OUR STORY: FROM SOFTWARE TO SOFT CHEESES

Cochran Farm 1790 is both a culmination and a beginning for us. It’s the realization of a dream that took shape in France circa 2010 and the start of a whole new direction. It applies Patrick’s extensive experience running tech startups to the age old process of cheese making. It gives Gwen a new focus for her marketing and culinary skills and melds French and American traditions in many, many ways.

Patrick grew up in France, surrounded by the endless variety of cheeses that are part of the French culinary landscape. Cheese was a regular part of the menu at home, but he only recently began to think of making cheese himself.  His energies and passion were directed toward running software startups.

Gwen grew up on the East Coast and in the Midwest.  We met in grad school in Philadelphia and moved to Silicon Valley, where we worked for computer and telecommunications firms. We had two sons and moved to Colorado where Patrick pursued his entrepreneurial calling and Gwen pursued our sons on their way to and through college.

While in Paris on a 5-year assignment, we tasted our way through many of France’s 800 or so cheeses. Some were truly phenomenal in taste, appearance and texture. The seeds of Cochran Farm 1790 were sown then.  We wanted to bring meltingly luscious goat cheeses to America with the complexity in character that we found in France.  

Some French cheesemakers told us that we couldn’t possibly make a cheese with character using pasteurized milk. Others disagreed.  We decided to investigate...