Kentucky Department of Agriculture

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Guests at The Masters golf tournament are enjoying artisan cheese from Kentucky Proud producers.

Sapori d’Italia of Nicholasville and Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese of Barren County sent some of their crafted cheese products to Augusta, Ga., for the world-famous event.

Marketing specialists from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture alerted Kentucky cheese makers that the chefs at Augusta National were seeking samples from artisan cheese makers throughout the South.

"I feel like I need to pinch myself. I love golf anyway, but to turn on the TV and realize our cheese is being enjoyed at the event, it is truly surreal," Sapori d’Italia president Jason Gresham said.

“I never would have imagined it when I started making cheese 12 years ago,” said Kenny Mattingly, co-owner of Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese. “It’s exciting that our cheese is being served at Augusta. But the foundation of our business is the people who buy our cheese every day at the farmers’ market or in their local stores.”

Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese again will be served at the Kentucky Derby this year. It was part of a Kentucky Proud meal served to Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain at the 2007 Derby. It also has been served at the Rolex Three-Day Event and other major events.

Gresham said his company benefits from having the Kentucky Proud logo on its artisan goat cheese products. “The name of our company is in Italian. People don’t initially identify it as a Kentucky-produced product,” he said. “Being able to put Kentucky Proud on our cheeses and having it on our Web site helps people to see that is made here in Kentucky and is not imported.”

Master cheese maker Giovanni Capezzuto of Napoli, Italy, uses goat milk produced by a Marion County dairy to make Sapori d’Italia’s original artisan cheeses. The company, whose name means Taste of Italy, was founded in 2007.

Mattingly began making artisan cheese in the late 1990s in an effort to save his family dairy farm. He adopted Old World techniques of making hand-made cheese after a farm tour of Europe.

For more information about Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese, go to www.kennyscountrycheese.com . To find out more about Sapori d’Italia, go to www.cheeseitalia.com or www.artisankentucky.com .

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