The past year has seen cheesemakers around the world struggle to keep their operations afloat. But amidst many stories of strife and isolation, an unlikely collaboration between one of California’s largest commercial creameries and some of the state’s smallest artisan cheesemakers serves as a model of ingenuity, generosity and community: Board at Home.
The ingeniously monikered Board at Home is the result of a huge, mass market cheese manufacturer lending a hand to dozens of small independent makers, helping them generate cash flow and invaluable public awareness. “It sounds kind of weird,” says founder Ray Rumiano, “But for whatever reason, I really do think that the cheese world attracts genuinely nice people.”
Case in point: Rumiano himself. In addition to overseeing Board at Home, which began curating and shipping artfully arranged assortments of limited production California cheeses and charcuterie during the pandemic, Rumiano co-owns his family’s business which dates back to 1919. His immigrant great grandfather started out making and selling dry jack cheese which served as a local stand in for the likes of parmesan and pecorino, sorely missed by expat Italians in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over the intervening century-plus, the Rumiano Cheese Company has grown into a huge operation, manufacturing and shipping endless tons of cheese—jack, cheddar, mozzarella, gouda—to groceries and delicatessens nationwide. But while Ray Rumiano has, by necessity, become an expert in mass production and mass appeal, he has also become a true devotee of artisanal cheeses and their makers…
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