and you need a lot of space for storage. So maybe some small production fresh cheeses would be feasible if we had the volume that warranted it. But also there’s people out there making some really great ones already, so why compete? We’re lucky we can get a lot of cheese from California and overnight it so it’s very fresh, or Vermont or Wisconsin. We’ve definitely taken cheeses and infused them and done different things with them, but didn’t necessarily make the base cheese. We’ve done goat cheese and put different types of dried flowers on them or mixed it to make more of a whipped goat cheese.
We’re always looking for ways to scale the business. I said I would open a cheese shop and while I work with cheese and we do cheese-forward events, it’s not a traditional cheese shop. I think that’s still a goal to have our own space and our own storefront and expand upon that. We get a lot of calls where people are like, “Do you carry this cheese?” so I think there is this appetite for a more traditional cheese shop.
No two weeks look the same, some are busier than others. Unfortunately, we do fall a bit victim to the economy because we are so events-based. It really depends on whether we have a lot of orders or have a lot of events. Usually we’re getting more busy towards Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so we start the week planning — the not-so-fun stuff like all the orders are printed, we have our production schedule, we have our staff scheduled, our orders in for whatever, confirming things. Then here in the kitchen where we do the production. We do production, prep… some things, depending on how large the event, we may start prepping a couple days in advance, getting things cut or portioned. Then delivery, pickup, going on site for events and making sure we have everything. If we’re using our trailer or car, making sure it’s cleaned up… all that behind the scenes stuff a good portion of the time of that behind the scenes stuff.
There’s a lot that goes into a cheese platter or a grazing table. It’s interesting, it is a high-end luxury item, I guess, so we have people who are like, “Oh that seems so fun!” and then they’ll come back and say, “I tried to do it myself and that takes so much time.” it really is edible art. And there’s tons of ingredients on there so by the time you go to the store and buy three different kinds of nuts… it gets expensive. Because we’re doing it at volume, it helps us to be able to do it.
We do things to try to get our name out there, go to networking events, getting involved with different associations and such. There’s a lot of time spent behind the scenes. And then doing training with the staff — when we bring on a new person, usually the platters and the grazing tables are the last thing they learn. They start learning cutting and folding techniques and then as they move up… you see those shows about sushi chefs and first you learn how to do the grunt work and then the rice and then the cutting of the fish. So it’s that rite of passage. There’s a lot of techniques that I’ve had to figure out, like the temperatures that you want the cheeses for handling. Some cheeses handle better when they’re super cold, some you want them a little closer to room temperature. All those little techniques you have to learn. And there’s all the other requirements: food handling is a very regulated business. We talked about people not sticking with it because when you jump over to making it a legit business you realize that you have to have food handler cards and food managers and do annual trainings and making sure we have food safety and all that.
Because we’re a mobile business, we deal with different jurisdictions: Clark County, city of Las Vegas, and we have to deal with the health department. In Las Vegas, we see a lot of ups and down with the economy and we feel that because people start to pull back on events and the extra stuff. So we’re trying to find our way through. It’s the city that constantly reinvents itself so as a business, you have to stay relevant and continue to try to have new offerings and reinvent yourself, too, to keep people interested. I think people have a very short attention span in Las Vegas. That’s where we’ve had to come up with new activations and things that set us apart.
This afternoon we’re doing a microwedding. It’s still that elevated touch without being over the top, pretty easy to do, event venues like it because we don’t require full set-ups and a kitchen and grease and all these things. We’re preferred partners with some of the venues in town, whether it’s a wedding or other type of event. This one’s a microwedding, really small, under 20 people. We’ve done events with a couple hundred people. So really it’s this wide bandwidth of what we do.
We try to be bespoke and not cookie-cutter. Certainly, we have packages that we put together to make it easy, but when a client wants something super unique, we try to meet that as well and offer it. Some of the things we’ve done for certain clients get added to our menu of what we’ve done. We work with a particular winery that has an event every year and so when they do their new releases, we do different pairings for them. We do pairing stations, and we’ll have our cart where you can do build your own cheese board but we also have done a caviar bar with them and a burrata bar with them.
We can do ice cream, popcorn, someone asked us to do a baked potato bar, so it’s interesting. We always try to have a cheese element or a dairy element to stay on-brand. When we do grazing tables, we also offer desserts, so those are some of the ways that we’ve expanded, so it’s a little more of a one-stop shop. We have an event next week, for example, where we do a burrata panna cotta, so we use burrata in it when we make it and instead of using sour cream or cream cheese, we’re using mascarpone, so trying to make it a little more cheese-infused. I love when I have a little bit of that creative freedom to come up with fun ideas and pairings. I love when you put it together and you get to see the client try it and they’re excited about it, too, or they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I would have never thought that tasted good together.” I think that’s where being well-travelled, I’ve eaten lots of different cuisines and sometimes I’m like, “Oh this might be interesting with this,” and try to bring in some unique stuff.
That’s where we found our niche — it’s elevated but still budget-conscious and we work in these smaller venues that don’t have exclusive contracts. Working in the corporate events side of things and knowing how expensive it is… it’s kind of unnecessary. You can still turn a profit and not be outrageous. I think we’ve niched ourselves into that.
We get excited when people get excited about cheese. Cheese does have that little dopamine spark, like chocolate, and people get excited about it so that keeps us excited. We appreciate all of our customers — we have people that we get to work with year after year and they trust us to do our events. As a small business, that’s what keeps us alive.
Find out more about Wild Rind at:
Comments