To the dismay of fans of his yogurt, Creole cream cheese and award-winning artisan cheeses, chef John Folse has closed the Bittersweet Plantation Dairy part of his multi-pronged business empire. Why? His Bulgarian cheesemakers retired and moved home to Sofia.
"I realized I had two of the best cheesemakers in the country, and I just couldn't get my head around trying to replace those two," Folse said of Dimcho and Peppie Demove, who both turned 65 this year.
"I talked to them and said if y'all are going to leave, I'm not going to reopen with new cheesemakers. We will go out on the highest note … We will never duplicate our Bulgarian yogurt."
The thick, creamy yogurt, similar in style to Greek yogurt, had so many fans that dozens of calls have come into the Chef John Folse Company lamenting its absence in supermarkets.
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