Highlights from the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund Annual Benefit in NYC
Featured in Cheese Professor
By Pamela Vachon
The 2nd annual benefit for the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund was held on September 13, 2023, in New York’s dynamic Chelsea Market, an event important enough to the NYC culinary community to close down this heavily-trafficked, historic market for the evening. Along with the American Cheese Society annual conference, the Cheesemonger Invitational, and other important cheese events throughout the year, aficionados might want to keep this one on their to-attend list in years to come as well, not so much for the cheese, (though of course it had its place,) but for the spirit.
The Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund (ASLF) established in 2022 by the late Anne Saxelby’s husband, Patrick Martins, along with her mother, Pam Saxelby, underwrites dozens of farm-stay apprenticeship opportunities for budding cheese professionals at dairies and creameries around the country, to mirror the experience that had been so fundamental to Saxelby herself. The inaugural apprenticeship class of 2022 placed over 30 people at more than 10 different organizations. The 2023 program doubled all of that: both the number of participants and participating farms seem to be on an exponential trajectory, with the hope of creating year-round apprenticeship opportunities with a rolling application process. The annual benefit comprises a large part of the ASLF’s fundraising effort, with scores of important restaurants and chefs donating their time and resources to create a tasting event well worth its $250 ticket price. (Discounts are available for industry pros, students, and apprentices.)
CHELSEA MARKET
“[Anne] was a big market person. She loved markets,” Martins told me in a previous conversation about the ASLF. Her initial foray into owning her own shop, Saxelby Cheesemongers, began at the Lower East Side’s Essex Market, before moving into its current space at Chelsea Market, a railroad style, former warehouse that extends between 9th and 10th Avenue in New York’s vibrant Chelsea neighborhood.
As someone who has walked the length of it frequently, sometimes even as part of a daily commute, its transformation from a mostly perfunctory, industrial space to the destination- worthy collection of restaurants and retail spaces it is today was wondrous to observe. (Along the same timeline, one could remark on the parallel between Chelsea Market and the American cheese industry itself.) The crowd of over 2700 people filling its corridors on the night of the benefit imbued it with even more energy and passion than it normally sees on a daily basis. That its operators even entertained the idea of closing down for an evening to honor Anne Saxelby’s work there speaks to the ongoing importance of Saxelby Cheesemongers and its mission of promoting American artisanal cheese.
2023 ANNUAL BENEFIT HIGHLIGHTS
To be clear, the event itself doesn’t have cheese at its centerpiece, but is rather a hedonistic food festival with over 100 restaurant and retail vendors offering bites and sips, all included with the price of admission, many by important chefs whose restaurant cheese programs had been heavily influenced by Saxelby. Of course, since the event is in her honor, many of them put their best cheese forward, and there were some fromage highlights, ranging from the classic to the imaginative. I strategized my consumption for the evening to hit these first and foremost:
Located in the basement level of Chelsea Market, I got a pro-tip early on to bypass the vendors getting thronged at the entrance to the event, and head straight to the basement to catch the goings on there before anyone else arrived. Naturally, Saxelby Cheesemongers had some of best and brightest American artisanal cheeses front-and-center: Jasper Hill’s hay-wrapped Calderwood, (made exclusively for Saxelby Cheesemongers,) Spring Brook Farm’s morbier-style Ashbrook, Nettle Meadow Farm’s mixed-milk bloomy, Kunik, (a US International 2022 Double Gold winner) Blakesville Creamery’s Pyrenees-style St. Germain, and Grafton Village Cheese’s Shepsog tomme. (Another pro tip: because Chelsea Market is so narrow, there weren’t a lot of high top tables or surfaces available for setting plates or cups down, even momentarily, so you’ll want to pause for a beverage here and there, and then resume snacking rather than trying to do both at once. No handbags were harmed in the making of this benefit.)
The basement level turned out to be Cheese Central Station, with a majority of the cheesiest dishes located in striking distance of Saxelby Cheesemongers. From New York’s beloved Gramercy Tavern, Executive Chef Michael Anthony himself was serving up an Alpine-style nibble, with roasted Saxelby Cheesemonger’s Raclette with prosciutto and pickled peppers.
A table representing Anne Saxelby’s former home at Essex Market, Shopsin’s is a popular general store and brunch cafe that leans heavily on pancakes. Apropos to the occasion, then, Shopsin’s was serving up their famous, pudgy mac and cheese pancakes, with maple syrup and/or hot sauce available to drizzle.
Having planned ahead for all the cheesiest offerings, this was the one I was most anticipating: a Bayley Hazen Cheesecake Puff. Blue cheese naturally belongs on a dessert menu, but working it into a cheesecake? Sublime. In keeping with the restaurant’s Basque sensibilities, the silky blue cheese mousse was piper over puff pastry, and topped with an anchovy.
