President Biden held a State Dinner for the president of France last week and made headlines by serving an all-American cheese course. (Imagine the outcry if he hadn’t.) Of course, cheese people were eager to learn what the White House selected, and I personally would love to know if President Macron cleaned his plate.

Aware that such menus are weighted with messaging, I was a bit perplexed by the choices. All three selections are fine cheeses, but out of the hundreds of possibilities, why these three? The evening’s wines, while American, all had some connection to France. Not so for the cheese.

Rogue Creamery’s Rogue River Blue made sense because of its triumph at the 2020 World Cheese Awards. But Cypress Grove, the California creamery that makes Humboldt Fog, is now owned by Emmi, a Swiss dairy giant. Deer Creek Cheese’s The Fawn is a mellow American-style Cheddar made by Kerry Henning, a Wisconsin master cheesemaker. Deer Creek does the selection and marketing.

I reached out to three of America’s top cheese experts to find out what they would have picked for Macron’s cheese plate, if asked.

Brian Keyser, founder, Casellula Cheese & Wine Café, New York City

“No shade on any of the three choices. But if I were to choose three different American artisan cheeses, I would lean toward smaller, less well known makers.

FireFly Farms in Maryland is super local to Washington, DC, so perfect for the White House. Their Merry Goat Round is one of my favorite soft cheeses. It’s clean and creamy with a little kick from the rind when young. As it ages, it gets sharper, earthier and softer, eventually to the point of being soupy.

It’s hard to choose just one cheese from Tulip Tree in Indiana. Nightshade is a firm cow’s milk cheese that the makers describe, accurately, as tasting like a combination of Gouda and Cheddar.

Asher Blue from Sweet Grass Dairy in Georgia is a great blue for a large event like a State Dinner as it’s not overly pungent. Rich cream is balanced with mushrooms and salt. If it’s paired with something sweet, like cherries or chocolate, even those who think they don’t like blue cheese will fall in love.”

Laura Werlin, author of Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials and The All-American Cheese and Wine Book:

“The theme that came to mind for me was American cheese pioneers, three generations: Vella Dry Jack (first generation); Capriole Goat Cheese Wabash Cannonball (next generation) and Uplands Cheese Pleasant Ridge Reserve (current generation).

With this cheese course, the cheesemakers, not just the cheeses, represent ‘originals’ in every sense. There’s Ig Vella’s brilliant marketing and making of a California cheese that has carried on for 91 years. Capriole’s Judy Schad has been making goat cheese originals in Indiana since the 1980s. And although Andy Hatch didn’t create Wisconsin’s Pleasant Ridge Reserve, he has continued the careful land and animal stewardship and exemplary cheesemaking of the founders.

All three of these cheeses are among America’s very best, and Pleasant Ridge Reserve is a nod to French Beaufort, which would surely make President Macron feel at home.”

Liz Thorpe, author, The Book of Cheese:

“My honest answer is that I think this is a brilliant plate. You get a range of styles and two different milk types. Humboldt Fog really is the vanguard cheese for the American artisan cheese movement. It's also cheeky to include because its look is inspired by French Morbier and the maker was schooled in France but it's a completely novel size, shape and hybridization of recipes. Very American to take those French bits and then completely reinvent them.

You have to include a Cheddar on an American plate, but Deer Creek tends toward heavy use of helveticus cultures, producing a kind of nouveau Cheddar that's uniquely American. Those sweet, buttered-white-toast notes are crowd pleasing but never mistaken for English. Finally, you finish on Rogue River Blue whose win at the World Cheese Awards was like the '76 Judgment of Paris for cheese, firmly cementing American producers as capable of rivaling and dominating their European counterparts. Plus, it's seasonal and limited which makes it even more fancy. I would have added a demitasse spoon of Rush Creek Reserve to each plate, but on the whole I found the selection to be quite clever.”