I've held off on writing about Celebrity Dairy goat cheese for a while. It is the most famous of the locally produced cheeses of the Triangle area of North Carolina and maybe that is why I thought it deserved special mention and careful review. I also knew it was a cheese I could readily obtain so I would wait until my options for cheese purchases narrowed and it would mark the point in the journey where my job of finding great and unique cheeses got a lot harder. I have been familiar with Celebrity Dairy cheese for many years but to be honest I have not tried it for some time. It was one of the first goat cheeses I tasted and it really helped me enter the bigger world of cheese outside cow's milk. But now I come back to it after having tried some of the best goat's milk cheeses of France and Spain, Portugal and Italy, Vermont and California. The experience of those cheeses made coming back to Celebrity Dairy Chevre a little less welcoming.
Do not get me wrong. Celebrity Dairy Chevre is a wonderful cheese, a fresh goat cheese like many of the best of similar style in France. But compared to a Humboldt Fog or a Coupole goat cheese, chevres like Celebrity Dairy are prepubescent sisters of the buxom college coeds. A lot of people of talked to think they do not like goat's milk cheeses. My guess is the only ones they've tried are those like Celebrity Dairy chevre. It can be a little acidic, the tangy bite of goat's milk singing through. To the uninitiated this is a new experience that their history with cow's milk cheese does not prepare tem for. It really can be an acquired taste.
But one thing Celebrity Dairy Chevre is great for is as an ingredient in other dishes. I baked a Leek and Goat Cheese Tart with a pastry crust, sauteed leeks in butter and thyme, a mixture of sour cream, egg and heavy cream, and good-sized chunks of Celebrity Dairy Chevre. Accompanying the tart was a salad of mixed greens, pinenuts, thyme and chevre in a balsamic vinegrette. Served with a cold Pilsner beer or crisp Riesling it was a great summer dinner. Celebrity Dairy Chevre comes in different flavors: plain, confetti - a mix of different pepper corns, party - the everything bagel of goat cheese, and dill. I didn't find the herbs and spices necessary and think they tended to mask a lot of the chevre's charm. Still, I am lucky to have access to this local treat.

Name: Celebrity Dairy Chevre
Type of Milk: goat's, pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: United States of America, North Carolina, Chatham County
Date Purchased: 7/14/2007
Date Eaten:7/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raliegh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.