STORY ANGLES

1. So, what's the story around this Cheese-boy that rides off into the sunset for a showdown with the processed cheese products?


Well, the story of Monterey Jack doesn't widely differ from any other classically conceived story line, except maybe for the fact that our hero, Jack, happens to be a dairy product: Unlikely Character Becomes The Foil For Great Deeds, and maybe along the way he gets some of his own questions answered about life, as a result. Jack flies off to Wisconsin to meet his cousins, the other original American cheeses, Colby and Brick. There's a strong culinary angle – the cousins spend a lot of time in the kitchen that summer – and when it's time to go back to Monterey, there's an emergency of sorts. Baby Swiss has been cheese-napped! The bad guys are holding her ransom, in exchange for Cheesedom's great secrets. And the bad guys, as it happens, turn out to be fast food characters.

2. Isn't that a little risky, personifying fast food as "bad", in a kid's book?

Well, from a kid's point of view, I don't think so. They seem to perceive all the characters as cute and fun – and they are! The intention is to maybe create an interest in getting in the kitchen and having the whole experience of making real food. So many kids these days are missing out on that, and aren't aware of where food really comes from, outside of a drive-thru window or micro-wavable wrapper. If you can stir up an interest in food in children at an early age, I feel you're doing them a big favor that can benefit them over the course of a life time. Not only in how their eating habits are established, but in acquainting them with the satisfaction that comes from putting good ingredients together with your own hands and creating something that's not only wonderful to eat, but discovering the greater satisfaction of sharing the whole experience with friends and family. I've always had the theory that we get into trouble with issues like weight and health when we continually miss out on that. It creates a void, both physically and psychologically, that never gets satisfied.

3. So you blame fast food for that?

I think the easy and low-cost availability of fast food and the complexities and demands of modern life together create a trap that is easy for parents to fall into. Children are also the target of a huge and insidious marketing machine that begins cultivating them as customers by the age of two or three! If the typical American child spends 21 hours a week watching TV, it's not hard to imagine how susceptible they become to the hype that surrounds the major fast food chains. Parents feel guilty when they're not spending enough time with their kids; they ameliorate their guilt and give in to Happy Meals. Yeah, I think mis-prioritized lifestyles and the power wielded irresponsibly by fast food corporations have created a monster.

4. That's a pretty strong statement.

Well, there are some pretty strong statistics to support it. The Surgeon General declared childhood obesity a national epidemic this past January. I mean, I just picked up a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle the other day. The director of a children's hospital in the Bay Area is on the front page saying that "We're looking at the diseases of a civilzation imploding on itself." I thought that was a pretty strong statement, too, but she was referring to the record numbers of adult-onset diabetes patients that she's treating who are children. I mean, kids on high blood pressure medication? Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that in kids in our country get 1/4 of the vegetables in their diet from potato chips or French fries? Did you know that chicken McNuggets contain twice as much fat per ounce as hamburger? Even scarier is the fact that more than half of California schools are selling lunches from fast food chains. We're setting our kids up for disaster.

5. But what about Cheese? Isn't cheese high in fat?

Most cheeses are relatively high in butterfat. But, just as one component in a healthy, overall diet, I believe cheese to be a better source of fat than the trans fats, the hydrogenated fats that are found in processed foods and frying liquids. Cheesemaking is both an ancient art and important part of many food cultures.

6. Isn't it unusual to mention Slow Food, Chefs Collaborative, Chez Panisse Foundation and the Edible Schoolyard – in a children's book?

It might be considered unusual, but it just seemed to happen spontaneously. Jack ended up being a bigger book than we originally intended. We had a couple more pages when we did the layout and I thought, 'Hey, why not mention some of these organizations? So, we've included some information about groups, some of which I'm a member of, and all of which I admire. It's groups like these that are doing important work in preserving our food culture here and around the world. If including this information increases an interest among kids and their parents, I feel good about that.